Salary Cap
Congress restricts the amount of direct salary paid to an individual under an HHS grant, cooperative agreement, or applicable contract.
- If your institutional salary is higher than the NIH cap, you may use non-federal sources of funding to cover the difference. If the limit changes, you can rebudget funds to pay for a higher salary without prior approval, but you can't get more money from NIH.
- You can increase your effort without increasing your salary but we expect you to budget for salary at a level that matches your level of effort, up to the salary cap. Keep in mind that if increasing your effort will alter the scope of your research, you need NIND's permission for the change in scope.
- Note that for a nonmodular, noncompeting award, you may not get paid beyond the salary cap by rebudgeting from other categories.
Effective January 1, 2024, the Executive Level II salary cap level is $221,900.
- This salary cap can be viewed on the 2024 Executive Schedule Pay Table.
- NIH announced this level and provided example salary calculations in a January 29th, 2024 Guide notice.
- For historic levels, see NIH’s Salary Cap Summary (FY 1990-Present).
NRSA Stipend Levels
The HHS Secretary sets National Research Service Awards (NRSA) stipend levels and adjusts them periodically to reflect increases in the cost of living, as specified in 42 U.S. Code § 288(b)(5). NIH announced the corrected levels for 12 months shown below in an April 23, 2024 Guide notice, NOT-OD-24-104, which reflects the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (Public Law 118-047), signed into law on March 23, 2024.
|
12 Months |
1 Month |
|
|---|---|---|
| Undergraduate | 14.340 | 1,195 |
|
Predoctoral |
28,224 |
2,352 |
|
Postdoc 0 |
61,008 |
5,084 |
|
Postdoc 1 |
61,428 |
5,119 |
|
Postdoc 2 |
61,884 |
5,157 |
|
Postdoc 3 |
64,356 |
5,363 |
|
Postdoc 4 |
66,492 |
5,541 |
|
Postdoc 5 |
68,964 |
5,747 |
|
Postdoc 6 |
71,532 |
5,961 |
|
Postdoc 7 or more |
74,088 |
6,174 |
Training Funds
You may use funds from Training Grants (T) and Fellowship Grants (F) to pay for the following:
- Stipends—Follow the amounts shown in the Stipend Levels table above.
- Tuition and fees for each trainee:
- Predoctoral—60% of level requested by applicant institution, up to $16,000 per year. You may use 60% up to $21,000 for formally combined dual-degree training.
- Postdoctoral—60% of level requested by applicant institution, up to $4,500 per year. You may use 60% up to $16,000 for formally combined dual-degree training.
- Institutional allowance for training-related expenses (e.g., administrative support, health insurance, and research supplies) for each trainee:
- Predoctoral—$4,750 per year at non-federal, public and private, non-profit institutions (domestic and foreign) and $3,650 per year for federal and for-profit institutions.
- Postdoctoral—$12,400 per year at non-federal, public and private, non-profit institutions (domestic and foreign) and $11,300 per year for federal and for-profit institutions.
- Trainee travel, including attendance at vital scientific meetings. We do not set a limit on how much you can request, though the norm is $1,000 for each trainee.
- Training grant facilities and administrative costs are based on 8% of modified total direct costs. State and local government agencies may request full reimbursement.
- Fellowship grants do not receive facilities and administrative costs.
- On a case-by-case basis, institutional costs for accommodating disabled trainees in addition to usual costs paid by training-related expenses. Check with your assigned Grants Management Specialist.