Indirect Costs, or Facilities & Administrative Costs (F&A) as they are currently called, are costs which are necessary to support research and other sponsored projects, but which cannot be readily assigned to individual projects. F&A costs include the costs of facilities operations (utilities, maintenance, security, etc.), the library, departmental administration and general university administration (grant administration, accounting, personnel, payroll, purchasing, etc.). Western Washington University, as do all other universities, covers the portion of these costs attributed to sponsored projects by applying a percentage rate to the direct cost expenditures of the grant/contract supported project.

WWU has negotiated two distinct F&A rates with the Federal Government for projects that are conducted on-campus and off-campus. The current on-campus rate is 53.1% of salaries and wages (S&W). The off-campus rate is 18% of S&W. The reason for the difference is that off-campus projects pay directly for their facilities, utilities, maintenance and security.

The application of the F&A to grants and contracts actually represents a recovery of costs already incurred by the University in providing services to the projects. The University has chosen to re-invest the bulk of these reimbursements to support faculty scholarship. At the end of each fiscal year, 25% of the F&A costs recovered are allocated to Fiscal Services and Budget office and 10% to the Office of Research and Sponsored Programsto cover administrative costs provided to sponsored projects. The bulk of the funds, 65%, are allocated to faculty support as follows:

• Travel to conferences: (15%): Each college receives an allocation to support faculty travel to conferences to present results of research/scholarship.
  
  
• Research Equipment Match (10%): An allocation is reserved each year to cover matching requirements on research equipment, as many agencies require the grantee institution to cover a share of the cost.
  
  
• Redistribution to Colleges (20%): Of the total F&A collected 20% is redistributed to the Colleges in proportion to the amounts generated by their departments.
  
  
• Small Grants (10%): An annual allocation is made to fund small grants for faculty research and creative activities. This category includes mini-grants, grants-in-aid and pilot project grants.
  
  
• Project Development Awards (10%): Funds are allocated to cover grants made under the Project Development Award program.
  
  
• Scientific Technical Services: An annual allocation from the 10% allocated to RSP is made to Scientific Technical Services, which provides services to all research projects needing its specialized instrumentation.