The University will submit its Facilities and Administrative (“F&A”) cost rate proposal to the Cost Allocation Services (“CAS”) division of the Department of Health and Human Services (UMB’s Cognizant Federal Agency). The space survey is used to help develop University Maryland, Baltimore’s next facilities and administrative (F&A) cost rate proposal.  This rate is negotiated with the Federal Government and allows UMB to recover the costs associated with supporting the research mission.  The recovery of these costs is critical to the ability to continue to engage in high quality research.

A Facilities & Administration (F&A) rate is essentially an equation which shows the facilities and administrative costs associated with research (numerator) as a percentage of the direct expenditures on sponsored research grants during the fiscal year (denominator). 

[Facilities Cost of Organized Research Activities (Uncapped) + Administrative Cost of Organized Research Activities (Capped at 26%)]/ Annual Spending on Organized Research Grants = Research F and A Rate

This rate is negotiated with the Federal Government and allows UMB to recover the costs associated with supporting the research mission.

FA Cost is found with the following equation: 
Total F&A Costs/ Total Base Costs aka Direct Costs = FA Cost

What are Total Base Costs? 

• Organized Research 
• Other Sponsored Activities
• Instruction
• Other Institutional Activities 

How to Find the Total F&A Cost

Total F&A Costs are the annual facilities and administrative costs. The annual facilities and administrative costs are aggregated and know as "pool" costs. They are the numerator in the F&A Formula. 

Facilities Costs + Administrative Costs (Indirect Costs) = Total F&A Cost

Facilities Costs
The facilities component is the biggest driver of the F&A Rate calculation and is highly dependent on the result of the space survey. 

• Building *
• Depreciation *
• Equipment Depreciation *
• Interest *
• Operations and Maintenance *
• Library

* = allocated by the Space Survey Statistics 

Administrative Cost (Indirect Costs)

• President's Office 
• Legal 
• Human Resources
• Sponsored Programs
• Pre-award
• Department Administrators
• Clerical and Support Staff

The rate calculation model uses space usage statistics to “allocate” facilities costs and show the percentage of the overall costs which support sponsored research.

Most research institutions conduct a space survey to maximize indirect cost recovery.

Information for the space survey comes from those who are familiar with the functional usage of the space:

• Research administrators
• Department business/fund managers
• Building managers
• Lab managers, department chairs and/or principal investigators may provide information

The space survey classifies rooms based on the activities performed in the rooms.  The space survey will be used to allocate the following F&A costs to research, instruction, and other functions:

• Operations and maintenance (utilities, maintenance, etc.)
• Building depreciation
• Equipment depreciation
• Interest

FY21 UMB Space Survey Training

• 05/18/21 (password Huron123@)
• 05/20/21 (password Huron123@)