Biomedical Research: NIH Should Assess the Impact of Growth in Indirect Costs on Its Mission

United States. Government Accountability Office.

United States. Government Accountability Office.

关键词: Government accountability -- United States.;    health care;    auditing and financial management;    science and technology;    biomedical research;   

RP-ID  :  GAO-13-760
RP-ID  :  658084

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "From fiscal year 2002 to fiscal year 2012, indirect cost reimbursements from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to universities increased slightly faster than those for direct costs, but increased notably faster during some periods. Specifically, from fiscal years 2002 to 2012, indirect costs increased 28.1 percent while direct costs increased 27.0 percent. However, for the fiscal years 2003 to 2012, indirect costs increased notably faster than direct costs, at 16.9 percent and 11.7 percent, respectively. In more recent years, annual changes were generally small but consistent. This increase occurred during a time when growth in NIH's budget for extramural research slowed to 5 percent from fiscal years 2008 to 2012, compared to about 21 percent from fiscal years 2002 to 2007. In fiscal year 2012, about 10 percent of the universities (50 out of about 500) receiving NIH extramural research funding received almost 70 percent of all indirect cost reimbursement provided to universities. Higher indirect cost rates tended to be associated with universities located in high-cost-of-living areas and privately owned universities."