Sponsored Research Overhead Support Fund

SPONSORED RESEARCH OVERHEAD SUPPORT FUND

The Kennedy School has set aside a limited pool of funds (the Sponsored Research Overhead Support Fund) to be applied in select cases where sponsored research proposals do not include the normally required minimum indirect cost rate.

Principal Investigators must apply for access to the Overhead Support Fund, preferably in advance of or as part of the usual Dean’s Approval process for sponsored research. In reviewing these requests, the Academic Dean will in most cases give relatively greater weight (and preference) to the following factors:

·  junior faculty principal investigators;

·  smaller subsidy requests;

·  matching fund requests (i.e., where the sponsor will pay some overhead but less than the normally required minimum rate);

·  proposals that, if funded, may lead to larger, follow-up projects;

·  proposals where all or most of the research faculty and staff are fulltime Harvard employees (vs. project-specific contract staff).

Other factors are given due consideration, including:

·  The degree of direct engagement of the project PI and of other KSG faculty members;

·  The specific linkages between the new proposal and other ongoing or planned KSG research, teaching and outreach activities;

·  The degree to which the new proposal would impose incremental costs (financial and otherwise) on KSG infrastructure services (IT, facilities, HR, etc.).

The implicit assumption in these reviews is that all efforts have been made to budget “creatively” by including whenever possible in the requested direct costs those items that normally would be paid for by the School’s core budget (e.g., administrative support, rent). Requests for overhead support should include sufficient detail on these specific budget line items, as appropriate.

Overhead support requests should be brief (less than one page), and should address the applicable review criteria noted above. Please identify the amount of support being requested and explain how that figure was calculated. Requests should also include relevant details from the research proposal, including sponsor name, total estimated budget, and period of performance. The Overhead Support Fund is managed in the research administration office. Please direct all questions and all subsidy requests via email to the attention of Matthew Alper, Associate Dean for Research.

December 2001