Sponsored Research Programs
Sponsored programs refer to initiatives or projects that receive financial support or funding from external organizations or entities, such as government agencies, private foundations, or corporations, often in exchange for specific deliverables, outcomes, or objectives. In academia, grants are awarded for a wide variety of research, training, and community projects.
VCU’s Research and Innovation department works with units to design research projects that can be funded externally through grants. Research at VCU boasts a combined award amount that exceeds $400M.
Sponsored Research Programs Total Budget: $395.7M
| Data table - Sponsored Research Programs FY25 total budget | ||
|---|---|---|
| Federal, Foundation & Other | $300.1M | 75.8% |
| Facilities and Administration Cost Recovery | $56.0M | 14.2% |
| Massey & Other State Support | $39.6M | 10.0% |
| Total | $395.7M | |
Budgeted research expenditures
- FY18 $225M to FY25 $396M
- 76% increase in budget over the past 6 years
Sponsored Award Portfolio
In the Fall of 2023 VCU reported more than $405 million in sponsored research funding, crossing $400 million for the first time. This record funding was up by more than 49% over the past five fiscal years.
Sponsored Program Awards by School
| Alternate data table - Sponsored Program Awards: Unit-Level Analysis | |
|---|---|
| School | Awards |
| Medicine | $205.4M |
| Arts (includes VCUQ) | $40.1M |
| Education | $37.3M |
| Other (OVPRI, Provost, Finance) | $35.0M |
| Engineering | $34.5M |
| Humanities and Sciences | $18.5M |
| Pharmacy | $9.6M |
| Nursing | $7.9M |
| Dentistry | $6.4M |
| Health Professions | $5.2M |
| Wilder | $3.0M |
| Social Work | $2.0M |
| Business | $0.2M |
Facilities & Administrative Cost Recoveries (FACR)
Facilities and Administrative Cost Recoveries (FACR), also commonly known as "indirect cost recoveries" refer to funds that a research institution, typically a university or nonprofit organization, receives to cover the indirect costs associated with conducting sponsored research projects or other activities.
Key components:
- Facilities Costs: Facilities costs encompass expenses related to the physical infrastructure necessary for research and administrative activities. This includes costs associated with maintaining and operating buildings, laboratories,libraries, utilities, and general research facilities. Facilities costs can also cover depreciation, repairs, and maintenance of these assets.
- Administrative Costs: Administrative costs include the expenses associated with the management and support of research projects. This includes salaries and benefits for administrative staff, office space, office supplies, accounting and finance services, compliance oversight, and other administrative functions required to facilitate research activities.
These costs are not directly tied to a specific project but are necessary to support the overall research infrastructure and administrative functions of the organization. Not all grants receive full cost recovery (see exceptions below).
Indirect cost is an overhead rate that is applied to the direct costs associated with the administration of a grant, contract or sponsored agreement. Overhead costs are associated with the infrastructure of the institution (buildings, maintenance, libraries, etc.) and administrative support.
Periodically, VCU negotiates with Federal Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to determine the FACR rate to use for the next four year period for most awards from federal agencies. Current and prior year DHHS rate agreements can be found on the VCU Controller’s website.
As specified in the State Appropriations Act, VCU is required to apply the full federally negotiated rate to ALL grants, contracts and other agreements proposed and/or accepted unless an exemption has been granted.
Yes, not all grants receive full indirect cost recovery. Some examples of exceptions are:
- Training: Certain Federal agencies such as DHHS and the Department of Education are authorized by Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) to limit F&A to 8% for programs they identify as “training,” and as specified in the program announcement.
- Industry-sponsored clinical trial/research: The industry-sponsored and investigator-initiated clinical trials/research rate is 30% of total direct costs. Such studies include Phase I-IV human studies and meet the definition of clinical trial/research.
See guidelines for facilities and administrative cost recovery for more information.