Rates

Every sponsored project has both direct and indirect costs. Indirect costs, or facilities and administrative (F&A) costs, are costs needed for common or joint objectives that cannot be easily assigned to a specific project but are distributed across many projects. They are necessary to the performance of the university's sponsored programs, so the university is reimbursed for these costs in a more efficient manner that allocates a fraction of those costs to each grant. 

Examples of indirect costs include:

• Costs to build, operate, and maintain state of the art research laboratories (including shared equipment, utilities, and maintenance staff)
• High-speed data processing and data storage
• Management of administrative and regulatory compliance requirements on research grants and contracts (including sponsored programs administration, export controls review, patient and animal safety, and legal and accounting functions)
• Maintenance of libraries and resources

The F&A portion of sponsored programs is neither profit nor a source of revenue for the university. These costs reimburse the university for actual expenses incurred maintaining the university’s research infrastructure. These rates are established through a negotiation with the federal government that audits the university’s actual expenses to manage the research infrastructure. This negotiation occurs every two to four years.  

The F&A portion of a sponsored project’s total budget is calculated by multiplying the F&A rate by a subset of direct costs (The F&A cost rate is only applied to certain direct costs, excluding budget items like tuition and equipment). Thus, the portion of a sponsored project that contributes to the university’s F&A costs varies depending on how the principal investigator designs the budget to best meet program goals; F&A costs typically account for around a quarter of a project’s budget.

2021-24 Facility and Administrative Rates

* Off Campus - Adjacent: Activities performed within the commuting area of Blacksburg, VA

** Off Campus - Remote: Activities performed outside the commuting area of Blacksburg, VA

Costs specifically tied to a single sponsored research project, such as the principal investigator's percentage of effort, materials and supplies needed specifically for the project but not for the general operation of the department or institute, or the tuition and stipend expenses of graduate students dedicating effort to accomplish certain objectives of the sponsored project.

Because budgets estimate costs associated with performing a particular program of research, salary increases for principal investigators and other staff that may occur during the budgetary timeframe must be factored into total costs, as well as the cost of any tuition rate increases. In those cases where sponsor documentation states that the sponsor does not allow or fund salary escalations, the principal investigator is not required to include the salary escalations in their budget. 

Escalation rates are established by the Controller’s Office and are applied to base salaries and tuition rates on specific dates during the year.

Salary and Tuition Escalation Rates

Tuition costs must be applied to all projects that include a graduate stipend, unless prohibited by sponsor policy. The tuition costs are budgeted in proportion to the graduate student’s effort on the project. Summer tuition is included only if the principal investigator requests it. Normally, a graduate student does not take more than three hours credit in the summer, so the lowest rate is applied.

In cases where the sponsor disallows tuition costs, the principal investigator must provide the Office of Sponsored Programs with a departmental fund number from which tuition for the student can be drawn.

Graduate Student Tuition and Academic Fees

Tuition budgeted by the Office of Sponsored Programs includes in-state tuition costs+technology fee+library fee. Engineering, architecture, and MBA students are budgeted including additional supplemental fees.

• View complete listing of tuition fees for in-state and out-of-state students

Northern Virginia Campus Graduate Student Tuition and Academic Fees