Indirect Costs Guidelines

Policy for Approval of Indirect Cost Reduction/Waiver Request - School of Medicine/UTRGV

Indirect costs (IDC) in grants and contracts provide necessary funds to support facilities and services related to sponsored activities. It is therefore essential to request indirect cost in a proposal, in addition to direct cost (DC) for sponsored activities.

Under certain circumstances, the PI/Project Director may need to support at a level of activity at an amount approaching the total amount (DC Plus IDC) allowed by the sponsor. In such circumstances, the PI/PD may explore the option of a proposal budget with a reduction or waiver of IDC.

Despite of a reduction/waiver of IDC, the total amount of funding request to the Sponsor remains unchanged. However, it will decrease or eliminate the IDC income to the Institution and/or School/Department for facilities and services to support sponsored activities. This hardship may be partially offset by reporting it as a loss of income in the Institutional annual financial statement.

In the SOM, a request for the reduction or waiver of indirect cost must be made by the PI/PD, approved by the head of the administrative unit (Dean), with final approval by the institutional official (Researcher VP). The PI/PD must provide strong justifications as to why sponsored activities cannot be accomplished without this additional revenue. Priority will be given to objectives related to needed clinical services for patient care in underserved areas.

SOM Process for Approval of IDC Reduction or Waiver

Request will be initiated by the Principal Investigator/Program Director and approved the Department Chair. Upon concurrence by the Associate Dean of Research, this request will then be reviewed for approval by Dean of the School of Medicine. The final approver of UTRGV will be the Associate VP for Research Operations. The PI/PD must provide a strong justification statement in explanation of this need for reduction or waiver of IDC.

The request must include:

1. A complete Indirect Cost Waiver form with approvals by the Chair and must include a justification of why the waiver is necessary.
2. The total budget with DC and IDC and the total budget with modified DC and reduced IDC (indicate zero for IDC if this is a waiver request)
3. Disclose any other sources of support being sought, if any (cost share requests).

Requests must be submitted no less than 30 days prior to the grant submission deadline in order provide sufficient time for review.

Please reach out to the Office of Sponsored Programs via the sponpro@utrgv.edu email to request the most up to date Indirect Cost Reduction/Waiver form.