F&A (Facilities & Administrative) CostsF&A
The real costs of research that can't be tied to one project: buildings, utilities, administration: recovered at a negotiated rate.
Facilities & Administrative costs, also called indirect costs or overhead, cover the shared infrastructure that makes research possible but can't be charged to a single grant: facility operations and maintenance, libraries, depreciation, sponsored-programs administration, and departmental support.
Institutions recover F&A by applying a negotiated rate, set in a Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA) with their cognizant federal agency: to a defined cost base, usually Modified Total Direct Cost (MTDC). Rates differ for on-campus vs. off-campus work and by activity type.
F&A is often half or more of an award's total value, so tracking recovery correctly is central to a research institution's finances.
Track this in GrantsManager
GrantsManager gives PIs and administrators one real-time view of proposals, awards, budgets, and compliance, so terms like this stop living in spreadsheets.