The Effects of Federal Indirect Cost Recovery on Academic Institutions

美国纳税人每年花在生物医学研究上的大约300亿美元中，约有三分之一用于向大学和其他资助接受者支付间接成本。这些间接成本旨在帮助支持基础设施、实用程序和管理。机构间接成本回收率是通过受资助者和资助机构之间众所周知的复杂谈判确定的，几十年来一直是科学政策中重大争议的来源。一种观点认为，这些利率太高了。这种观点在上世纪90年代所谓的斯坦福丑闻期间受到关注，当时一些私立大学被指控通过不当的会计程序提高了间接成本回收率。长期以来，科学家们抱怨说，更高的间接成本率意味着对实际研究的资助减少，而间接成本政策会刺激大学在研究能力上过度投资，包括新建大楼和雇用软钱教师。另一方面，大学长期以来一直认为间接成本率不足以补偿大学，实际上大学在许多拨款上都是赔钱的。正确设定费率和激励机制非常重要，并将有助于确保最有效地利用有限的生物医学研究资金来推进知识和健康。几乎没有经验证据来指导正在进行的辩论。该项目提供了间接成本率的新数据，并估计了对学术研究的影响。一个关于间接成本率的新开源数据集将提供一个统计概述，说明不同机构和不同时间的成本率是如何和为什么不同的，以及这些差异如何影响可用于研究的总资金。该数据集附有代码，允许研究人员、记者、政府官员和其他利益相关者独立探索数据并链接到其他来源。利用这些数据，该项目研究了间接成本率的变化如何影响机构寻求资助、增加师资队伍、建设和进行其他投资的激励。一个挑战是将间接成本率的影响与其他潜在的混淆因素分开。为了改善这一点，研究利用了间接成本政策中的各种自然实验，为估计提供了更大的信心。最后，该项目还考虑了间接成本回收政策的历史变化对生物医学研究企业扩张和生产力的影响，以及它是否加剧了研究执行者之间的差距。

About one-third of the of the approximately $30 billion spent annually by U.S. taxpayers on biomedical research is used for indirect cost payments to universities and other grant recipients. These overhead costs are meant to help support infrastructure, utilities, and administration. Institutional indirect cost recovery rates are determined through notoriously complex negotiations between grantees and funding agencies and have been the source of significant controversy in science policy for decades. One view is that these rates are too high. This view came into focus during the so-called Stanford scandal in the 1990s, when some private universities were accused of enlarging their indirect cost recovery rates through improper accounting procedures. There are long-standing complaints by scientists that higher indirect cost rates mean less funding for actual research, and that indirect cost policy creates incentives for universities to over-invest in research capacity, including new building, and hiring of soft money faculty. On the other hand, universities have long argued that indirect costs rates under-compensate universities, and that in effect universities lose money on many grants. Getting the rate and incentive right is important and will help ensure that limited biomedical research funds are used most efficiently and effectively towards advancing knowledge and health. There is little empirical evidence to guide the ongoing debate. This project provides new data on indirect cost rates and estimates the impact on academic research. A new open-source dataset on indirect cost rates will be provided along with a statistical overview of how and why rates differ by institution and over time, and how variation influences total funding available for research. The dataset is accompanied by code to allow researchers, journalists, government officials, and other stakeholders to explore the data independently and link to other sources. using these data, the project examines how changes in indirect cost rates affect institutional incentives to seek grants, to grow faculty, build, and make other investments. One challenge is to separate the effects of indirect cost rates from other potentially confounding factors. To ameliorate this, the research exploits various natural experiments in indirect cost policy, providing more confidence in the estimates. Finally, the project also considers the effects of historical changes in indirect cost recovery policy influenced the expansion and productivity of the biomedical research enterprise, and whether it reinforced disparities across research performers.