ONCAT Project Budget Guidelines

Please refer to the following guidelines when developing your budget.

 

Personnel

  • Includes salaries, honoraria, and stipends, specified by rate and time. 
  • In cases where a faculty member’s time on the project will affect workload, and/or a teaching release is required to provide backfill for the faculty member or academic administrator involved in this project, ONCAT will fund the hiring of a part-time instructor at the college/university/Indigenous Institute at the institution’s per semester rate. Please be clear in the workplan and ‘core team’ sections of your application of the anticipated time commitment of each person, especially where support for backfill is being requested. 
  • Senior academic administration (decanal or above) and full-time administration with responsibilities including academic partnerships, program development, and/or transfer credit should be considered in-kind contributions.
     

Project Costs

  • Includes direct costs for materials and supplies related to this project. 
  • ONCAT will not pay for permanent fixtures (for example: laptops, computers, permanent software purchases, and so forth). ONCAT will pay for costs specifically and solely related to the project, such as temporary software licenses (i.e., fluid survey).

Travel and Accommodation

  • If applicable, this includes any travel and accommodations necessary to conducting project activities. Please be clear in the workplan where travel is needed and include in the budget a breakdown of number of trips and duration. Use of teleconferencing or other cost-effective means to reduce travel-related costs are highly encouraged. 
  • For travel-related expenses, ONCAT abides by the Government of Ontario Travel, Meal, and Hospitality Expenses Directive. 
     

Overhead/Administration

  • This is generally calculated at no more than 10% of the request for funding to ONCAT and is intended to cover activities such as overall project administration by the project lead institution, use of space and resources, and so forth.

Ineligible Expenses

  • ONCAT will not duplicate any funding received from the Credit Transfer Innovation Grant (CTIG), eCampusOntario (eCO) and the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) or other funding. If you have sought and received funding through the CTIG, eCO or HECQO or other funding source for this project or any positions requested for funding, this project will be deemed ineligible for funding. Please note: ONCAT may request revisions to project budgets subject to CTIG, eCO and HEQCO funding decisions. 
  • ONCAT will not cover expenses related to academic program or transfer pathway delivery. 
  • For applications that include an online component, the online development will not be eligible for ONCAT funding and will be at the expense of the institution(s). Please refer to eCampusOntario for possible support. 
  • ONCAT will not cover expenses not directly and clearly related to the project activities and goals as outlined in the application and workplan.