What is Indirect Costs?
Many sponsors recognize that in addition to the direct costs needed to carry out a project, awardee organizations incur a wide range of Indirect Costs. These include hard-to-quantify expenses such as the cost of a project’s use of library facilities, office and lab space, phone service, computer networks, waste disposal, depreciation of equipment and the costs of administering a program through the Research Foundation. Indirect cost rates are now known as Facilities and Administrative Rates. The Research Foundation negotiates these rates with actuaries from the US Department of Health and Human Services for each of the CUNY schools every three years. Effective from 7/1/07 to 6/30/09, Baruch’s F & A rate is currently 69% (on-campus/research & training) calculated on a salary base consisted of direct salary/wage + fringes. When applying for a grant, full indirect costs should always be requested, but often sponsor restrictions will prevent you from doing so. When a sponsor’s guidelines p
