The purpose of this policy is to clarify:
1) situations in which a project is proposed and/or awarded with one F&A rate and the University subsequently negotiates a new F&A rate agreement with the Federal government, and 2) how to address which F&A rate is applied when an award is transferred to UW-Madison from another institution.
All faculty and staff who engage in or propose to engage in sponsored projects and all federal and non-federal sponsored projects.
Periodically, the University negotiates a new F&A rate agreement with the Federal government. While it is important to recover our F&A costs under the new rate agreement, the University does not want to apply the rates in a way that would reduce the amount of direct costs currently available to research projects. We understand that research was planned and developed with a specific budgeted amount necessary to accomplish the work.
The University will apply new, Federally negotiated F&A rates according to long-standing principles and practices. Due to the number of active programs and pending applications that include previously negotiated F&A rates, a transition from the old to the new rates will be administered as follows:
Additionally, when an award is transferred from another institution to UW-Madison, if the F&A rate on the original (other institution’s) award is lower than the current UW-Madison F&A rate, the department and division may request an F&A waiver in order to use the original, lower rate. F&A waiver requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the Assoc. Vice Chancellor for Research Administration. If the UW-Madison F&A rate is lower than the previous institution’s F&A rate, then the UW-Madison rate would be used.
Your consistent use of the appropriate F&A rate is appreciated. See the RSP web site at https://rsp.wisc.edu/rates/ for more information concerning F&A policy and rate information by sponsoring agency.
Questions concerning F&A rates on proposals and awards should be directed to your College/School Research Administrator or your Pre-Award Grant and Contract Specialist in Research and Sponsored Programs. Questions concerning active projects should be directed to your College/School Research Administrator or the appropriate Sponsored Projects Accountant in RSP.