Overhead Credit: At MSU, 10% of the overheard/indirect costs/Facilities & Administrative (F&A) costs (all three terms mean the same thing) that is charged to a project is returned to the department and 10% is returned to the college. This field determines which departments and which colleges will receive the return. Because MSU has so many jointly funded departments and jointly funded faculty, a lot of effort is spent verifying the appropriate unit receives the overhead return. The calculation of the amount to return is made on a March - February timeframe, with the actual release of funds in the following July 1 General Fund budget titled Research Facilitation Awards. To ease the last minute discussions about which units should get the return, MSU has developed approved PI profiles that include approved credit distributions. If you have additional questions about how the distributions were agreed to, please see the chair or the college associate dean for research.
Academic Credit: Academic credit is a way to give credit to a unit that doesn’t receive the overhead return therefore allowing both internal and external reports to be prepared. For example, if a project was approved to run through a center, it is likely the overhead return will also be to that center. However, when doing national reports it may be useful to report that grant activity in the core academic unit. Reporting grant activity in centers tends to place MSU higher in miscellaneous categories instead of our core departments.
