Re: indirect cost sharing
Nancy Watterson 23 Sep 1994 07:02 EST
I have not seen this information either and would be interested to know
how others are dealing with indirect cost sharing. The Beth Israel
Hospital in Boston has been indirect cost sharing since 1988. The
appropriation began at 10% and is now at 8.01%. The appropriation is
computed using a rate of 8.01% indexed to the actual overhead recoveries
in the previous fiscal year - this happened to be last year's figures and
we are awaiting the new awarded figures for FY94. We call this "research
pool appropriations". There is a two page hospital policy that basically
reads the expenditures are restricted to 1) research equipment that
cannot be charged to individual grants (items costing over $500), 2)
salary and fringe benefits for departmental personnel whose jobs benefit
substantially all research activities and whose activities cannot be
allocated to one project. Basically this money is then distributed to
the department who sets their own policy of how the funds are
distributed. In the Department of Medicine at our institution their
policy is to split the money between department and division. The
division sets their own policy (still keeping within the hospital
policy). My division then allocates the research pool money directly
back to the PI but keeping a 5% portion for the division. That 5% pool
is used at the discretion of the committee (chief, PIs and
administrator). Normally to buy FAX machines, xerox, etc. used by the
entire research staff. With the budget cuts, we are dipping into this
portion more and more to cover office salaries. I would be happy to send
the hospital policy to you - send me a note if it would be helpful. Good
luck, NWD