§ 1-15.301-1 Objectives.

This subpart provides principles for determining the costs applicable to research and development work performed by educational institutions under grants from and contracts with the Federal Government. These principles are confined to the subject of cost determination and make no attempt to identify the circumstances or dictate the extent of agency and institutional participation in the financing of a particular research or development project. The principles are designed to provide recognition of the full allocated costs of such research work under generally accepted accounting principles. No provision for profit or other increment above cost is intended.

§ 1-15.301-2 Policy guides.

The successful application of these principles requires development of mutual understanding between representatives of universities and of the Government as to their scope, implementation, and interpretation. It is recognized that:

(a) The arrangements for agency and institutional participation in the financing of a research and development project are properly subject to negotiation between the agency and the institution concerned in accordance with such Government-wide criteria as may be applicable.

(b) Each college and university, possessing its own unique combination of staff, facilities and experience, should be encouraged to conduct research in a manner consonant with its own academic philosophies and institutional objectives.

(c) Each institution in the fulfillment of its obligations should be expected to employ sound management practices.

(d) The application of the principles established herein should require no significant changes in the generally

accepted accounting practices of colleges and universities.

(e) Cognizant Federal agencies involved in negotiating indirect cost rates and auditing should insure that institutions are generally applying the cost principles and standards herein provided on a consistent basis. Where wide variations exist in the treatment of a given cost item among institutions, the reasonableness and equitableness of such treatments should be fully considered during the rate negotiations and audit.

[30 FR 9676, Aug. 4, 1965, as amended at 38 FR 4753, Feb. 22, 1973]

§ 1-15.301-3 Application.

All Federal agencies that sponsor research and development work at educational institutions should apply these principles and related policy guides in determining the costs incurred for such work under any type of research and development agreement. These principles should also be used as a guide in the pricing of fixedprice contracts or lump sum agreements.

[38 FR 4754, Feb. 22, 1973]

§ 1-15.302 Definition of terms.

§ 1-15.302-1 Organized research.

"Organized research" means all research activities of an institution that are separately budgeted and accounted for.

§ 1-15.302-2 Departmental research.

"Departmental research" means research activities that are not separately budgeted and accounted for. Such research work, which includes all research activities not encompassed under the term organized research, is regarded for purposes of this Subpart 1-15.3 as a part of the instructional activities of the institution.

§ 1-15.302-3 Research agreement.

"Research agreement" means any valid arrangement to perform Federally-sponsored research, including grants, cost-reimbursement type contracts, cost-reimbursement type subcontracts, and fixed-price contracts and subcontracts for research.

§ 1-15.302-4 Other institutional activities. "Other institutional activities" means all organized activities of an institution not directly related to the instruction and research functions, such as residence halls, dining halls, student hospitals, student unions, intercollegiate athletes, bookstores, faculty housing, student apartments, guest houses, chapels, theaters, public museums, and other similar activities or auxiliary enterprises. Also included under this definition is any category of cost treated as "unallowable," provided such category of cost identifies a function or activity to which a portion of the institution's indirect costs (as defined in § 1-15.305-1) are properly allocable.

[38 FR 4754, Feb. 22, 1973]

§ 1-15.302-5 Apportionment.

"Apportionment" means the process by which the indirect costs of the institution are assigned as between (a) instruction and research, and (b) other institutional activities.

§ 1-15.302-6 Allocation.

"Allocation" means the process by which the indirect costs apportioned to instruction and research are assigned as between (a) organized research, and (b) instruction, including departmental research.

§ 1-15.302-7 Stipulated salary support.

"Stipulated salary support" is a fixed or a stated dollar amount of the salary of professorial or other professional staff involved in the conduct of research which a Government agency agrees in advance to reimburse an educational institution as a part of sponsored research costs (see § 1-15.3097(c) and (e)).

[38 FR 4754, Feb. 22, 1973]

§ 1-15.303 Basic considerations.

§ 1-15.303-1 Composition of total costs.

The cost of a research agreement is comprised of the allowable direct costs incident to its performance, plus the allocable portion of the allowable indirect costs of the institution, less applicable credits as described in § 1-15.3035.

[38 FR 4754, Feb. 22, 1973]

§ 1-15.303-2 Factors affecting allowability of costs.

The tests of allowability of costs under these principles are: (a) They must be reasonable; (b) they must be allocable to research agreements under the standards and methods provided herein; (c) they must be accorded consistent treatment through application of those generally accepted accounting principles appropriate to the circumstances; and (d) they must conform to any limitations or exclusions set forth in these principles or in the research agreements as to types or amounts of cost items.

§ 1-15.303-3 Reasonable costs.

