The Effects of Federal Indirect Cost Recovery on Academic Institutions

美国纳税人每年用于生物医学研究的约300亿美元中，约有三分之一用于向大学和其他赠款接受者支付间接费用。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根源。一种观点认为，这些比率过高。这一观点在20世纪90年代所谓的斯坦福大学丑闻期间成为焦点，当时一些私立大学被指控通过不正当的会计程序扩大其间接成本回收率。长期以来，科学家们一直抱怨说，较高的间接成本率意味着实际研究的资金减少，间接成本政策鼓励大学过度投资于研究能力，包括新建筑和雇用软钱教师。另一方面，大学长期以来一直认为间接成本率对大学的补偿不足，实际上大学在许多赠款上都赔钱。正确的费率和激励措施非常重要，将有助于确保有限的生物医学研究资金得到最有效的利用，以促进知识和健康。没有什么经验证据可以指导正在进行的辩论。该项目提供了关于间接成本率的新数据，并估计了对学术研究的影响。一个新的关于间接成本率的开源数据集将沿着提供一个统计概述，说明不同机构和不同时间的费用如何和为什么不同，以及变化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赠款，增加教师队伍，建设和进行其他投资的动机。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，本研究利用间接成本政策中的各种自然实验，为估计提供更多信心。最后，该项目还考虑了间接成本回收政策的历史变化的影响，影响了生物医学研究企业的扩张和生产力，以及它是否加强了研究人员之间的差距。

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.