Indirect Cost Recovery (ICR)

Brandeis provides arts and sciences departments and faculty with discretionary research funds in order to support and maintain the scholarly enterprise in a flexible and decentralized way.

To this end, all arts and sciences departments whose faculty bring in external research funding, and all A&S faculty who hold external research grants with an indirect cost recovery rate of at least 25% will be given discretionary research funds, the balances from which can be spent on any expense that supports the scholarly or research enterprise. In order to incentivize seeking of grants with indirect cost recovery, contributions to these funds will be based on the expended indirect cost recovery from faculty research grants, as follows:

1. Two percent of the total F&A from each faculty member's grants deposited in the faculty member's discretionary fund.

2. Three percent of the sum of the F&A from the faculty grants in each department deposited in the departmental discretionary fund.

3. Balances will be credited each year based on actual indirect cost recovery over the previous fiscal year, taking into account the following guidelines:

  • If a faculty member leaves the university, any balance in the discretionary account will revert to the university.
  • Use of the accounts must follow university policies and procedures. These funds cannot be used for personal use.
  • These funds cannot operate in deficit balance.
  • Training grants are excluded from this process.

Please note: All ICR entries will be based off of F&A totals from the prior fiscal year.