Research and Grants Overhead Policy and Regulations on Indirect Cost Recovery
at Rhode Island College
By systematically distributing a significant portion of the revenue generated through the charge of indirect costs to grants and contracts, the vice president for academic affairs (VPAA) and various academic deans will be provided with a source of funds to address otherwise unmet faculty research and/or professional development needs. The assignment of a portion of these funds to the VPAA ensures that revenue will be available to support research and development activities in units which might otherwise be underfunded because of the vagaries of grant seeking and extramural funding.
Thirty percent of the indirect costs collected for all research and professional development grants shall be used to promote increased research, scholarship, and professional development among RIC faculty. This pool of funds shall be known as the grants and contracts indirect revenue distribution fund.
The following distribution decision-rules shall be applied to the grants and contracts indirect revenue distribution fund:
1. Five percent of the fund shall be retained for discretionary use by the director of research and grants administration.
2. Thirty-three percent of the fund shall be allocated to individual project directors of funded research and professional development grants returning indirect cost to RIC. Such allocations are to be used to further the research and professional development of these individuals, however, project directors terminating employment with RIC will no longer be eligible to receive such reallocations of indirect cost. (The eligibility of these individuals will expire on the date of their employment termination. Project directors whose grants have been terminated for cause either by the College or a sponsor also become ineligible to receive indirect cost reimbursements from the terminated grants. All such forfeited funds will revert to either the appropriate academic dean or VPAA as described below.)
3. Of the remaining revenue in the fund, three-quarters shall be allocated to and administered by the academic dean of the unit generating the proposal/contract which yielded said funds; and, one-quarter shall be allocated to the VPAA. In those instances where funds may be generated in an academic unit which is not under the direct authority of a dean, responsibility for the administration of said funds will be vested in the VPAA.
