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The rate has increased from 47 percent to 48.5 percent, meaning UNMC will receive about $1.5 million in added revenue over the next four years. The new rate went into effect on July 1 and is effective through June 30, 2012.
F&A reimbursement is money built into federal grants such as RO1 grants from the National Institutes of Health that helps cover facilities and administrative costs for research. Reimbursement rates are negotiated between institutions and the federal government based on comprehensive cost reports provided by an institution that compare the actual costs of conducting sponsored research with the volume of research conducted at the particular institution.
“The credit for this increase really spreads across the whole campus, from our investigators who do excellent research to our business and finance people who did an outstanding job of presenting our case for this rate increase,” said UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D.
Dr. Maurer particularly noted the efforts of John Adams, Ph.D., assistant vice chancellor for budget and strategic planning, and Bill Lawlor, director financial compliance and federal costing.
“John, Bill and their team put a lot of time and effort into securing this rate increase and we are very appreciative of their outstanding efforts,” Dr. Maurer said.
F&A recoveries are a critical source of support for research infrastructure in that they help maintain buildings, acquire new equipment and fund lab renovations.
F&A funds also are used to start new programs and research, cover the costs of compliance and fund improvements to campus-wide research infrastructure. Additionally, portions of recovered F&A funds are returned to individual units to be used at the discretion of the deans or directors.
This change in the reimbursement rate only applies to federally-funded grants. The F&A rates for grants and contracts from other sources remains the same until further notice.
Like Dr. Maurer, Tom Rosenquist, Ph.D., vice chancellor for research, said Lawlor and Dr. Adams deserve credit for the rate increase.
“These funds are essential to our research enterprise and provide essentially all the funding for research support services. Bill and John did a great job of presenting our case for this increase,” Dr. Rosenquist said.
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That being the case, Leuenberger said, Dr. Maurer also deserves credit for the increase.
“Dr. Maurer’s vision of expanding our research enterprise is becoming a reality and this increase is a natural byproduct of that process,” Leuenberger said.
Dr. Adams said Bill Lawlor did a highly professional job of preparing the proposal and in leading a steering committee that did invaluable work in assembling and analyzing the data that supports the proposal.
The steering committee members were:
- Ken Hansen, assistant vice chancellor for facilities management and planning;
- Deb Thomas, assistant vice chancellor for finance and business services;
- Susan Mann, manager of budget and fiscal analysis; and
- Paula Turpen, Ph.D., director of research resources.
“A lot of time, thought and energy went into the development of this proposal,” Dr. Adams said. “We knew we had a strong case for this increase, but we knew there were other very qualified institutions asking for increases. We had to convince the federal negotiators by making a strong case for UNMC.
“Our team did a great job of developing and presenting a case that justified our proposal for a higher rate.”