F&A (Indirect) Cost Waivers
The campus does not waive indirect (F&A) costs. Since they are a legitimate expense to the campus in support of sponsored project activity, F&A costs must be recovered from sponsored projects in accordance with the campus' F&A cost policy. The recovery is part of the campus' overal financial plan. Any indirect costs not recovered become cost sharing on the part of the campus. The campus policy provides for F&A cost recovery at less than its audited rate provided the rate in question is the formal, uniformly applied rate of the sponsor. In the absence of a specified formal lower rate, the appropriate Federal rate must be requested. If the request for recovery of indirect costs at the sponsor's formal rate will affect the competitiveness of a proposal to a given sponsored progam, the proposal may be submitted with reduced indirect costs as long as the proposing unit agrees, in writing, to reimburse the campus financial plan from resources under its control -- usually from the unit's F&A cost return funds. This process insures that the unrecovered costs from the sponsor are certifiable as cost sharing.