FASEB Provides Feedback on New Model for Calculating Research Costs

By: Yvette Seger
Thursday, August 28, 2025
On August 15, FASEB provided feedback to the Joint Associations Group on Indirect Costs (JAG) on the Financial Accountability in Research (FAIR) model, the group’s proposed new approach for determining facilities and administration costs (also known as F&A or indirect costs). The FAIR model was developed as an alternative to the administration’s proposal to apply a flat 15 percent F&A to research grants issued by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and Department of Defense.

In its comments, FASEB applauded JAG for its efforts to make the current system for determining F&A rates – an opaque, institution-by-institution process long overdue for updates – more transparent and reflective of the actual costs incurred by institutions supporting federally funded research. However, recurring concerns with the model was the risk of increased administrative burden for both individual principal investigators as well as grants administration staff in determining those costs defined as “Essential Research Performance Support” and the scalability of the model for smaller and/or lesser-resourced institutions.