F&A Rate Proposal Development
With UNH’s current set of F&A (facilities and administrative or “indirect “) cost rates set to expire 6/30/09, the university has undertaken the major campus-wide effort to gather data about the current overhead costs of conducting externally-funded research and other sponsored programs. The data will be used to calculate as accurately and completely as possible the F&A rates charged to sponsors.
Sponsored programs incur two basic types of costs:
- direct costs that can be linked clearly to a particular project, such as salaries and fringe benefits of research staff, equipment, supplies, travel to research sites, etc.;
and
- indirect costs that cannot be billed easily to a project, such as heat, lights, building maintenance, administrative services, etc. Because it would be cumbersome to try to allocate such indirect costs specifically to each sponsored project a general rate is calculated, negotiated with the Federal government, and then applied to externally sponsored awards.
The cost items above are cited as examples only; specific information about UNH facilities & administrative cost rates and their application can be found on the website of the Office of Sponsored Research, including the “University of New Hampshire Guide to Sponsored Program Facilities and Administrative (Indirect) Costs” at http://www.unh.edu/osr/policies/support/fa_guide.pdf, the table of UNH’s current F&A rates at http://www.unh.edu/osr/misc/support/osr_rate.pdf, and a copy of the official rate agreement at http://www.unh.edu/osr/misc/support/unh_rate_agreement.pdf. The history of UNH F&A and fringe benefit rates may be viewed at http://www.unh.edu/osr/misc/support/unh_fa.xls.
FY08 activity will serve as the basis for calculation of the set of F&A rates that will go into effect for FY10. Compilation and analysis of the ’08 data will begin in December 2007 and continue for the next twelve months, with submission of a proposal to the Federal government anticipated in December 2008.
Three subcommittees will tackle the main areas of data gathering and analysis:
- Administration
- Facilities
- Library
