Reply to Schools most harmed and those most benefiting once NIH, DHS funding resumes?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Ok. College grant writer here. Every institution that applies for federal funds has three options for budgeting for indirect costs. First, the individual RFP may set a cap on indirect costs. For example, Department of Education often caps indirect costs at 8%. That means most colleges have to absorb the actual indirect cost associated with that grant. Second, many institutions have a federal negotiated indirect cost rate, called a NICRA, which involves an extensive review of the institution prior to award. That rate is assigned by a cognizant agency. When allowed by the funding proposal, the institution can charge this to the grant and subsequently recover these costs. Finally, if the institution doesn’t have a NICRA, then the funder may allow them to charge a diminimus rate, usually 8-10%. Usually colleges will have a mix of grants in their portfolio that vary in recovery of indirect costs, and part of my job as a grant administrator is to make sure that the portfolio is balanced and we aren’t actually loosing money by accepting grant funds. Yes, if you have too many grants with capped indirect costs, we loose $$$. Also, fyi - any institution with over 7.5m in federal funds has to submit to single audits, in addition to their regular audit, to ensure that funds are used appropriately. Maybe their is waste and fraud, but their are many mechanisms of control in place to ensure fiscal compliance.[/quote]

So if you are familiar with the university research environment.... Is there a mechanism for endowment money to be used to replace the loss of this NIH and NSF funding?   Are universities with large endowments going to be able to weather this and continue supporting all of the research going on at their institutions?  Or is this going to significantly shrink scientific research across the board?[/quote]

No, almost all endowment funds are restricted, meaning that they have to be used for a specific purpose designated by the initial donor. That’s why the size of an endowment can be misleading to the general public: funds have a restricted purpose - such as scholarships, and the corpus cannot be touched, just the interest it generates.[/quote]

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