CO--Indirect Costs (Overhead)
A study prepared by Canadian universities some years ago found that the indirect costs of research were approximately 100% of the direct labour costs of the research. The Federal Government accepted the study and agreed to escalate the overhead provision on its research contracts beginning with a rate of 65%. The rate has remained there.
There has been some movement toward supporting the full indirect costs of grant supported research as demonstrated by the recent creation of the Federal Indirect Costs Program. Universities continue to lobby in this regard and it is the expectation at the University of Toronto that, unless the granting agency has a standing policy against it, researchers will include a provision for indirect costs in their research proposals.
In view of the prevailing policy on grant support of the indirect costs of research, it is also critical that researchers correctly identify, and include in grant proposals, all direct research costs.
This section covers the following:
Indirect Cost Recoveries: Accounting, Distribution and Reporting
Guidelines for Use of Departmental Overhead
Federal Indirect Costs Program
An Overview
- Research overhead refers to the indirect costs of research. The terms overhead and indirect costs tend to be used interchangeably.
- The indirect costs of research approximate 100% of the direct labour costs and the majority of these indirect costs are currently funded by the University's Operating Fund. The University would prefer to see more support for these costs from research sponsors.
- Indirect research costs are incurred at all levels of the organization.
- Where not specifically disallowed, requests for research funding should include indirect costs.
- University practice is to require an overhead provision on research contracts of
- 40% of total direct costs on research contracts, unless the contracting agency requires, and Research Services endorses, an alternative method of calculation
- 20% of total direct costs on corporate/industrial consortia research grants, and
- 10-20% of total direct costs on research grants from foundations unless the sponsoring agency has a prescribed rate(s)
- Refer to the Policy on Research Contracts and the Recovery of Indirect Costs of Research for specific details relating to overhead rates on research contracts and grants.
- Accounting for overhead, i.e. overhead recoveries, is done by the Research Oversight and Compliance Office.
- Overhead recoveries are distributed to the units which incur the indirect costs on a “slip year” basis as a one-time-only budget in the unit's operating Fund Centers. For example, overhead recoveries from customers in calendar year 2006 are appropriated and available for spending in fiscal year 2007-08.
Direct Versus Indirect
Indirect Cost Defined
Indirect costs are those which cannot be traced, i.e. to a particular department or project. The corollary is that any costs which can be traced are direct costs.
In order to trace a cost, it must first be possible, i.e. practical, to measure the service or supply and then determine the related cost.
It is important to note that it is not the nature of the cost but its traceability that determines whether the cost is direct or indirect.
Indirect Research Costs
From this it follows that the indirect costs of a research project are those which cannot be traced directly to the project. Those costs which can be traced, including the cost of departmental administrative services, are direct costs of the research project.
Research overhead - The term research overhead is generally used to refer to the provision, in a research grant or contract, for the indirect costs of a research project.
Examples
Consider a research project in the Department of Physics. As research progresses, services will be provided by:
- the institution, i.e. central services
- the faculty
- the department
At each level there may be direct and indirect costs. Here are some examples of each:
| Direct Costs | Indirect Costs |
| Central or Institutional Services | |
| Cost of renovating a site for equipment for the project | Cost of regular cleaning of the area occupied by the research activity |
| Cost of any special insurance policy needed for the research project | Project's share of the cost of general insurance |
| Faculty Services | |
| Cost of specific technical services provided to the research project | Cost of standard advisory services |
| Department Services | |
| Cost of measurable secretarial or administrative assistance. e.g. % of time, provided to the research project | General level of administrative service for which it is not reasonable to measure the portion absorbed by the project |
Indirect Cost Recoveries: Accounting, Distribution and Reporting
Accounting for Indirect Costs
- Where a research award has a provision for indirect costs, as indicated on the Funded Research Digest, a separate budget (commitment) item within the award is established to charge the indirect costs or overhead to the award. The accounting for this overhead is done by Research Accounting staff who calculate the overhead for the reporting period by applying the overhead rate to the actual direct costs incurred and prepare a journal entry to record the indirect cost to the award and the corresponding recovery to the Operating Fund. This recovery is recorded as General University income.
Distribution of Indirect Costs - How
As indicated above, indirect costs of research are incurred at three levels of the organization - the institutional, faculty and departmental levels.
It is the University’s policy that the distribution of overhead costs which have been recovered from research awards appropriately reflect the distribution of indirect costs. Accordingly, the overhead recovery is distributed as follows:
- 50% to the researcher's department (*)
- 5% to the researcher's faculty (for multi-department faculties only)
- 5% to the Accommodations and Facilities Directorate (AFD) which is responsible for internal funding of renovation projects. This recognizes that there are renovation costs often required by research activity but not allowed under the terms of the research award.
