Costs on a sponsored award to the University can be divided into two categories-Direct Costs and Indirect Costs/Facilities and Administration (F&A). The Direct Costs can be divided into Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC) and Other Direct Costs. The MTDC consists of expenses that generate F&A such as salaries and supplies. The Other Directs Costs do not generate F&A and are expenses such as Equipment greater than $5,000 and Tuition.
The Controllers Office asks the Division to evaluate, project and budget its anticipated Research Base for each Fiscal Year. The Research Base consists of the MTDC by Function. An example of a Function is Organized Research, both on and off campus. The Research Base is used for comparative purposes. F&A can not be used because of the yearly rate fluctuations. The MTDC can be multiplied by the effective rate to obtain an estimate of the F&A recovery. The effective rate is the percent of the current negotiated F&A rate received by the department.
The University Negotiated Rate is calculated by dividing the Indirect Costs by the MTDC and is published after Controller's Office completes it negotiation with the Government. This occurs every three to five years.
The Effective Rate is calculated by dividing the Departments Actual Recovery Rate by the University Negotiated Rate.
The KSAS Business Office asks the Departments with significant sponsored research awards to help with projecting and budgeting the Research Base by identifying anticipated, proposed and new sponsored projects, unfunded and terminated awards and changes in spending patterns.
The categories for the Research Base Projection are:
Function 1- Organized Research - On Campus
Function 1- Organized Research - Off Campus
Function 8- Other Sponsored Research - On Campus
Function 8- Other Sponsored Research - Off Campus
The Expenditure by Function (EBF) report is used to get the current MTDC
for the department. A sample of a standard Research Base worksheet with
explanations of how to fill it out is included under "Tools".
The Business Office will inform the departments of relevant dates for
meetings and deadlines. They will also send the departments yearly updated
worksheets for data entry.
- Sample
Research Base Worksheet (MS Excel format)
