Important Definitions:
Facility and Administrative Costs (F&A) (Overhead, Indirect Costs): Costs which are necessary to support research and other sponsored projects, but which cannot be readily or easily assigned to individual projects. These include costs related to facilities operations (depreciation, utilities, maintenance, security, etc.), libraries, departmental administration, and general administration (like OSP and C&G). UGA recovers F&A costs by applying a percentage rate to the direct cost expenditures charged to sponsored project accounts. The F&A rates are determined by UGA’s cognizant federal agency every three years.
F&A Return: UGA returns 20% of each sponsored project’s reimbursed F&A costs. Typically, F&A returns are made to the budgetary unit managing the award, but UGA returns these funds in accordance with PI/co-PI instructions provided on the OSP Proposal Transmittal Form at the time of proposal submission.
F&A Waiver: That portion of applicable overhead that is not paid or reimbursed by the sponsor. Approval to waive F&A rests with the Vice President for Research or his designee.