OMB Circular A-21, Section F.6.b., establishes the principal that administrative expenses should normally be treated as indirect costs. It allows however that charging these costs directly to sponsored agreements may be appropriate where a major project or activity explicitly budgets for them and the costs involved can be specifically identified with the project or activity. Stanford's policy, Charging for Administrative and Technical Expenses, revised in September, 1998, and again in December, 1999, incorporates the A-21 definition and examples of major projects/activities.

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• Charging for Administrative and Technical Expenses

  Establishes the principle that administrative expenses (salaries of clerical and administrative personnel, supplies and other expenses) should normally be treated as indirect costs and describes circumstances where it is appropriate to charge them directly to sponsored agreements.

  Confirms that technical expenses (salaries of Principal Investigators and technical staff, laboratory and other technical expenses) shall be treated as direct costs wherever identifiable to a particular sponsored agreement.

  Incorporates Stanford's commitment to the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to develop policy pertaining to

  1. budget justifications, and
  2. treatment of sponsor-disapproved administrative charges as cost sharing.

These Implementation Guidelines include:

• Definitions of terms
  
  
• Policy Requirements
  
  
• Charging Administrative & Technical Expenses Decision Tree
  
  
• Stanford Examples of Major Projects/Activities
  
  
• Budget Justifications
  
  
• Questions and Answers
  
  

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