In the past, Research Councils and other funders may have funded overheads at a fixed % of staff costs etc to cover the indirect costs of Research. Under fEC, this is replaced by a charge for Estates, Infrastructure Technicians and a charge for Indirect Costs.
These charges are calculated by Finance, based on the annual TRAC return, and result in a £ per full-time equivalent (FTE) charge-out rate.
The TRAC return attributes Support costs across the activities of Teaching, Research and Other. The total indirect costs and estates costs for Research divided by the total relevant FTEs for Research provides the indirect cost and estates rate for Research (£ per FTE). These rates are calculated annually, using historical data.
The £ per FTE rates are then applied to the direct Research time of relevant staff carrying out Research, expressed as FTEs. Only Academic and research staff are included in the FTE total so the charge for Estates and Indirect on projects should be based only on the total Academic and research FTE for the project.
Two rates are calculated for Estates - a lab based rate and a generic rate.
The fEC Guidance requires the rates to be updated once a year (at 31st January).
The revised rates (in £ per FTE) are available (to University staff) on the RKES portal: Indirects, Eastes and Infrastructure Technicians (SharePoint login required).