Grant Expenses for a month in Otttawa - how do I determine what to ask for?

[overworkedta]

Hey, so I am applying for funding for my dissertation once more. I still have an affiliation up in Ottawa that has agreed to try to find me matching funds for what my home university will give me.  They are saying they need to know how much money I am likely to get here before they can promise funds (makes sense) but I don't even know how to get started with the itemized list I need for my grant.

 

I am probably driving my car up like i did last time, so I figured in Gas and parking.  That was cheap (about $400.00).  I hopefully will have a place to park but if not, the money is there.  Should I also count in my insurance?  Mileage?

 

I don't know where to begin for a month of living expenses.  It could be anywhere from $1000.00-$1600.00 a month for a short stay place (1000 is a centrally-located youth hostel with a single room, basically).  $1600.00 is what a corporate place charges.  Food is much more predictable.  I want a place with at least a kitchenette so I can eat healthy and not spend all of my money elsewhere.

 

Copying is .20 a page but I have NO clue how many pages I will need to budget for!  I know this will require a great deal of archival research, some of which will most likely be a copying endeavor,

 

What else am I missing?  I plan on doing interviews.  Should I budget money for taking those people to lunch?  I don't know what the protocol is for this.

 

Any help from people who have done this before would be much appreciated.

[rising_star]

Not sure whether you're based in the USA or Canada but there are standard government rates for things like mileage, meals and incidentals, and lodging. You don't *have* to use these amounts but you can use them to say things like "The government rate for lodging is $125/night however, I have secured lodging for $78/night, resulting in significant savings." You'll also want a miscellaneous category or extra money available in meals and incidentals for unexpected expenses that crop up. You should definitely figure in parking! You'll want to overestimate on how many pages you'll need to copy, though .20/page seems expensive to me. You may be better off investing in a good camera, if the archive will allow its use. If making copies, you'll want to invest in a banker's box and file folders to keep things organized, so include those costs too.

 

Whether you can budget for and/or buy people lunch is a question for your IRB (institutional review board) or human subjects committee. In most cases, my PhD university's IRB does *not* allow you to purchase lunch for people as the meal may make it difficult for people to quit the interview if they feel uncomfortable. I did sometimes buy people coffee but I used the incidentals money to pay for this and limited it since I totally understand the IRBs concern there and didn't want to run afoul of them.

 

Back to the housing, you may want to look into short-term sublets, vacation rentals, etc. to try to lower your housing costs. $1600/month seems like a lot to me, though I don't really know Ottawa at all. Maybe your contacts at the university there can assist you with this. If you'll be there during a university break, you may be able to find students (grad or undergrad) leaving the area for vacation or research who you could sublet from.

 

Hope this helps!

[overworkedta]

I didn't think about the NSF rates, but that is a great idea

 

$1600.00 seems like a lot to me, too, but it needs to be furnished since I can't afford to have furniture moved to/from for a month and that seems like the going rate for something furnished.  Even the youth hostel was about $1000.00/month.

 

.20/pg is what Canada charges in their archives for copying.  I have a DSLR already and would buy a small scanner like the one I carted with me to archives in Rwanda.  I could hook it up to my tablet and be good to go.

[TakeruK]

I agree with rising_star that you should use government rate for your vehicle, which is supposed to cover all vehicle related costs (gas, "wear and tear", mileage, insurance etc.) as it is supposed to represent the cost of using your vehicle. When I drove to a school visit, the school reimbursed me based on this method (it worked out to something like $0.50/mile). In Canada, there is a government rate as well, something close to $0.60/km in Ontario the last time I checked. But if your grant is through the US, then you probably have to use their government rate for Ottawa.

 

Here is the US government rate for lodging, meals and incidentals for Canada: http://aoprals.state.gov/web920/per_diem_action.asp?MenuHide=1&CountryCode=1079. It says that for Ottawa, the max lodging rate is $185/day and meals & incidentals is $90/day. I think the meals & incidentals are generally divided up as 15% breakfast, 25% lunch, 40% dinner, and 20% incidentals (for things like parking etc.). If you're cooking your own meals, you will definitely be able to do it under $90/day! 

