Surprised to discover that MIT's indirect costs (i.e. for facilities and administration) on research grants recently crossed 50% (jumps to 55% in 2022). ras.mit.edu/facilities-and
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Then departments take a cut[1] and there's a 10% fund overhead[2] for many expenses!
I knew grants had a lot of university-mandated overhead built in, but I didn't realize it was anything like this much.
[1] ras.mit.edu/rates/allocati
[2] ras.mit.edu/rates/fund-acc
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I really don't know how to evaluate such costs: facilities are very important; these fees support departmental research funds, which is great; etc etc—maybe such a high percentage really is best! I'd certainly like a "campus".
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Looking back at 2010, though, the rate was 68%. It actually fell to 50% over the following ten years, and is only now climbing again. That's very interesting, and seems to run against a "cost disease" trend one might have naively inferred.
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I guess if any campus can justify it, it’s MIT. Lots of equipment. Still 🤔.
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Interesting reflecting on this as an MIT student subject to this overhead :) I have an NSF fellowship starting next year and was surprised to find it only covers ~half of my support, despite paying out 48k / year.
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It's not obvious to me that that's a terrible ratio. I benefit greatly from having an advisor / department, getting to take classes, etc. (Also, can't get NSF funding in the first place w/o legibility of university! The government is paying me to explore things, exciting!)
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Doesn't sound unreasonable. A rule of thumb is that total employee cost is double the base salary. In MIT's case I think fringe benefits are charged as direct costs. If fringe benefits are 35%, that's 1.5*1.35 =2.025.
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The benefits (a modest 27%) are included prior to the F&A adjustment, in the budget line item for staff salaries. ras.mit.edu/rates/employee
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I was salty about this at first, but simmered down a bit when I understood a chunk of it funds startup grants for faculty (e.g., new hire startup packages) and students - these are often true unrestricted funds in terms of research direction. A precious commodity!
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Yes, that seems really precious!
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