设施 & Administrative 成本

学院RESEARCH人员在准备支持RESEARCH项目的提案时, or for another sponsored activity, include an amount for indirect costs in the total cost of the project's budget. 对于许多, 与他们的建议有关的间接费用的概念有些抽象，因为这些费用与要求支助的活动之间似乎没有直接关系. 另一些人则认为，赞助商必须为这些“间接”成本提供资金，这减少了他们支付工资和购买必要用品和设备的资金，以实施他们拟议的项目. While there is an acknowledgment that such costs are necessary, 这些费用是如何通过个人赞助协议确定和报销的，并不总是很容易理解.

It is important to note the term "设施 and Administrative" costs or "F&联邦政府最近采用了“费用”一词来代替“间接”费用一词. 政府重新命名这一术语的原因是为了帮助澄清这些费用的性质，以更恰当地描述其目的，即支持RESEARCH和其他赞助活动在高校.

我们在这里讨论的是教师pi经常提出的关于为什么F&A cost rates vary between universities, how our F&A cost rates compare with those of other universities, and how our F&A cost recoveries are utilized.

Fringe Rate for FY 2016 and Beyond

附加费率备忘录

利率计算

费率是根据管理和预算局通告A-21中规定的方法计算的, 这些单独的费率组成部分的总和是一个受制于与联邦官员谈判和批准的费率. 校外项目也有费率计算，RESEARCH可能有单独的费率计算, 指令 and other sponsored activities. 校外费率仅包括行政部分，上限为26%，适用于那些主要在非自有设施中进行的项目, leased or rented by a university. 每种费率适用于经修改的总直接成本(MTDC)上的赞助项目成本。, which includes all direct costs except equipment, capital expenditures, 病人护理, 学杂费, facilities rental and the portion of subcontracts in excess of $25,000.

F&A components mentioned previously are also referred to as F&“成本池”. Each university must identify its F&A成本(i).e., expenditures already incurred) with the various F&成本池. 一旦全部F&一个成本 have been accumulated in the various F&成本池, they must be allocated to the functions of the university (research, 指令, 其他大学活动)按管理及预算局通告A-21所订明的方法办理, or by using alternative methods approved by federal negotiators.

达成率

Each university must submit a formal F&A cost rate proposal to its cognizant federal agency, 对于最靠谱的网赌软件(ODU)和它的财政代理ODURESEARCH基金会(ODURF)是海军RESEARCH办公室(ONR). 这个提议, 哪一个是基于最近一年的完整的成本数据, 由代表所有联邦机构与提交提案的大学进行谈判的ONR(或其他认可的联邦机构)谈判者评估. 谈判者的作用是确定一所大学是否准确地确定了它的F&一个成本 and allocated these costs in accordance with the prescribed methods. 在对费率建议过程的解释上通常存在一些差异，导致联邦谈判人员和ODURF官员在达成最终费率协议时妥协. Once this negotiation is concluded, the F&在指定的期限内，由认可机构谈判者和ODURF双方签署费率协议.

方差

There is no single answer to this question. Instead, the principal differences result from the following factors:

• 一所大学的RESEARCH设施和建筑的使用规模和强度是F变化的主要原因&一个成本. 例如, 如果两所大学有相同的直接成本RESEARCH基地，其中一所大学分配给RESEARCH的净平方英尺是两倍, 如果一所大学的净面积是另一所大学的两倍，那么它的设施费率将大约是另一所大学的两倍.
• 一所大学获得资金建设、升级和维护RESEARCH设施的能力. 有能力花钱更新现有RESEARCH设施和建造新RESEARCH设施的大学比没有能力这样做的大学面临更高的成本水平. These higher costs are reflected in their recovery rates for building use.
• 大学的地理位置对设施运营成本有很大影响. 拥有最佳气候条件和公用事业费率组合的大学通常会有较低的设施运营费率.
• 大学之间RESEARCH的“混合”导致了设施率的差异. 每平方英尺建造或翻新生物医学RESEARCH空间的成本比数学家每平方英尺的成本要高, 例如.
• 成本回收策略的差异也对费率变化有很大影响. Many public universities are not permitted to retain recovered F&A funds within the university to further support research programs. Where these universities recover F&一个成本 as a budget offset, 它们没有足够的动力从赞助者那里完全收回成本，因此也就没有能力资助支持或加强RESEARCH的特别计划.
• Some universities may elect to recover a given cost directly rather than as a F&A cost or vice versa. A common example of this would be employee fringe benefits.

Administrative costs are the most difficult to quantify and, 因此, they are the most criticized and questioned F&一个成本. In the case of ODU, it is much easier to estimate since most of grant administration, 采购, 招聘, 库存控制, 联邦法规遵从性由单个组织(在本例中为ODURF)执行。. In universities that do not have a research foundation, the administrative cost is often distributed and more difficult to quantify. They are not, however, a major contributing factor to differences in F&A rates between universities. 近年来，联邦政府通过多次修改OMB通告A-21的语言，限制了行政成本回收的数量, even though the regulatory burden on universities continues to increase.