Overhead Rates by Project Type

Project Types

*Codes and Descriptions

1. Basic Research - research that is directed toward increase of knowledge in science wherein the primary aim of the investigator is a fuller knowledge or understanding of the subject under study, rather than a clear or direct practical application thereof. This includes analytical and experimental activities that primarily seek to increase the understanding of fundamental phenomena. The end product is usually a report, although experimental hardware may be involved. In basic research, the particular use of the knowledge is not foreseen or identified at the beginning of the effort.

2. Applied Research - consists of the effort that: 1) normally follows basic research, but may not be severable from the related basic research; 2) attempts to determine and expand the potentialities of new scientific discoveries or improvements in technology, materials, processes, methods, devices, and techniques; and 3) attempts to "advance the state of the art". Applied research involves the study of phenomena relating to specific, known needs in connection with the functional characteristics of a system. Applied research does not include any efforts where the principal aim is the design, development, or test of specific articles or services to be offered for sale, which are within the definition of the term development.

3. Developmental Research - the systematic use and practical application of investigative findings and theories of a scientific or technical nature toward the production of, or improvements in, useful products to meet specific performance requirements, but exclusive of manufacturing and production engineering. The dominant characteristic is that the effort be pointed toward specific problem areas to develop and evaluate the feasibility and practicability of proposed solutions and determine their parameters. Development includes studies, investigations, initial hardware development and ultimately development of hardware, systems or other means for experimental or operational test.

A. Clinical Trial Research - the controlled clinical testing of investigational new drugs, devices, treatments or diagnostics, or comparisons of approved drugs, devices, treatments, or diagnostics, to assess their safety, efficacy, benefits, costs, adverse reactions, and/or outcomes, if any, in human subjects. Such studies may be conducted under either a sponsor-developed or an investigator-developed protocol. These studies are conducted in conjunction with obtaining new drug or device approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, under Phase I, II, III, or IV. Pre-clinical laboratory studies or studies in animals are not included under the term clinical trial research and neither are projects designed to develop new compounds, as well as test them; such projects are reported in one of the other research categories.

4. Other Research - used only if a research project cannot be classified as basic, applied, developmental, or clinical trial research.

5. Training (benefiting the University) - for the purposes of reporting to Office of the President, this category means the conduct of scholarly, professional or occupational instruction for matriculated students or University employees in forms such as classes, seminars, workshops, conferences, etc. This category includes sponsorship of students or employees who are "in training" primarily but not exclusively at the graduate and postgraduate levels. The scope of this code also includes sponsored training awards made to The Regents which provide for selection of student recipients by academic departments, and the institutional support which is either included in the training grant or is applied for and awarded separately. Excluded from this group and from this contract and grant information requirement are fellowships or other similar awards made directly from sponsors to students, and Student Aid programs.

Awards and proposals that require both the development of training materials and the conduct of training as part of the same award should be identified as Training, (Category 5).

Awards and proposals that are primarily for development of training materials and curricula should be identified as Developmental Research, (Category 3).

Training projects that are intended for the training to be conducted by the University for presentation to and for primary benefit to the public, i.e., individuals or groups external to the University, should be identified as Public Service, (Category 6).

6. Public Service - as the term is interpreted in the context of sponsored projects, Public Service means externally sponsored projects where the sponsor, particularly the Federal and state Government, desire to have the University provide the benefits of scholarly or professional training or services to individuals or sponsor-designated recipient groups that are external to the University. Examples of public service may include programs such as those sponsored by the Agency for International Development, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Institutes of Health in the area of biomedical services or training. The principal characteristic of public service is that individuals and groups external to the University are the intended beneficiaries.

7. Other Service - includes services which the University provides or makes available which do not fit within the categories of training or public service, such as the use of University facilities as provided by Regulation 4.

8. Equipment - applications or awards that are restricted by the sponsor for the sole purpose of the University's procurement of equipment. This may include direct grants of equipment, or full or partial funding to enable the University to purchase equipment, where in both cases the sponsor intends to transfer or have title to the equipment vest in the University.

B. Material Transfer - used for agreements whose sole purpose is to govern the transfer of materials to the University from the provider, wherein the provider restricts the use of the material to a designated research project. Such agreements often include rights granted back to the provider. Materials may include, but are not limited to, cultures, cell lines, plasmids, nucleotides, proteins, bacteria, transgenic animals, pharmaceuticals, devices, models, reagents or other chemicals. When terms pertaining to the transfer of materials are integrated into an agreement that provides for both the funding of research and the transfer of materials, use the project type appropriate for the financial transaction (e.g. Basic Research).

C. Scholarship or Fellowship - used for awards that are intended to support students or post-doctoral fellows through payment of tuition and fees, as a stipend, or in support of project work. The award funds may be used to conduct research as part of the individual student’s or postdoctoral fellow’s program of study or training.

9. Other - to be used only if a project can not be classified by one of the above categories.