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Develop
Your Budget
Budget Overview | Direct
Costs | Indirect Costs | Matching
- Cost Sharing
Indirect Costs (IDC)
(Facilities and Administration,
F&A, Overhead Costs)
Indirect costs are necessary because in addition to costs that
are directly related to your project, the university incurs
certain costs that indirectly relate to your project. According
to Cost
Principles for Education Institutions (OMB Circular A-21)
these indirect costs include building space, utilities, and
related university services (i.e., the ORSP, payroll, purchasing,
university security, and custodial support). In other words,
they include all those things essential to support
sponsored activity which cannot be broken down and directly
charged to a specific grant or contract.
Sponsors that allow indirect costs DO NOT preferentially fund proposals that do not include the maximum allowed IDC rate. Indirect costs are allowable, necessary and expected.
IDC Rates
Indirect cost rates are determined annually
from actual cost records through a detailed cost accounting
procedure and are audited and approved by the federal government.
Off campus rates are generally used when the PI/PD or other
research staff are actually conducting research away from
the campus for a period of no less than one long semester
or all three summer months. Costs which are incurred in the
field generally qualify for the off campus rate. It is common
for a proposed budget to include both on and off campus budget
items. Prior to submitting your proposal, please contact ORSP
for assistance.
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SFA’s current negotiated indirect
cost rate for federal research projects is 50% of salaries and
wages (on-campus) and 18% of salaries and wages (off-campus).
Use this rate for all federal projects unless otherwise specified
by the sponsor in the program announcement.
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The maximum indirect costs allowed by
the sponsoring agency should be included in your budget.
If using this rate causes undue hardship to the extent that you
will not be able to effectively conduct your project, please consult
with ORSP staff to discuss alternate calculations.
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The AVP for Research and Graduate Studies (in consultation with the President of the university) is the
only person with the authority to waive indirect costs (enter
into cost sharing on behalf of university indirect costs).
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Including indirect costs in a budget does
not negatively affect the outcome.
Recovery and Distribution
IDC is charged to sponsored projects, and the resulting revenue
is placed in a campus account for distribution by campus administration
based on the SFA Policy, Indirect
Costs Distribution. The recovery of these costs is essential
because even if not recovered, these costs don’t go
away but are paid for by tuition and other unrestricted sources.
IDC must be included using SFA’s federally-negotiated
rates unless the sponsor has a written policy which deviates
from these rates. All deviations are subject to approval
by the President in advance. Sponsor guidelines limiting
facilities and administrative costs must be attached to and
justified on the Proposal
Clearance Form (PCF). Any questions about the distribution
of IDC recovery should be directed to the Associate
Vice President for Graduate Studies and Research.
Any under-recovery of the indirect cost due to grantor restrictions
must either be treated as cost
sharing on behalf of the university or supplied from other funds.
All proposals submitted on behalf of the university must include
indirect costs either as a request from the grantor or as cost sharing
on behalf of the university.
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