Office of ResearchGuidelines and PoliciesFacilities and Administration (F&A) Reports

Facilities and Administration (F&A) Reports

What is F&A and How is it Used?

Advancing knowledge through creative activity, research and scholarship (defined broadly as research) is an important mission in WSU’s strategic plan. WSU faculty, staff, and students embrace this mission in a myriad of ways – one way is through the submission of grant proposals to external sponsors to fund their research activities. These projects allow our researchers to have significant impact in our region, state, nation, and world. Engaging in a sponsored project is a partnership among:

  • The researchers performing the work,
  • The Sponsor (federal or non-federal) funding the work, and
  • The University providing the research infrastructure (e.g., physical space, research-related operational activities) to do the work

University research infrastructure may include construction and maintenance of sophisticated labs designed for cutting-edge research; utilities such as light and heat; telecommunications; hazardous waste disposal; and the operational infrastructure necessary to comply with numerous rules and regulations. These facilities and administrative (F&A) costs are paid by the University initially, but Sponsors then partner with the University and researcher, as most are committed to sharing these costs, by partially reimbursing WSU for this infrastructure. The mechanism for reimbursement is a negotiated F&A rate between the federal government and the University to ensure appropriate costs. WSU’s current federal rates are listed on the Sponsored Program Services website.

These reimbursed F&A costs become revenue to the University and are managed by WSU’s Policy for Allocating Facilities and Administrative Cost Recovery Funds (Executive Policy #2) which provides background on F&A, oversight, goals for transparency, allocation, etc.

As described in Executive Policy #2, WSU’s F&A is split as shown in the chart below:

WSU's F&A splits visualized in a chart. For more information, see WSU's Executive Policy #2.
WSU’s Facilities and Administration splits visualized in a chart. For more information, see WSU’s Executive Policy #2.

Other F&A Reports and Resources: