XIII. Indirect Costs

POLICY: Indirect costs and their related distribution formulae for all grants, contracts, and sponsored projects will be negotiated by the Principal Investigator (PI)/Project Director and the Office of Grants and Sponsored Projects at the time that the proposal is submitted. In the cases of those already received by the University, the current policy or a precedent approved by the Provost and President will apply. The indirect amount will be included on Lesley's grant submission checklist.

PROCEDURE: The indirect amount is established according to the Award Set-Up Policy and Procedure for establishing any new account at the University. When the grant award letter is received in the Finance Office, revenue accounts will be set up at the same time that the grant budget is established. These revenue accounts will be used to allocate revenue from the grants indirect costs. The allocations will be distributed by percent based on the criteria outlined below. The indirect cost revenue will be allocated as the expenditures occur and may not be available at the beginning of the grant period.

The following scenarios exemplify how indirect costs are redistributed:

1. When the Principal Investigator is also a director of a center or institute,

a. an account will be established in the name of the project and will be given 10% of the indirect cost revenue for the PI's use;

b. the department/school/center/institute account will receive 20% to support faculty research projects; and,

c. the Office of Sponsored Projects account will receive 70% for grants management.

2. When the Principal Investigator is a "contractor" or an "administrator," the percent allocation to be applied may vary and shall be determined at the time of the proposal submission by the Provost, Vice President for Academic Affairs.

The accounts to which the indirect costs will be distributed will be set by the Finance Office for each Principal Investigator/Project Director, for the departments and for the Division of Academic Affairs. The signature authorities for the Principal Investigators'/Project Directors' accounts will be the Principal Investigator/Project Director and her/his dean or unit head/Vice President. The signature authorities for the department chairs' accounts will be the department chair and her/his school dean or Vice President.

The funds will be distributed quarterly (January, April, July, and October), effective July 1, 2011, and may be used for expenses such as travel to professional conferences, research materials and equipment, and other approved expenditures for research and scholarly activities. All such funds will not be able to be "rolled" from one fiscal year to the next.