Facilities and Administration Costs
Facilities and Administration Costs (Indirect Costs) are those costs also referred to as overhead, overhead costs, or administrative costs. They are actual costs incurred to conduct the normal business activities of an institution and are not readily identified with or directly charged to a specific sponsored project award.
General F&A Expenses
General Facilities and Administration Cost expenses include:
- General Administration
- Departmental Administration
- Sponsored Research Awards Administration
- Operation and Maintenance
- Library
- Building and Equipment Depreciation
- Non-Capitalized Interest
Facilities and Administration Costs should be requested at the Department of Health and Human Services approved rate on all sponsored project applications unless the sponsor prohibits Facilities and Administration Costs or designates another rate. Exceptions must be requested in writing and sent to the appropriate Dean for your area.
The Off-Campus rate is to be charged only on those projects conducted at sites outside of Hanover and areas immediately surrounding Hanover. The Veteran's Administration in White River Junction, Vermont has a special research rate of 29.7%.
In all other projects not conducted in Dartmouth owned buildings, rent should NOT be included as a direct cost item if the On-Campus rate is used. Rent is automatically included in the On-Campus Facilities and Administration Costs and will be paid out of the Facilities and Administration Costs recovered.
Important Note
Facilities and Administration Costs cannot be charged on capital expenditures (buildings, individual items of equipment over $5,000, alterations and renovations), patient care costs, that portion of each subaward amounts in excess of $25,000, tuition remission, scholarships, fellowships, or rental/maintenance costs of off-site facilities. Facilities and Administration Costs are real and auditable. If the College does not collect full reimbursement for these costs, other College resources must be used to subsidize them.
Facilities and Administration Costs are calculated using a negotiated rate of expense recovery based on the total cost of the sponsored research award, minus the Facilities and Administration Cost rate. Negotiated rates are to be used for all agreements with the federal government and for most non-federal awards, as allowable. Information on current Facilities and Administration Cost rates are available from the Office of Sponsored Projects.
Once the budget has been approved and a PTA account has been established for the sponsored project award, the Principal Investigator will generally not have responsibilities related to the recovery of Facilities and Administration Costs. Facilities and Administration Cost recovery is managed by the Office of Sponsored Projects. The Office maintains a database for each sponsored project PTA account that computes Facilities and Administration Cost recovery daily based on the project's daily modified total direct costs. The sponsor is then billed for these Facilities and Administration Costs. Funds received through Facilities and Administration Cost recovery flow back into individual college pools. The Office of Sponsored Projects does not become involved in how those funds are then allocated.
Excluded from Indirect Costs
- Capital Equipment $5,000 or more
- Subaward after first $25,000 (Per each Subaward Agreement)
- Tuition Remission
- Patient Care Costs
- Alterations/Renovations
- Scholarship/Fellowship
- Rental cost offsite facility
- Indirect Costs are real and auditable costs
- Indirect Costs are reconciled by OSP
- Indirect Costs recovered get distributed back to the school that generated the direct costs