A cost may be considered reasonable if the nature of the goods or services acquired or applied, and the amount involved therefor, reflect the action that a prudent person would have taken under the circumstances prevailing at the time the decision to incur the cost was made. Major considerations involved in the determination of the reasonableness of a cost are: (a) Whether or not the cost is of a type generally recognized as necessary for the operation of the institution or the performance of the research agreement; (b) the restraints or requirements imposed by such factors as arm's length bargaining, Federal and State laws and regulations, and research agreement terms and conditions; (c) whether or not the individuals concerned acted with due prudence in the circumstances, considering their responsibilities to the institution, its employees, its students, the Government, and the public at large; and (d) the extent to which the actions taken with respect to the incurrence of the cost are consistent with established institutional policies and practices applicable to the work of the institution generally, including Government research.

§ 1-15.303-4 Allocable costs.

(a) A cost is allocable to a particular cost objective (i.e., a specific function, project, research agreement, department, or the like) if the goods or services involved are chargeable or assign

able to such cost objective in accordance with relative benefits received or other equitable relationship. Subject to the foregoing, a cost is allocable to a research agreement if it is incurred solely to advance the work under the research agreement; or it benefits both the research agreement and other work of the institution in proportions that can be approximated through use of reasonable methods; or it is necessary to the overall operation of the institution and, in the light of the standards provided in this Subpart 1-15.3, is deemed to be assignable in part to organized research. Where the purchase of equipment or other capital items are specifically authorized under a research agreement, the amounts thus authorized for such purchases are allocable to the research agreement regardless of the use that may subsequently be made of the equipment or other capital items involved.

(b) Any costs allocable to a particular research agreement under the standards provided in this Subpart 115.3 may not be shifted to other research agreements in order to meet deficiencies caused by overruns or other fund considerations, to avoid restrictions imposed by law or by terms of the research agreement, or for other reasons of convenience.

§ 1-15.303-5 Applicable credits.

(a) The term "applicable credits" refers to those receipt or negative expenditure types of transactions which operate to offset or reduce expense items that are allocable to research agreements as direct or indirect costs. Typical examples of such transactions are: Purchase discounts, rebates, or allowances; recoveries or indemnities on losses; sales of scrap or incidental services; and adjustments of overpayments or erroneous charges.

(b) In some instances, the amounts received from the Federal Government to finance institutional activities or service operations should be treated as applicable credits. Specifically, the concept of netting such credit items against related expenditures should be applied by the institution in determining the rates or amounts to be charged to Government research for services

rendered whenever the facilities or other resources used in providing such services have been financed directly, in whole or in part, by Federal funds. (See §§ 1-15.306-6, 1-15.309-10(b), and 1-15.309-37 for areas of potential application in the matter of direct Federal financing.)

§1-15.303-6 Costs incurred by State and local governments.

Costs incurred or paid by State or local governments in behalf of educational institutions for certain personnel benefit programs, such as pension plans, FICA, and any other costs specifically disbursed in behalf of and in direct benefit to the institutions, are allowable costs of such institutions whether or not these costs are recorded in the accounting records of such institutions, subject to the following:

(a) Such costs meet the requirements of §§ 1-15.303-1 through 115.303-5;

(b) Such costs are properly supported by cost allocation plans in accordance with § 1-15.709; and

(c) Such costs are not otherwise borne directly or indirectly by the Federal Government.

[38 FR 4754, Feb. 22, 1973]

plan costs to the extent that such items are consistently treated by the educational institution as direct rather than indirect costs; the costs of materials consumed or expended in the performance of such work; and other items of expense incurred for the research agreement, including extraordinary utility consumption. The cost of materials supplied from stock or services rendered by specialized facilities or other institutional service operations may be included as direct costs of research agreements provided such items are consistently treated by the institution as direct rather than indirect costs and are charged under a recognized method of costing or pricing designed to recover only actual costs and conforming to generally accepted cost accounting practices consistently followed by the institution.

[38 FR 4754, Feb. 22, 1973]

§ 1-15.305 Indirect costs.

§ 1-15.305-1 General.

Indirect costs are those that have been incurred for common or joint objectives and, therefore, cannot be identified specifically with a particular research project, an instructional activity, or any other institutional activity. At educational institutions such costs normally are classified under the following functional categories: General administration and general expenses; research administration expenses; operation and maintenance expenses; library expenses; and departmental administration expenses.

[38 FR 4754, Feb. 22, 1973]

§ 1-15.305-2 Criteria for distribution.

(a) Base period. A base period for distribution of indirect costs is the period during which such costs are incurred and accumulated for distribution to work performed within that period. The base period normally should coincide with the fiscal year established by the institution, but in any event the base period should be so selected as to avoid inequities in the distribution of costs.

