Issues in determination of overhead for cost recovery from research funding sources are discussed, including the need to collect overhead, principles involved in charging for overhead, range of activity types to be considered, classification and calculation of costs, pricing policy, and payment to the university versus payment to its components.…

American research universities addressed issues of shared funding and overhead for research long ago. British universities are now establishing their own rules. The Commission of European Universities has worked on a model contract that represents progress, but major issues of partnership and patronage arising from differential institutional…

In 1998, Congress directed the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to conduct an analysis of issues related to the ways universities recover the facilities and administrative costs (also known as indirect costs) they incur when performing research under federal grants and contracts. At OSTP's request, the RAND Science and…

Federal regulations concerning recovery of indirect costs of university research projects are changing. Institutions should explore possible alternatives for managing reporting of indirect costs for individual projects. One system, reporting indirect cost categories in the same format as direct costs, may give insight into expenditures and help…