Facilities and Administrative Costs Return Policy

A fixed percentage of collected facilities and administrative (F&A) costs is returned to academic units, research centers or other non-academic units, and principal investigators. There are two components of this F&A return:

(1) Six percent (6%) return to designated research centers, or four percent (4%) to other non-academic unit, or four percent (4%) to the principal investigator, and
(2) Ten percent (10%) return to the deans or center directors based on number of principal investigator(s)/co-investigator(s), and on their academic and non-academic unit appointments on the KU-Lawrence campus and all reporting units.

Allocation Details

1. Four percent (4%) or six percent (6%) is distributed to research centers, other nonacademic units, or to the principal investigator.
   1. A principal investigator may assign  projects to research centers or other non-academic units. Six percent (6%) of the generated F&A is returned to the assigned center if a project is assigned to one of the following units:
      • Achievement and Assessment Institute (AAI)
      • Biodiversity Institute 
      • Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis (CEBC)
      • Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS)
      • Hall Center for the Humanities
      • Higuchi Biosciences Center (HBC)
      • Institute for Information Sciences (I2S)
      • Institute for Bioengineering Research (IBER)
      • Institute for Policy and Social Research (IPSR)
      • Kansas Biological Survey and Center for Ecological Research
      • Kansas Geological Survey (KGS)
      • Life Span Institute (LSI)
   2. If the project is assigned to any research center or non-academic unit not listed in (a), then that unit will receive four percent (4%) of the generated F&A.
   3. If the project is not assigned to a research center or other non-academic unit, then the principal investigator will receive four percent (4%) of the generated F&A. F&A is not returned to co-principal investigators. Only KU-Lawrence faculty and staff with principal investigator status may receive F&A return (see policy on principal investigator status).
   4. A project may be assigned to more than one research center or other non-academic unit. Center assignments are specified by the principal investigator at the time of proposal preparation. This assignment may be changed after award by informing the Office of Research of this change at awardmanagement@ku.edu.
2. Ten percent (10%) of the facilities and administrative (F&A) costs generated by externally sponsored projects will be returned to the principal investigator’s and co-investigators’ college, school, or research center/unit based ona default percent related to number of investigationrs (see table) or determined by PI (must be in whole percentages).

   Default Percent Allocation for 10% Return
   Role	PI F&A Allocation to home school/college/ research center or unit	Number of co-investigators	Co-I F&A Allocation to home school/college/research center or unit (each)
   PI	10%	No Co-PI/Co-I	0%
   PI	6%	1 Co-PI/Co-I	4%
   PI	4%	2 Co-PIs/Co-Is	3%
   PI	4%	3 Co-PIs/Co-Is	2%
   PI	6%	4 Co-PIs/Co-Is	1%
   PI	5%	5 Co-PIs/Co-Is	1%
   PI	4%	6 Co-PIs/Co-Is	1%
   PI	3%	7 Co-PIs/Co-Is	1%
   PI	2%	8 Co-PIs/Co-Is	1%
   PI	1%	9 Co-PIs/Co-Is	1%
   PI	Determined by PI	10+ Co-PIs/Co-Is	Determined by PI

   The portion allocated to each investigator will be returned to the corresponding dean or center director based on the investigator’s appointment. If an investigator has appointments in more than one school, college, research center, or other non-academic unit, then the allocation between deans and directors will be made proportionately to those units in whole percentages. The allocation percentages among investigators on the project can be changed by the PI by informing the Office of Research at awardmanagement@ku.edu. Any changes in actual appointment percentages among academic or research units need to be considered and approved by the academic and/or research units involved, the College, Schools and/or the Office of Research, based on the nature of the appointments, and the Provost Office.