Current F&A Rate Agreement
What are Facilities and Administrative Costs?
When universities perform research on behalf of the federal government through agency grants, contracts, or other agreements, they incur support costs that cannot be charged to the grant/contract sources as direct costs, also known as Facilities and Administrative (F&A) costs.
What are Facilities and Administrative Rates?
F&A costs are recovered through negotiated F&A rates that are developed by Financial Services, with input from Research Innovation & Impact (RII) and national subject matter experts.
F&A rates result in approximately $100 million plus of annual revenue recovery to the University, which provides crucial funding for faculty retention, bridge funding, start-up funding, strategic research initiatives, and F&A support services.
Proposal, Review, and Negotiation Process
Proposal
A proposal can take up to a year and a half to complete before submitting and must include collaboration between many departments and colleges on campus to complete. Proposals are completed based on actual expenses of the University and the costs must be:
- Allowable
- Allocable
- Reasonable
- Consistently applied
Extensive internal reviews with executive management across the University before submitting to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Cost Allocation Services (CAS). This can take several months and several key University parties are consulted and review the proposal to ensure accuracy.
Review and Negotiation
Audit and reviews by the DHHS/CAS can take up to six months to a year. Once reviewed, negotiations can take place between the two entities and the University. Once the rates are agreed upon and approved by DHHS/CAS, an agreement between the cognizant agency and the University are signed and applied to sponsored awards.
Negotiations usually take place and are negotiated every four years. However, two-year rates can also be negotiated if the University is not satisfied with the approved rates.
Please note: Due to staffing issues and the COVID-19 pandemic, the DHHS/CAS delayed most negotiations including with the University. The University also requested extensions on previous predetermined rates agreed upon through fiscal year 2018 and was approved through fiscal year 2020, with fiscal year 2019 being the base year.