* Of the department’s portion of the overhead revenue, no less than 25% (i.e. 12.5% of the total) shall be allocated, in such a manner as the Principal Investigator shall designate, to the infrastructure and related costs of the Principal Investigator’s research program, unless there is a Departmental policy to provide support for the research program of the Principal Investigator in some other way.
The remaining 40% (45% for single department faculties) can be viewed as the portion of indirect cost recovery applicable to the institutional or central services. Since it is not practical to work out an appropriate distribution to the central departments this portion forms part of the general operating revenues allocated under the University's budgeting process.
Collaborating Departments and the Departmental Share
The departmental share is distributed to the department identified as the administering department referred to on the Funded Research Digest.
Frequently, however the research will be shared by two or more departments who, as a result, are incurring indirect costs in respect to the research. In these cases, following distribution of the overhead to the administering department, the department may effect the appropriate sharing by reallocating the overhead budget using a Budget Transfer / Revision form. Refer to GTFM section: Changing the Original Budget: Authorizations and Procedures for more information on how this is accomplished.
Distribution of Indirect Costs – When
The timing of the distribution of the indirect cost recovery is done on a slip-year basis. The indirect cost recoveries from a research award in a calendar year are made available as a one-time-only budget entry in the following fiscal year. For example, overhead recoveries from customers in calendar year 2006 are appropriated and made available for spending in fiscal year 2007-08. This allows departments to operate with a level of certainty as to the amount of the distribution for the fiscal year.
Reporting
An annual report on the distribution of the indirect cost recoveries for the upcoming fiscal year is produced by Research Accounting each year following completion in January of the recording of all recoveries applicable to the research expenditures in the immediately preceding calendar year.
The report details the total overhead by award, the distribution of that overhead and the total overhead for the recipient unit, i.e. department, faculty or Accommodation and Facilities Directorate.
The report is distributed to faculty financial officers in late February or early March.
Guidelines for Use of Departmental Overhead
General
- Central, Faculty and Departmental administration
- Utilities
- Library collections and services; central services provided by the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Associate Provost, and Divisions and Departments such as Personnel, Purchasing, Physical Plant and Accounting, Biohazard Disposal, Radio Isotope Disposal and Waste
Infrastructure
- Equipment acquisition, installation, maintenance, replacement
- Laboratory climate control
- Technical and secretarial support not included as a direct cost
- Telephone charges
- Hiring and employment costs
- Research employee skill enhancement/professional development courses
- Bridging research group salaries and benefits between contracts
- Space and facilities renovation
Current Awareness
- Attendance at conferences, symposia
- Publication
- Publicity
- Memberships in professional and learned societies
- Purchase of journals, proceedings and books specific to research area
Procurement
- Identification and cultivation of potential sponsors
- Identification, preparation and submission of new research proposals (both successful and unsuccessful)
- Negotiation of research programs, and terms and conditions with sponsors
Project/program feasibility
Researchers engaged in contract research require idea development funds so that promising concepts can be explored to the point that they are sufficiently well-defined for new grant or contract proposals to be formulated.
Federal Indirect Costs Program
Through the Federal Indirect Costs Program, the federal government annually funds a portion of the indirect costs associated with selected CIHR, NSERC & SSHRC grants. Institutions must spend funds in the year in which they were awarded. The faculty share of the annual indirect cost payments must be spent on eligible indirect costs and reported to the federal government.
Each year the University must submit a request to the program secretariat in order to receive the grant for indirect costs. The value of each grant for indirect costs is linked to the amount of funding received by the institution through NSERC, SSHRC and CIHR research grants. This amount is calculated as a percentage of the institution's total federal research funding based on the following formula:
| Average revenue from NSERC, SSHRC or CIHR research grants | Funding for indirect costs* |
| First $100,000 | 80% |
| Next $900,000 | 50% |
| Next $6 million | 40% |
| Balance | Percentage calculated annually, based on the total amount available; approximately 20% |
The calculation of indirect costs grants uses the same data as the annual Canada Research Chairs allocation to universities. This data reflects all the research grants received in all eligible programs by each institution's researchers during the most recent three-year period for which data is available.
On an annual basis, Research Services calculates the faculty share of the annual indirect costs payments, and records the annual indirect costs budget in a separate fund for each faculty. These funds must be spent in the year in which they were awarded and each faculty must respect the rules regarding eligible and ineligible costs when deciding how to spend their grant.
At the end of the federal government grant year (March 31st), Research Accounting must submit an annual Statement of Account and Outcomes Report detailing how indirect costs funds were used and how the institution is meeting the program's objectives.
Source: http://www.finance.utoronto.ca/gtfm/restricted/research/oh.htm