|
|
|
| |
 |
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
Approaching the Campus Budget - Part IIIndirect Costs Indirect costs, because they represent general expenses that the university pays so that research may take place, are calculated as follows. The university adds up all the research related indirect costs that the federal government allows and then assigns a portion of them to the official indirect costs. The portion assigned depends on the item. For example, the portion of general utilities, heat and light, assigned to research indirect cost is done in proportion to the amount of space used for research. These quantities must reflect actual costs the university assumes and the federal government audits the costs on a regular basis. At the end of the process, the university negotiates an indirect cost rate with the federal government, which usually insists on a rate lower than the actual rate calculated from the real costs. The UMass Amherst current rate is 55%, which puts us well within range of most public research universities. However, when the federal government, and many other funding organizations including the state of Massachusetts, awards a grant it usually requires the university to pay part of the direct costs and much of the indirect costs of the project supported. The rationale for this under funding of projects undertaken on behalf of various agencies and foundations varies, but the fact is that almost no outside agency fully funds the research performed on its behalf. Although it may appear that the campus should not compete so zealously for under funded research, this misses the point of the university’s research mission. The campus seeks to support as much high quality research as is possible. Internal resources can support only so much research and the addition of external resources leverages the internal dollars so the campus can perform additional high quality research beyond what would be possible using only its own money. The investment of internal dollars on externally funded research is a very good investment. The campus as a whole participates in this research economy, even when a research program has no external sources of funding. The rule of effective research universities is very simple. Every department or program in the university must apply for any external dollars available for the research the faculty choose to do. Every external dollar generated for a quality research project is an addition to the university’s research mission and serves to expand the number of research projects the campus can support with its own funds. Some research fields can acquire very large grants, and they must do so. Other research fields can only compete for small grants, but they have as much an obligation to seek out those funds as do the faculty in fields with large grant programs. Every dollar matters because every dollar from the outside multiplies the impact of every internal dollar spent on research. |
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
© 2006 University of Massachusetts Amherst. Site Policies. |
|
|||
| | | | |