University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

Indirect Costs (IDC)/Facilities and Administrative Costs (F&A)

Distribution Mechanism for Multi-Unit Grants

Departments, centers and institutes involved in a research proposal submission must come to an agreement regarding the distribution of indirect costs (IDC)/facilities and administrative costs (F&A) at the time of proposal submission to the Office of Research Administration, or a default IDC/F&A distribution formula will apply when the grant is awarded.

The guiding principlesare that IDC/F&A follows direct costs (DC)to an extent and the IDC/F&A is divided among the units that support the faculty and the units that support the space. However, distributions will not be made for less than $5,000 of IDC annually and the primary home department of the PI will receive all undistributed IDC. If the responsibility for the PI’s salary resides fully or partially outside of the home department, the PI’s home department share should be distributed to the units bearing financial responsibility for the PI. Guidelinesto determine IDC distribution are:

  1. The department of each faculty member playing a significant role in the research (effort ≥ 5%) should be considered for an IDC/F&A distribution.
  2. If multiple investigators from the same department total ≥ 5% effort, the department should be considered for an IDC/F&A distribution.
  3. The PI’s department (and/or units bearing financial responsibility for the PI) should be considered for a distribution.
  4. The unit where the research will be conducted should be considered for an IDC/F&A distribution. If rent is paid for this space, a consideration should be made for that portion of the facility costs.
  5. A unit, other than a shared service, with significant administrative responsibilities, e.g., DRI or Miami Project, should be considered for an IDC/F&A distribution. As a default, any distribution in “Other” decreases the “Unit(s) Housing Research” distribution.
  6. Direct distributions will not be made to Core Facilities and Shared Resources as these are supported by internal MSOM resources pooled from the AMC (tax).
  7. All undistributed IDC/F&A reverts to the PI’s primary home department (and/or units with financial responsibility for the PI).
  8. The IDC distributed will be net of the 5.5% AMC assessed to direct costs.

If nopre-submission agreement is documented in writing, the following IDC distribution will be made upon award:

# Significant Departments: Faculty Total Effort ≥ 5% / Percent Distributed to Each Significant Department / Percent Distributed to Unit(s) Housing Research / Undistributed
IDC to PI’s Department / Total Distribution
1 / 20.0% / 50% / 30% / 100%
2 / 20.0% / 50% / 10% / 100%
3 / 16.7% / 50% / 0 / 100%
4 / 12.5% / 50% / 0 / 100%
5 / 10.0% / 50% / 0 / 100%
6 / 8.3% / 50% / 0 / 100%

Revised 23 January 2014