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[newnamehere]

A quick question for anyone in the know...

Is there a standard practice for grant overheads at universities in the UK? I am used to the US system where universities take a certain percentage cut out of every grant. Of this percentage, some might be kicked back into a department for operating expenses, or not.

The practice is the same for all grants regardless, though for quite small grants sometimes the grant awarder outlines specifically that no money can go for overheads and the university has to submit a note with the applicant saying that it waives overheads in such cases.

It would be good to get a sense of whether there is standard practice on this in the UK or if each university handles this differently. And is this called overhead in the UK, or maybe something else?

Thanks!

[expatinuk]

Yes, it's overheads and it depends on the grant. Something from one of the Research Councils does full cost accounting and the overhead that the university takes hovers around the 40% mark. EU Grants have a much lower figure that is allowed..

I did one grant that the limit for overhead was 18%... I'd never do that one again because we lost money on it.

[science_expat]

Like ExPat says, it varies by funders. Europe pays about 20%, Leverhulme 0, and the RCs are on full economic costing.

Do you have a research office? They should be able to advise you.

[newnamehere]

This info will help a lot for the next steps... it looks like the next one should be contacting the research office. Thanks! And especially for posting on the bank holiday :).

[snape]

This may be question for your finance department rather than the research office. Our finace officer was unwilling (or unable) to share the formula, though calculated the figures on the basis of other cost.

[wegie]

You departmental administrator will certainly know. At my last place it was in the region of 45% on research council grants, split about half and half between departmental and central university overhead.