[photo] Indirect Costs Policy

Indirect Costs Policy

Return of Facilities and Administrative Costs Policy

College of Arts and Letters

Beginning with the 2003-04 fiscal year, the University established a policy to distribute a portion of Facilities and Administrative (F&A) costs recovered from external grants to the colleges, departments, and faculty members who were awarded the grants. In the past, all F&A costs (also called indirect costs) went to the University's General Fund. With the new policy, a portion of F&A costs will continue to go into the General fund, a portion will go to the Graduate School, and a portion will now be returned to the colleges. Of the portion going back to the colleges, the funds will be distributed in the College of Arts and Letters as follows: 60% will go to the project director/principal investigator (PI), 20% will go the PI's home department, and 20% will go to the College. If the award specified that the project was affiliated with a center or institute, the departmental portion (20%) will be directed to the named center/institute rather than the PI's home department.

This distribution formula was established following an open forum within the College of Arts and Letters in February 2003. The funds that go to the PIs and departments/centers/institutes can be used for a variety of purposes necessary for carrying out research, including, but not limited to, general supplies and materials, secretarial assistance, phone installation and monthly phone fees, office furniture or renovations, and the like.

Most project costs should be charged directly to the grant (as Direct Costs). Such costs include an appropriate percentage of the PI's annual and/or summer salary, postdoctoral associates, consultants, graduate assistants, undergraduate assistants, equipment needed for research (if allowed by the funding agency), travel, subject payment fees, postage for survey questionnaires, photocopy charges for survey questionnaires, costs of lab analysis, materials that will be used solely for the conduct of a specific research project, long distance phone calls directly related to a specific research project, etc. Please contact either Ken Garcia (kgarcia@nd.edu) or Laurie Arnold (larnold@nd.edu) in ISLA for assistance with proposal and award budgets.

If faculty from more than one department are involved in the research project, the department of the lead PI will receive the funds; as a consequence, faculty from different departments are encouraged to discuss how the indirect costs will be used for the overall benefit of the research project prior to submitting a proposal. Where appropriate, PIs are encouraged to discuss with their department chairs how funds to the departmental and funds to the project director/PI might be pooled to enhance the overall research infrastructure necessary for the conduct of research.