 

$1600 for lodging per month will be well under the maximum listed government rate too. I think if you can show that is the going rate, you should be okay requesting that much? I think $1600 for a furnished room in Ottawa for just one month is about the right cost. A decent unfurnished place in similar places in Ontario would run about $1000-$1200/month, so an extra few hundred for furniture, plus an extra few hundred for just a one month rental means $1600 is not so unreasonable as it is about $53/day. (Note that the tenant law in Ontario require month-to-month tenants to give 60 days notice to vacate, so landlords that are willing to lease less than 60 days at a time will generally face higher risk of long periods of non-occupancy, which they would try to recoup by charging more for rent; plus if you are going through a third party company, they will be charging the landlord more too).

 

To put it another way, it will be pretty tough to find a cheap hotel in Ottawa for less than that per day, unless you go to a really really cheap motel. I think it's reasonable to ask for better living conditions than that though. 

[overworkedta]

Thanks so much for this  I will definitely include this in my calculations.

 

I have a lot to think about as far as how I will present it but I will try to be as clear as possible, I guess.

 

Thanks!

[rising_star]

My department's business manager would say that you should always overestimate your expenses because it's unlikely you'll receive all of the money you request. My recommendation on the lodging front would be to look into sublets, especially through university students, as that is likely to net you furnished space and save you money (which might be needed if you don't get the full amount you ask for). You'll also want to include parking on campus and wherever you live, possibly mileage in Ottawa if you're having to travel far to go to/from archives, or public transit costs if you're using that option. You should be able to find copies of other grants (via your department or university) to get an idea of how people justify their budgets.

 

Here's an anonymized example from one of my really old grant apps (written in the USA for international field research):

"Funds are being requested for lodging and per diem in X, Y, and Z, COUNTRY. All amounts requested are significantly less than the U.S. Department of State's foreign per diem amounts in each area ($172/day per diem in X and Y and $197/day in Z). The requested rates are lodging at $40/day in X, $25/day in Y, and $35 in Z, with per diem requested at $30/day in all locations. Funds requested are based on the PI’s past experience traveling and living in the area. By reserving an extended-stay hotel room, the lodging costs in Y are kept to a minimum."

 

Something I just saw that I asked for when I opened the file: money for home internet, an external hard drive to back up data, and data analysis software that I wanted to purchase. Definitely things worth including if you can, especially to be able to safely and securely back up the data you collect.

[overworkedta]

My department's business manager would say that you should always overestimate your expenses because it's unlikely you'll receive all of the money you request. My recommendation on the lodging front would be to look into sublets, especially through university students, as that is likely to net you furnished space and save you money (which might be needed if you don't get the full amount you ask for). You'll also want to include parking on campus and wherever you live, possibly mileage in Ottawa if you're having to travel far to go to/from archives, or public transit costs if you're using that option. You should be able to find copies of other grants (via your department or university) to get an idea of how people justify their budgets.

 

Here's an anonymized example from one of my really old grant apps (written in the USA for international field research):

"Funds are being requested for lodging and per diem in X, Y, and Z, COUNTRY. All amounts requested are significantly less than the U.S. Department of State's foreign per diem amounts in each area ($172/day per diem in X and Y and $197/day in Z). The requested rates are lodging at $40/day in X, $25/day in Y, and $35 in Z, with per diem requested at $30/day in all locations. Funds requested are based on the PI’s past experience traveling and living in the area. By reserving an extended-stay hotel room, the lodging costs in Y are kept to a minimum."

 

Something I just saw that I asked for when I opened the file: money for home internet, an external hard drive to back up data, and data analysis software that I wanted to purchase. Definitely things worth including if you can, especially to be able to safely and securely back up the data you collect.

 

I put those per diems down at the bottom of the page.  I included parking and a budget for public transit (local and to and from TO and Montreal because I may need to do work in those places for a day or so as well).  I also made it known that I am bringing a bike to save costs on local travel.  The benefit to travelling to Ottawa a few times before (once WITH my bike) is that I can honestly get almost anywhere anytime by bike during the day.  At night, too, but I am more of a day commuter.  And I'm driving to save money.  A flight from STL is like $800.00 plus luggage both ways and a shuttle there.  It almost evens out at that point but it is MUCH cheaper to have the flexibility to drive everywhere.