What Is Effort?

Effort is the percent of time and work an employee spends on tasks. There are two types of effort: sponsored effort and non-sponsored effort.

• Sponsored effort is the percent of an employee’s time spent on funded grants or projects that occurs in an effort reporting period. The work the employee does is for the grant or funded project. However, the costs associated with the time may be covered by funds from the sponsor or by funds from the organization itself. Amounts posted to cost sharing activities represent effort expended on a grant or project where the funding comes from the organization conducting the research.

• Non-sponsored effort is the percent of an employee’s time spent on non-funded work that occurs in an effort reporting period. These tasks are not federally or externally funded. Examples of non-sponsored effort include time spent teaching, on patient care, or administrative tasks.