On Friday, February 7 the National Institutes of Health released an update to its guide notice 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement. The new guidance effectively lowers the Facilities and Administration (F&A) costs to 15 percent. It states that the guidance reflects “NIH’s updated policy deviating from the negotiated indirect cost rate for new grant awards and existing grant awards, effective as of the date of this Guidance’s issuance. Pursuant to this Supplemental Guidance, there will be a standard F&A rate of 15% across all NIH grants for indirect costs in lieu of a separately negotiated rate for indirect costs in every grant.”
As you are aware, F&A costs support the specialized infrastructure for our research across campus, including facilities and instrumentation, IT services, compliance personnel and utilities. These costs are determined through a rigorous federal process.
As you are aware, F&A costs support the specialized infrastructure for our research across campus, including facilities and instrumentation, IT services, compliance personnel and utilities. These costs are determined through a rigorous federal process.
It is important to note that the new guidance does not impact the direct funds on NIH awards.
This is a major shift in federal funding and has serious implications for the biomedical research community. We are in close communication with our UC partners to understand the impacts and next steps related to this update.
As we seek clarity on this change, we ask principal investigators to refrain from taking any immediate action. For those with upcoming NIH submissions, the Office of Research will be updating this site with guidance for preparation of new budgets. For specific questions, please contact research@ucsc.edu.