Re: NIH Resumes Funding of Grants

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For those still not understanding direct and indirect costs here's a primer. If you don't understand this, please just lurk and learn.

yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com - Why should you care about an indirect
The latest debacle centers on “indirect costs.” For every NIH grant awarded for research, funding is divided into two categories:

Direct costs cover the actual research—salaries, fieldwork expenses, stipends for study participants, etc.
Indirect costs cover the infrastructure that makes the research possible—rent, electricity, internet, security, compliance, human ethics review, administrative support, and even toilet paper in buildings.
At my university, the indirect cost rate was 56%. That meant if I received a $100,000 grant, the university would receive an additional $56,000 to cover research infrastructure. So, a total of $156,000 would come through the door from NIH.

Indirect costs are specific to each institution, so they vary. In some cases, the percentage is as low as 10%, but in some, it is upwards of 80%. They often reflect the location of the institution and the service provided to the researchers. For example, in the graph below, New York University is higher than the University of Wisconsin, in part because of rent. The rates are negotiated with NIH every few years.

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The latest debacle centers on “indirect costs.” For every NIH grant awarded for research, funding is divided into two categories:

Direct costs cover the actual research—salaries, fieldwork expenses, stipends for study participants, etc.
Indirect costs cover the infrastructure that makes the research possible—rent, electricity, internet, security, compliance, human ethics review, administrative support, and even toilet paper in buildings.
At my university, the indirect cost rate was 56%. That meant if I received a $100,000 grant, the university would receive an additional $56,000 to cover research infrastructure. So, a total of $156,000 would come through the door from NIH.

Indirect costs are specific to each institution, so they vary. In some cases, the percentage is as low as 10%, but in some, it is upwards of 80%. They often reflect the location of the institution and the service provided to the researchers. For example, in the graph below, New York University is higher than the University of Wisconsin, in part because of rent. The rates are negotiated with NIH every few years.

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