The UBC Department of Computer Science charges for the direct costs of technical support to research grants. This includes installation and support of equipment; technical support for researchers; print, file and network servers; printing and copying; and similar direct costs. The current charge is 5% of applicable costs for User Fees, 6% for Operation and Maintenance and 2% for Technical Professional Assistants.

The purpose of this message is to provide guidance about how to write grant applications now that the department has approved a direct costs of research recovery charge.

Above is a paragraph you should put into your proposals, describing the nature of the charge. Please use exactly this text, so that all department grants will be consistent in this regard.

You should also include 3 line items in every grant proposal, as described in the language above. These percentages should be of the grant expenditures in the department, including students, staff, equipment etc. Amounts transferred to other departments or universities are not applicable. You'll note that the categories above correspond to categories 1C, 2B and 2C in an NSERC proposal.

NOTE: Because of the 20k personal deduction, the average net rate each faculty member pays will be less than 13%. But since grants may see charges of up to 13%, we would like to use this number in all the proposals.

If you are applying to a program that prohibits such charges then leave the line item and paragraph out, but please send the department finance officer (Sandra Redekop) a note right away describing the program and exactly why the proposal is exempt. Please do not wait until trying to rush the proposal through Bill's office to send this note. Please send it well in advance.

If you are applying to a program like CFI which has its own formula for such costs, follow that formula instead. But again, please send the Department Finance Officer a note describing this situation.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask Gregor or Sandra.

-- Main.kevinlb - 08 Oct 2005