Indirect or F&A Costs

How does F&A relate to the College?

Sponsored activities incur two types of costs on institutions worldwide. The first, known as direct costs, are those tied directly to your sponsored activity. For example, you may request money for educational supplies as part of your student enrichment program, and those supplies are purchased expressly for that purpose. The second is F&A (Facilities & Administrative) cost. These represent real costs incurred by the College through the use of facilities (heat, room use, lighting), support personnel (Accounting, User Support Services, others) and maintenance (Physical Plant, others) in supporting your sponsored program. Therefore, each institution has a calculated F&A rate that estimates the cost the institution incurs in such intangibles when supporting sponsored activity, thus increasing the total requested for the sponsored program. It is not a "tax" on your award money and does not detract from your award amount - unless you were planning on using the maximum award amount a sponsor will allow. However, while the College uses Federally-negotiated rate to recoup its costs in supporting your program, a percentage of the F&A is recovered and disbursed to Vice Presidents, deans and you to use as discretionary funds toward faculty and professional development.

Some sponsors limit the amount or percentage of F&A that can be collected, while others do not allow it at all. Note: If you ask for less than the maximum of the College's Federally-negotiated F&A rate, the College requires you to justify the request for a waiver of F&A. Special attention is given to worthy programs and/or extenuating circumstances.


The simple truth is that F&A costs and rates exist everywhere to varying degrees and support the costs institutions incur in hosting sponsored activity. Plan for it in your proposal and it will have no impact on the money available for your program should your proposal be funded.

Next: Cost Sharing