Most faculty are aware at this point that the federal government issued new guidelines for indirect cost recovery (also known as “Facilities and Administration” costs, or F&A) for all grants, present and future, awarded by the National Institutes of Health. I write to keep you apprised of the University’s efforts to understand the impact of this directive and take any necessary steps to contest it. This is a serious matter for all of our campuses, especially the principal investigators whose research depends on the maintenance of facilities and the availability of services to keep their work running smoothly.
For those who are not part of the sponsored research world, it may be useful to know that Facilities and Administration is a foundational element of funded research. Among other things, it covers the costs of research buildings, information technology, utilities, procurement of supplies, and payroll processing. It covers the cost of personnel who assure the safety of adults and children enrolling in clinical trials for cancer and chronic disease, the ethics teams that assure those trials are done safely, the data and privacy teams that protect our personal data, and the equipment that fuels the labs where discovery is occurring. The reductions will disrupt a critical relationship to the pharmaceutical and device industry partners who rely on our independent research and clinical trials to establish the efficacy of emerging treatments.
The F&A rate is negotiated with and justified by the NIH by each campus every three to four years. The rate employed in grant submissions and awards has undergone detailed scrutiny and is carefully audited to be sure expenditures align with grant commitments. These costs are carefully developed with both NIH and Congressional oversight. Abrupt changes to this funding will leave gaping holes in the budgets that support the facilities and staff where our research occurs.
This has been a standard practice for decades; all universities that receive sponsored research funding undergo this rigorous procedure and the result is a partnership between the federal government and higher education to develop and sustain the most advanced research in the world. Indeed, the results represent achievements all Americans can take pride in. From Nobel prize-winning work in biology, physics, and chemistry to life sustaining work in public health, medicine, and social science, the University of California has achieved its pre-eminent status as the most respected and accomplished public research university bar none. This research leads to treatments and cures for real diseases for real people, such as cancer, diabetes, heart attacks, and strokes, among others All of this is at risk as a consequence of the abrogation of commitments to support that work in the form of this reduction.
We would like to share with you what we can, to reassure you of our collective (campus-based and system-based) efforts over the weekend. That includes the following:
