Facilities & Administrative costs / Indirect Costs (IDC)
Facilities and Administrative (F&A) costs, also known as indirect costs (IDC), are defined in the federal Uniform Guidance as “costs that are incurred for common or joint objectives and, therefore, cannot be identified readily and specifically with a particular sponsored project, an instructional activity, or any other institutional activity.” A federally approved percentage, the F&A rate, is applied to sponsored projects to recover the allowable overhead costs associated with conducting organized research.
At SF State, the federal rate for research is 55% of the total direct costs spent on the work. The 55% is broken into two components, the facilities rate (29%) and the administrative rate (26%). The funds collected for facilities are reimbursing the University for building depreciation, equipment depreciation, plant operation and maintenance, interest expense, and the library. The administrative rate covers general, departmental, and sponsored projects administration costs.
For entirely instructionally related activities, the facilities component of the rate is lower and the overall rate for instruction projects is 50%.
Projects funded by sponsors that involve the performance of work other than Instruction or Research are referred to as Other Sponsored Activities and the IDC rate for these is 42.5%.
IDC Distribution
IDC is collected and distributed to A&F and ORSP to cover the costs of supporting the work. A total of 25% of the total IDC generated annually by an award is returned to the College or VP unit of grant PI to support the project. Some of these funds should be used to cover costs that cannot be charged to direct costs, such as office supplies.
IDC Use
The IDC funds are collected to cover the costs incurred to support the project. It is a reimbursement from the funder to the university and the funds reside in a General Fund account. IDC can be used for any purpose as long as it meets all CSU rules for non-recurring General Fund.
Reports