Guidelines for Sharing of IDCs across Colleges

Sharing of F&A (Facilities and Administration) funds between colleges

MUSC F & A Sharing Agreement Form

A.  Basic principles:

  1. The MUSC Provost Office encourages the sharing of F&A funds across colleges for grants of at least $100K direct costs per year.
  2. An appropriate approach to sharing F&A funds is to have the distribution proportional to the distribution of direct costs.
  3. The decision to share F&A funds is voluntary.  An investigator/College may decline to share F&A funds and investigator/Colleges are not obliged to participate in projects if they do not agree with the F&A sharing plan.

B.  Implementation of an agreement

  1. It is recommended that an agreement to share F&A is approved and signed by the respective college authorities (i.e. the Deans or their designees)
  2. Ideally, the agreement is established prior to the grant submission.
  3. The distribution of F&A can occur in two formats:
    1. Before grant expenditures: ORSP will establish separate UDAK accounts to reflect the agreed-upon distribution of direct costs and F&A funds.  In this format, the sharing of F&A funds is automatic and does not require a transfer of funds.
    2. After grant expenditures: there will be a transfer of F&A from college funds to college reflective of expended direct costs.
    3. The MUSC F&A Sharing Agreement form is designed to facilitate these interactions.

C.  Dealing with conflicts

  1. The PI of the grant maintains the ability to make changes in the distribution of direct costs of the grant at any point during project performance and this may impact prior agreements for sharing of F&A funds.
  2. If the agreement was based upon established separate UDAK accounts, changes will be made by ORSP.  This will reflect the change in direct costs and F&A distribution.  Note that expended monies cannot be changed.
  3. If the agreement was based on transfers of F&A funds after grant expenditures, the F&A distribution will be based upon expended direct costs. That is, one college may not renege on payment of F&A that is owed.
  4. All conflicts are encouraged to be handled at the departmental or college level, but the Associate Provost for Research will serve as the final arbiter for conflicts that cannot be resolved at the local level.