From the Daily Californian: A White House science report released July 21 called for cutting back overhead costs universities collect on federal research grants, singling out rates that reach more than 40% of direct research costs at major institutions. UC Berkeley’s current rate is 60.5%, according to campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy report, titled “Science: A New Golden Age,” calls for accelerated grant review cycles, less duplicate paperwork and lower overhead payments that it claims support “administrative bloat.”
Indirect costs, formally called facilities and administrative costs, represent money the government pays on top of research funding to cover shared expenses of running a lab such as heat, electricity, building maintenance and shared equipment. Universities individually negotiate a rate with the federal agencies that provide the majority of their federal research funding, but often do not collect the full amount. Mogulof said UC Berkeley collected roughly $105 million in overhead costs on federal awards in fiscal year 2025, specifying the 60.5% figure overstates what the university actually collects, because sponsors can restrict what the money can be spent on and lower rates apply to many awards. Mogulof said UC Berkeley’s more realistic rate is about 32.8%...
