Reduction in Effort | Management Accounting & Analysis

Effort Web Content has moved to PAFC

Effective 1/1/2023, the effort reporting compliance team within Sponsored Programs Finance moved from Management Accounting and Analysis (MAA) to Post Award Fiscal Compliance (PAFC). This encompasses a change in where web content for effort reporting is housed. Moving forward, it will be on PAFC's website (https://finance.uw.edu/pafc/) under the Effort Reporting menu tab. Continual updates will be made throughout the rest of the calendar year (2023) to rebuild web content to reflect new systems and processes.

Two situations where effort can be reduced:

Sponsor Reduction

There are times when a Sponsor will issue an Award for less than the proposed amount. There are two courses of action:

Preferably, negotiate with the Sponsor to obtain a revised approved budget for the (reduced) Award amount. As always, such negotiations should be done with OSP. The faculty effort in the revised approved budget is the amount of effort to be met on the Award.
If the budget is not re-negotiated based on the reduced amount, then the amount of effort in the final budget submitted to the sponsor is the amount of effort on the Award. This is the percent of effort against which any future reductions should be calculated.

Reduction in PI’s Effort

During the Award implementation, it may be determined that the amount of effort for the PI, and any other named Key Personnel, needs to be reduced. Review the Award to determine Sponsor requirements for reduction in PI effort.

For more information on Sponsor approvals, see the PAFC website on Sponsor Regulations.

For Federal Awards, the federal regulations require that any reduction in effort, overall all non-competing segments of the Award, of 25% or more requires written Sponsor approval. However, review the terms of the Award for any specific requirements and review the Research Terms and Conditions to determine if the Federal Sponsor has waived this requirement.