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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That's cheap . . . Harvard's federal rate is 69%.
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Oh my goodness gracious
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Yes, though this probably doesn't cover what you're thinking of. It covers electricity, heating/cooling, hazardous waste management, janitorial, building security, networking, insurance, etc—but not e.g. construction, equipment purchases, laboratory-specific operations, etc
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Good question. The convenience of zero commute; total control over my personal space; the ability to have my dog around during the day; <10% of calendar time / headspace; some portion of my grant revenue. Possibly more.