Dean's Faculty Update
Process for Sharing of Indirect Costs with individual Faculty and IFAS Centers
Date: December 7th, 2007
From: Mark R. McLellan, Dean
In order to bring IFAS practices into line with general university policies we are posting new processes for distribution of IDC.
[1] IDC – 10% to the Principal Investigator
Effective on the next distribution cycle of IDC to IFAS, the IFAS budget office will be distributing the 10% PI’s share directly to new accounts currently being set up for each PI by IFAS Sponsored Programs. Previously we have distributed this to the units and this was then passed on to the PI. The new process brings into alignment with the rest of the university and the President’s commitment to ensure the distribution of the PI’s 10% be completed directly to a PI’s IDC account. Just a reminder this 10% is of the amount provided to IFAS (after assessments) for distribution.
[2] IDC – 7.5% to Centers
To provide the appropriate distribution for projects involving IFAS Centers, we have examined how the process might be made more efficient. To-date we have been somewhat inconsistent and now seek to implement the IDC sharing with centers in a way that fully supports the multidisciplinary research envisioned for center.
To be eligible to receive 7.5% IDC from IFAS as indirect cost funding provided equally by the Senior Vice President of IFAS and the Dean for Research, the center must be a University of Florida approved and IFAS based Center.
Additionally the following two criterion must be met:
- The PI must specify in the submission of the grant to the sponsor that it is a grant from the center. The PI can indicate that he/she is of a certain department however the verbiage of the proposal must CLEARLY indicate it is submitted on behalf of the center.
- The Center Director must sign a DSR-1A Additional Signature page agreeing that the grant is a grant of the center and verifying the grant is indeed clearly submitted on behalf of the center.
As of the time of this memo, these were the so designated Centers:
- Center for Agricultural Law
- Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants
- Center for Food Distribution and Retailing
- Center for Nutritional Sciences (IFAS)
- Center for Organic Agriculture
- Center for Remote Sensing (IFAS)
- Center for Subtropical Agroforestry
- Center for Tropical Agriculture (IFAS)
- Florida Center for Renewable Chemicals and Fuels (FCRC)
- International Agricultural Trade and Policy Center
- UF Juice and Beverage Center
In addition, Senior VP Dr. Cheek has authorized IFAS International Programs (Directed by Dr. David Sammons) to receive this same benefit where appropriate when following the same procedures as noted above. For these purposes IFAS Intl. Programs will be considered a research center.
As other Centers within IFAS are approved through the existing UF process, they will automatically become eligible for this IDC distribution so long as they follow the above procedures.
To designate the involvement of a Center or International Programs, faculty must obtain the Director's signature on the DSR-1 form entitled "Additional Signatures." This form must be submitted at the time the proposal is reviewed and approved through UF prior to submission to the sponsor. Should there be an unusual circumstance that was unable to provide this designation at the time of proposal submission, you will be afforded up to 30 calendar days to submit this documentation to IFAS Sponsored Programs. Failure to submit this information through one of these means will disqualify that subsequent award from center IDC sharing.
At the time of award set up (e.g. NOA), IFAS Sponsored Programs will notify the IFAS Budget Office of the specific project number (designated in PeopleSoft) that will accumulate the indirect costs. The Budget Office will then track this information and split the indirect costs (distributed to IFAS) with the Center.
Finally – as a reminder the center IDC (7.5%) does not in anyway affect IDC distribution to the PI’s department. Center IDC will come from the SVP Dr. Jimmy Cheek and the Dean for Research except where a center is clearly a teaching or extension based center.
This new process will become effective on January 1, 2008.
Mark R. McLellan
Dean for Research, IFAS
Director, Florida Agricultural Experiment Station
