News & Views item - November 2007 |
Research Grant On-Costs US Style. (November 16, 2007)
One of the most significant factors negatively effecting basic research in Australia is the appreciation by the granting agencies of the expenses entailed by universities and research institutes in supporting researchers who are awarded grants to further their investigations.
The Australian Research Council sets on-costs at 28% of the discovery grant awarded.
The short article below is taken from this week's Science and ought to give pause to our federal law makers. Unfortunately there's no sign of it.
New Limits on Defense Grants
U.S. lawmakers last week put the squeeze on universities that receive
basic-research grants from the military by tightening the amount of
money that universities can be reimbursed for the cost of facilitating
that research. The new language limits overhead costs to 35% of the
total amount of the grant. That's the equivalent of a 54% indirect cost
rate, and many schools won't notice the difference because their rates
do not exceed that amount.
But Barry Toiv of the Association of American Universities says at least
40 universities could be affected by the decision, and lobbyists fear
that Congress might eventually apply the same formula to the
government's entire research portfolio. "A cap on reimbursement is a
first step down a potentially slippery slope," says Toiv. "Preventing
universities from reimbursing all the real and necessary costs of
conducting research will discourage them from applying for defense
grants."
Today, the Executive Director of the Group of Eight, Michael Gallagher
said: "A
key policy challenge facing