What does recovered F & A support?

Indirect cost, also referred to as Facilities and Administrative (F & A) cost or Overhead, is the portion of a project's cost that is not directly charged to the sponsor. Examples of indirect cost include utilities, telephone, departmental staff, office supplies, accounts payable personnel, etc. Indirect cost is not profit for the university, but is the federally approved method for recovering costs necessary to develop and maintain the infrastructure required to support the research enterprise.

The recovered indirect cost budget and allocation is managed by the Vice Chancellor for Research. The Vice Chancellor works with the Chancellor to create a list of priority projects and services to develop and support with recovered indirect. Generally, the recovered indirect cost is used to support UNO's mission as it relates to the strategic plan for research. Another core area of support is for projects and services which benefit UNO's students. Graduate tuition waivers and scholarships are an important use of recovered indirect cost. Listed below are some of the recurring services supported by recovered indirect cost.

1 for 3 Graduate Assistantships

As an incentive to encourage the support of Doctoral students on sponsored funding, one Doctoral student will be supported for each three Doctoral students completely supported on sponsored funding in a department. The students must have a stipend and tuition paid from the sponsored funding. Each department is examined individually and the department chair decides who should receive the support. The support includes tuition and stipend. These assistantships encourage outside funding and increase the number of graduate students that receive financial support to attend UNO.

Administration Support

A portion of the recovered indirect cost is used to fully fund operations in the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs and in Sponsored Programs Accounting. Both of these offices play an integral role in applying for and managing sponsored funding, which includes ensuring compliance with sponsor and federal regulations. In addition to these offices, indirect cost funds the Office of Economic Development and Technology Transfer that manages the patent applications and technology transfers for UNO. These functions allow UNO to continue performing research and obtaining outside funding. All of these offices receive no general fund support.

Other offices receiving salary or operating support range from External Affairs to Financial Services and the Graduate School.

Campus Utilities

Since sponsored research activities increase the use of utilities and therefore increase the cost of doing business, a portion of the indirect cost is used to pay for utilities. The Vice Chancellor for Research and Vice Chancellor for Financial Services annually agree upon the level of support.

Compliance Committees Support

Some research projects require approval to use human or animal subjects. Their use requires review and approval by the IRB (Institutional Review Board) or IACUC (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee), respectively. One member on each committee is from the Office of Research. In addition, the Office of Research provides monetary support to be used for committee expenses such as travel to training workshops to keep current with federal/state compliance guidelines. These committees are a federal requirement that support both research and instructional uses.

ORSP has a staff member on many of the other compliance committees on campus which oversee such diverse areas of compliance as export controls, financial conflicts of interest, and safety. Many of these committees have nominal recurring costs which may be supported by recovered indirects.

Cost share

A few sponsors require UNO to demonstrate financial commitment to a proposed project, referred to as mandatory cost share; a proposal will not be considered for funding without this cost share included in the proposed budget. Cost share can also occur when specific expenses are not allowed by the sponsor. For example, the Louisiana Board of Regents does not allow tuition in their portion of the project budget, or a sponsor may cap the funding amount.

Cost share may come from a third party, a departmental or college general fund, or recovered indirect cost. The Vice Chancellor for Research must approve all requests for cost share.

Through the years, recovered indirect cost has been used for tuition (especially for Board of Regents awards), equipment, salary, supplies, etc. Some awards or projects would not be able to be completed without the use of indirect costs for cost share.

DIG/TIG

Recovered indirect is used to fund this innovative program which was established in 2010 and is managed by the Graduate School office. Students who have filed for graduation and only need to complete their thesis or dissertation can apply for the Dissertation or Thesis Improvement Grant during the open call sent out annually by the Graduate School. Funding is used to cover expenses related to dissertation and thesis research. This student program is designed to improve the quality of a students' thesis or dissertation and to improve the graduation rate for our students.

Lab Renovations

The Vice Chancellor for Research has the authority to approve requests to renovate or build a lab for a professor, department or center in support of research. Lab improvements have the potential to attract both faculty and students to UNO, improve the quality of the student's experience at UNO, and improve the quality and quantity of sponsored funding. This is in keeping with both UNO's and the Office of Research's mission statements.

New Faculty Start-Up

Attracting talented and dedicated faculty is important for all universities. In order to attract top research faculty, start-up funds may be provided as part of the hiring packet. Recovered indirect cost has been used for start-up funds, usually to supplement what is provided by the department or college. This is at the discretion of the Vice Chancellor for Research and is based on negotiations with the chair and/or dean recruiting new research faculty.

Recovered Indirect Cost Return

The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs has a policy to return a portion of the indirect cost recovered to each college, center/institute, and the library each fiscal year. Per IMD 85.002, each college can receive up to 10% of their college's recovered indirect cost (excluding any board approved center's or institute's recovered indirect cost); each Board of Regents approved center or institute can receive up to 25% of their recovered indirect cost; the library will receive 1% of the total recovered indirect cost.

Each dean or director has discretion in the use of these funds.

Research/Distinguished Professor Awards

Because of dedication and success in their chosen field, selected professors may be honored as an Early Research Professor, University Research Professor, Chancellor's Research Professor or Distinguished Professor through a nomination process at UNO or as a Boyd Professor through the LSU Board of Supervisors. As recognition for their hard work to earn these honors, a portion of their salary and a monetary award is provided from the pool of recovered indirect costs. The level and length of support varies with each type of award. For example, Distinguished and Boyd Professors receive their support as long as they are employed by UNO, whereas the Research Professor support is for either one year or three years depending on the award.

The Research Council aids the Vice Chancellor for Research in selecting which faculty should receive this honor.

Research Strategic Plan

The Office of Research is continually seeking ways to improve research on campus and achieve UNO's Research Strategic Plan which has 2 main goals:

Goal 1: As Louisiana's Urban Research University of National Stature, the University of New Orleans will rank in the Top 200 of American Research Universities by 2015. The University will continue to be recognized as a major research university as reflected by our designation as a Research University - High Research Activity by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Goal 2: Achieve technology transfer performance metrics equal to the average of US Universities.

Summer Research

Since the summer of 2009, the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs has funded internal summer awards. The purposes of these internal awards are to improve the grant-making skills of inexperienced investigators and to develop new areas of research or scholarly endeavors. There are three programs:

1. SCoRE (Stimulation Competitive Research) - This funding is intended to be seed money for faculty to develop a new area of research activity.
2. CEO (Creative Endeavor Opportunity) - The goal of this funding is to provide support for faculty to launch programs of research, scholarship, exhibition or performance that will ultimately result in increased research and creative activity on campus.
3. SUE (Summer Undergraduate Experience) - This funding is intended to provide research experience to undergraduate students which will help them if they choose to continue with graduate school.

Investigators submit a proposal just like any outside funding opportunity. The Research Council recommends which proposals to approve funding.