(b) Need for cost groupings. The overall objective of the allocation and apportionment process is to distribute

the indirect costs described in § 115.306 to organized research, instruction, and other activities in reasonable proportions consistent with the nature and extent of the use of the institution's resources by research personnel, academic staff, students, and other personnel or organizations. In order to achieve this objective, it may be neces sary to provide for selective distribution by establishing separate groupings of cost within one or more of the functional categories of indirect costs referred to in § 1-15.305-1. In general, the cost groupings established within a functional category should constitute, in each case, a pool of those items of expense that are considered to be of like character in terms of their relative contribution to (or degree of remoteness from) the particular cost objectives to which distribution is appropriate. Cost groupings should be established considering the general guides provided in paragraph (c) of this § 1-15.305-2. Each such pool or cost grouping should then be distributed individually to the appertaining cost objectives, using the distribution base or method most appropriate in the light of the guides set forth in paragraph (d) of this § 1-15.305-2.

(c) General considerations on cost groupings. The extent to which separate cost groupings and selective distribution would be appropriate at an institution is a matter of judgment to be determined on a case-by-case basis. Typical situations which may warrant the establishment of two or more separate cost groups (based on account classification or analysis) within a functional category include but are not limited to the following:

(1) Where certain items or categories of expense relate solely to one of the three major divisions of the institution (instruction, organized research, or other institutional activities), or to any two but not the third, such expenses should be set aside as a separate cost grouping for direct assignment or selective distribution in accordance with the guides provided in paragraphs (b) and (d) of this § 115.305-2.

(2) Where any types of expense ordinarily treated as general administration and general expenses or depart

mental administration expenses are charged to research agreements as direct costs, the similar type expenses applicable to other activities of the institution must, through separate cost groupings, be excluded from the indirect costs allocable to those research agreements and included in the direct cost of other activities for cost allocajon purposes.

(3) Where it is determined that certain expenses are for the support of a service unit or facility whose output is susceptible of measurement on a workload or other quantitative basis, such Expenses should be set aside as a separate cost grouping for distribution on such basis to organized research and other activities at the institution or within the department.

(4) Where organized activities (ineluding identifiable segments of organized research as well as the activities ated in § 1-15.302-4) provide their own purchasing, personnel administration, building maintenance or similar servkce, the distribution of general administration and general expenses or operation and maintenance expenses to such activities should be accomplished through cost groupings which include only that portion of central indirect costs (such as for overall management) which are properly allocable to such activities.

(5) Where the institution elects to treat as indirect charges the cost of the pension plan and other staff benefits, such costs should be set aside as a separate cost grouping for selective distribution to appertaining cost objectives, including organized research.

(6) The number of separate cost groupings within a functional category should be held within practical limits, after taking into consideration the materiality of the amounts involved and the degree of precision attainable through less selective methods of distribution.

(d) Selection of distribution method. (1) Actual conditions must be taken into account in selecting the method or base to be used in distributing to applicable cost objectives the expenses assembled under each of the individual cost groupings established as indi|cated under paragraph (b) of this § 115.305-2. Where a distribution can be

made by assignment of a cost grouping directly to the area benefited, the distribution should be made in that manner. Where the expenses under a cost grouping are more general in nature, the distribution to appertaining cost objectives should be made through use of a selected base which will produce results which are equitable to both the Government and the institution. In general, any cost element or cost-related factor associated with the institution's work is potentially adaptable for use as a distribution base, provided (i) it can readily be expressed in terms of dollars or other quantitative measure (total direct expenditures, direct salaries, man-hours applied, square feet utilized, hours of usage, number of documents processed, population served, and the like); and (ii) it is common to the appertaining cost objectives during the base period.

(2) Results of cost analysis studies may be used when they result in more accurate and equitable distribution of costs. Such cost analysis studies may take into consideration weighting factors, population, or space occupied if they produce equitable results. Cost analysis studies, however, should (i) be appropriately documented in sufficient detail for subsequent review by the cognizant Federal agency, (ii) distribute the indirect costs to the appertaining cost objectives in accord with the relative benefits derived, (iii) be conducted to fairly reflect the true conditions of the activity and to cover representative transactions for a reasonable period of time, (iv) be performed specifically at the institution at which the results are to be used, and (v) be updated periodically and used consistently. Any assumptions made in the study will be sufficiently supported. The use of cost analysis studies and periodic changes in the method of cost distribution must be fully justified.

(3) The essential consideration in selection of the distribution base in each instance is that it be the one best suited for assigning the pool of costs to appertaining cost objectives in accord with the relative benefits derived; the traceable cause and effect relationship; or logic and reason,