Facilities and Administrative (F&A) Costs or Indirect Costs

Facilities and Administrative (F&A) Costs, fund items researchers need in order to conduct their work that cannot be specifically allocated to a single project, like the operating costs of UVM's research facilities; electricity, heating, air conditioning and other utilities; laboratory safety equipment, information technology, and the libraries. In addition, F&A is used to recover the costs of research administration, accounting, integrity, and compliance programs required for the proper stewardship of federal funds.

Given the significance of F&A to the institution, UVM expects full recovery of Facilities and Administrative (F&A) costs associated with extramural funding.

COGR Publication:

For F&A Rates see:

Budgeting for F&A Costs in Proposals

  • All proposals and agreements for external funding must include full F&A costs by using the appropriate UVM Federally Approved F&A Rate, in effect at the time of proposal submission, subject to sponsor limitations, as noted below.

Sponsored Published F&A Limitations

  • UVM does recognize some sponsors and programs (normally non-profits) have F&A recovery limitations that are less than UVM’s federally approved rates, including prohibiting indirect costs. These lower rates will be accepted as long as the sponsor has a published rate limitation in their proposal guidelines (request for proposal, request for application, funding opportunity announcement) or is published on the sponsor’s website, or be confirmed in writing by the sponsor’s grants office and such limitations are equitably applied by that sponsor to all applicants.

F&A Types

  • The type of the F&A rate is determined by the location of project activities (i.e., on-campus, off-campus) and the purpose of the project (i.e., Research, Public Service, Instruction, V-CHIP, Extension, Experiment Station).
  • In situations where a project has a mix of activities and/or the work is performed both on campus and off campus, ONE rate may be applied to each proposal.  It will be determined by where the majority of activity is performed and consideration of the purpose of the overall project.  The rate will be used for the entire duration of an award’s competing segment.

Requesting a Reduction of F&A Costs

  • F&A waivers or reductions is lost revenue to the college, therefore, all F&A reductions greater than allowed by the guidance above, must be submitted thru the College Dean or designee via an Ancillary Review in UVMClick. How to request an Ancillary Review.
  • Requests must be made prior to the proposal submission and present a compelling reason for the reduction.

Transfer Awards

  • For awards being transferred to UVM from another institution where UVM’s F&A costs exceeds those of the previous grantee institution, UVM will accept the lower rates to ensure that the Principal Investigator will maintain the direct costs needed to complete the project for the duration of the award’s competitive segment.
  • UVM rates will apply for future competing segments.

Base Definitions

  • The F&A rate is applied to a base of direct costs in order to determine the F&A cost. Base definitions are defined below;
  • ​Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC). Total direct cost minus your modifiers of equipment, patient care, tuition, participant support costs, rental costs of off-site facilities, scholarships, fellowships, and the portion of each subaward in excess of $25,000. F&A cost = MTDC base x F&A rate.
  • Total Direct Costs (TDC). All direct costs are included. There are no exclusions or modifiers. F&A cost = TDC base x F&A rate.
  • Total Funds Awarded (TFA). You will need to do a conversion to a TDC rate.

Examples of TDC equivalents follow:

  • 15% TFA is equivalent to 17.6% TDC
  • 22% TFA is equivalent to 28.2% TDC
  • 30% TFA is equivalent to 42.8% TDC

USDA/NIFA Indirect Costs Rates

  • Indirect costs may be limited by legislation under NIFA awards.
  • Please refer to the NIFA Indirect Cost Chart (PDF)
  • While the chart is provided for reference purposes, NIFA applicants should pay particular attention to any indirect cost limitation identified in the applicable request for applications (RFA) and awardees should pay particular attention to any indirect cost limitation identified in an award.