Estates and indirect costs will be calculated by the research organisation and the agreed rates can be obtained from their finance department or research office. The costs should be entered as single annual figures (£ total pa for the project) and do not need to be justified in the justification of resources.
Estate costs
Estate costs may include building and premises costs, basic services and utilities, lease/rent rates, insurance, cleaning/porters/security/safety costs, staff facilities, and any clerical staff and equipment maintenance not already included as either a directly incurred or directly allocated cost.
Indirect costs
Indirect costs are non-specific costs charged across all projects based on estimates that are not otherwise included as directly allocated costs. They may include general office and basic laboratory consumables, library services/learning resources, typing/secretarial support, finance, personnel, public relations and departmental services, central and distributed computing and the cost of capital employed (including redundancy). The costs of ethics reviews and infrastructure technicians can be included under this heading.
Estates and indirect costs at second centres
If the fellow plans to spend time during their fellowship at a second UK centre, overseas, or undertaking an industrial placement estates and indirect costs will continue to be payable to the lead research organisation if this period is less than six months (per absence).
For a period of six months or more, indirect costs will continue to be paid to the lead research organisation. Estates costs will not be payable to the lead research organisation for the period of the fellow’s placement, however a contribution to the second centre’s costs may be requested as described below, and the total figure for estates costs requested should be adjusted accordingly. MRC will not make direct payments to the second centre, either in the UK or overseas; this must be arranged through the lead research organisation.
If the fellow plans to spend six months or more at a second UK research organisation, the lead research organisation should request estates costs on behalf of the second centre for the duration of the fellow’s training period there at the second centre’s agreed rates for estate costs.
If the fellow plans to spend six months or more at an overseas centre a contribution to the centre’s estates and indirect costs can be requested as directly incurred other costs. These can be requested at 100% (contact RFPD@mrc.ukri.org) for advice on requesting exceptional costs). The estates and indirect costs associated with overseas locally employed research staff in developing countries may also be requested as other directly incurred costs at 100%.