Rates

Benefits

Year 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12 12-13
Contract* 45.50% 45.50% 46.00% 46.50% 47.00%
Payroll* 8.00% 8.30% 8.30% 8.30% 8.30%

*Contract: Exception (salary and salaried payroll including federal employees
*Payroll:  (hourly wage)

Official USU Benefits Memo

Inflation Rate - 3%

Grad Student/Research Assistant Insurance

USU has instituted a policy to provide insurance to graduate students who qualify as Research Assistants (RA) and Teaching Assistants (TA).  The University will share the premium costs as follows:   University 80% and student 20%.  The initial premium is $1165 so the 80/20 split would be $932 (university)/ $233 (Student).  The university portion qualifies for reimbursement from grants/contracts on which the Research Assistant works so it is recommended that the PI build the costs into their proposal budget.  We offer the following basic information related to sponsored projects:

  • Only the university share (Currently $932/RA) should be included in the proposal budget
  • Reasonable efforts should be made to prorate the costs if the RA is working on multiple projects and/or only working a portion of their time on a particular project
  • The insurance period will run for an entire year starting from the first day of fall semester.
  • The Graduate School recommends using an 8% inflationary factor to project future costs.  
  • The student is only required to meet the minimum requirements to qualify for the insurance for two semesters each school year.  For instance, if the student attends and qualifies for fall and sprin semester he/she does not need to attend summer to qualify for the full year of coverage.
  • The following letter can be provided to sponsors who require documentation of the policy (letter)

For details on the overall program and/or questions regarding eligibility please contact The Graduate School at 7-1189.  You can access the Graduate School website at http://www.usu.edu/graduateschool/.

Facilities & Administration (Indirect Cost) Rates

The agreement for Facilities and Administration (F&A) for Fiscal Year 2003 has been negotiated with the Office of Naval Research, Cognizant Agency for the Federal Government. The following table lists both On-Campus and Off-Campus rates. Note: Some funding agencies by statute limit the recovery of F&A costs to less than the negotiated rate. If the agency to which you are submitting is one of these, please contact one of the Contract Administrators to determine rates allowable for your proposal.

Utah State University F & A Rates*

These rates are effective July 01, 2007, for all new & revised sponsored program activities.

Type From To On Campus Off Campus Base Applicable To Location
Provisional 07/01/08 06/30/09 39.20% 20.80% (a) Organized Research USU*
Provisional 07/01/08 06/30/09 46.81% 26.00% (a) Instruction USU*
Provisional 07/01/08 06/30/09 11.90% 22.60% (a) Other Sponsored Activities USU*

*Utah State University

Federally Negotiated Rate Agreement

Distribution Base

(a)  Modified Total Direct Cost (MTDC), as defined in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-21, consisting of all salaries and wages, fringe benefits, materials and supplies, services, travel, and subgrants and subcontracts up to the first $25,000 of each subgrant or subcontract, regardless of the period covered by the subgrant or subcontract. Equipment, capital expenditures, charges for patient care and tuition remission, rental costs (for facilities), scholarships, and fellowships as well as the portion of each subgrant and subcontract in excess of $25,000 shall be excluded from modified total direct costs.

(b) Total Direct Cost (TDC) consists of all direct costs attributed to the project.  All Industry agreements should be charged the full F&A rate and it should be computed based on Total Direct Costs.

F&A Waivers

It is University Policy to collect full F&A whenever possible.  The full policy, including exceptions, can be located at (F&A Policy) 

Application of on vs. off campus rates

On-campus F&A rate.  The on-campus F&A rate will be applied to any sponsored project that requires utilization of space owned or leased by the university (and not by the sponsored project), university equipment or library services.  The on-campus F&A rate therefore applies to most sponsored projects.

Off-campus F&A rate.  The project will have to be reviewed in its totality.  However, the following criteria will be evaluated to determine if the off-campus F&A rate will apply.  The criteria to determine if the off campus rate applies can be found at (Policy)

Definitions

The definitions of Organized Research, Instruction and Other Sponsored Activities as taken from OMB Circular A-21 are as follows:

Organized Research  means all research and development activities of an institution that are separately budgeted and accounted for. Sponsored Research means all research and development activities that are sponsored by Federal and non-Federal agencies and organizations. This also includes activities involving the training of individuals in research techniques, commonly called research training, where such activities utilized the same facilities as other research and development activities and where such activities are not included in the instruction function.

Instruction  means the teaching and training activities of an institution. Except for research training, this term includes all teaching and training activities, whether they are offered for credits toward a degree or certificate or on a non-credit basis, and whether they are offered through regular academic departments or separate divisions, such as a summer school division or an extension division.

Other Sponsored Activities  means programs and projects financed by Federal and non-Federal agencies and organizations, which involve the performance of work other than instruction and organized research. Examples of such programs and projects are health service projects, and community service programs