Important (General) Instructions for Drafting a Project Proposal

In addition to the professional part of the project proposal, the researcher must pay attention to the budget, where the direct costs include:

1) personnel costs - when planning personnel costs, it is necessary to consider not only the form of employment of each project team member, but also the amount of salaries (we follow the internal wage regulations of Charles University, see here). In addition, some grant providers directly set limits on wages and maximum amounts due from agreements on work performed outside of employment (aka OON, i.e. DPP / DPČ).¹

Compulsory legal deductions and contribution to the account of cultural and social needs (or another similar account) must also be planned. If co-financing is requested for the wages too (apart from the subsidy for personnel costs), the deductions must be planned from both the co-financing and the subsidy as follows:

for employees with employment contracts - plan 35.3% on deductions*
for OON, plan 33.8% on deductions in case of:
- DPČ - from 3.5 thousand CZK per month (inclusive)
- DPP - over 10 thousand CZK per month²

*The deductions consist of:
9% health insurance
24.8% social insurance
1.5% contribution to the account of cultural and social needs (FKSP); in case of OONs, the contribution is not paid

2) Indirect (overhead) costs - are obligatorily governed by the provider's instructions and by the Dean's directive.

The provider usually determines the amount of indirect costs of the project:

directly, in the binding documentation (e.g. tender document by GACR, etc.). The principal investigator (PI) must request the maximum possible permissible amount of overhead according to the Dean's Directive No. 1/2014.
The provider allows the determination of indirect costs by the so-called "flat rate" method, or does not allow the inclusion of certain items in the basis for calculating the percentage, then the PI proceeds by setting a flat overhead of 20% from the maximum possible basis allowed by the provider in accordance with Dean's Directive No. 19/2020.
If the charging of indirect costs at a flat rate is not permissible or another method of calculation from the provider is not specified, the PI is governed by the Dean's Directive No. 6/2016.

We recommend consulting not only the amount of personnel costs, but also the proposal of the entire project with the Head of the Department and the section Vice-Dean. If you have any questions about the provider's tender documentation, do not hesitate to contact the OVZS staff.

Information on open calls and internal application deadlines can be found in the news at mff.cuni.cz/cs/ovzs.

¹ The amount of personnel costs needs to be planned so that they are usual in time and place. It is also appropriate to plan some wage movements in view of the expected annual inflation.

² ie up to 10,000 CZK per month not insured, from 10.001 CZK per month insured