What they are, how to find them and how to spend them:
Did you find money in your FD100/PG102586 and ever wonder where it came from?
Many OSP grants allow us to recover F&A (facilities and administrative costs) or what is also referred to as Indirects. Indirects are meant to cover those things that can't easily be applied as a direct cost to the sponsor of the grant. Think space, IT, toilet paper, etc. Indirects are billed to the sponsor as a percentage of the actual direct expense we have applied. If we have a $10k grant with 10% indirect rate, we can basically spend $9,091 in direct costs and bill the sponsor for $909 in F&A.
Our college, CFAES, keeps a portion of indirect costs to help cover expenses related to administrative overhead of conducting research. OSP does not take overhead.
For county offices, we currently receive 75% of indirects back. So if we charge the sponsor $1k, the unit will get $750 (or that could be divvied up to multiple units if it was a collaborative grant).
Once indirects are returned to the department, they are generally unrestricted for use. Each unit can make decisions on the internal allocation and use of indirects based on their budgetary needs.
To find the Source for Indirects: Run Equity Balances by Balancing/Carry Forward Worktags report, click drop down beside the current amount being added to the FD100 Indirect fund and click on Details- in column YTD Sources/Other revenues-Transfers in. In pop-up window in Journal Column click the three dots next to Magnifying Glass to open details, then click on the Journal number. Click Attachments Tab, open the Excel spreadsheet, filter on Details Tab for Cost Center to find which Grant Indirect Deposit is from. (Or ask your fiscal officer)