Facilities & Administrative Costs Recovery
Facilities and Administrative (F&A) rates are established to recover costs incurred in support of sponsored research and services that cannot be directly attributed to a particular sponsored project. Such costs are often referred to as "overhead" or "indirect costs".
F&A rates are negotiated with the US Department of Health and Human Services every three to five years through a complex process analyzing space usage, payroll, and financials across the following cost pools:
Facilities Cost Pools
- Building depreciation
- Equipment depreciation
- Interest
- Operations and maintenance (utilities, repairs, etc.)
- Library services
Administrative Cost Pools
- General administration
- Departmental administration
- Sponsored projects administration
- student services administartion
The administrative cost portion is "capped" at 26%, regardless of higher actual costs to the campus.
The space survey component is critical to producing an accurate F&A proposal. The information provided by principal investators is used to categorize space based on the activities performed in the rooms. The functionalization results are used to appropriately allocate the Facilties Cost Pools information (except Library services) to organized research, instruction, and other functions.
