[staff-physics-and-astronomy-HL-UHD-UD] New calculation of overhead on projects per May 1, 2025

[Dahlberg, J.D. (Jordi)]

Dear all,

Following Juan's email, I herewith send you the English translation of the memo.

As said, if you have any questions, please let me know or have the representative from the section ask them on the SRM on May 13.

Best,
Jordi 

-----Original Message-----
From: _list_senior-staff-physics-and-astronomy-bounces <senior-staff-physics-and-astronomy-bounces at listserver.vu.nl> On Behalf Of Rojo, J. (Juan)
Sent: Tuesday, 29 April 2025 19:11
To: _list_senior-staff-physics-and-astronomy <senior-staff-physics-and-astronomy at listserver.vu.nl>
Subject: [staff-physics-and-astronomy-HL-UHD-UD] New calculation of overhead on projects per May 1, 2025

Dear colleagues,

As discussed in previous staff lunches, the VU has been working on a new policy to calculate the overheads to be assigned to projects.

The current policy has, as we know very well, as main problem the fact that it led to large own contributions (from the 1st money stream) to be paid by the department in case the project was awarded, specially for the experimental departments. This has associated a negative incentive to apply for many grants, since it leads to a net financial loss for the department.

Please find attached a memo describing the new VU policy to charge overheads to external projects. This policy will be applied to all awarded after 1st May 2025, including those which we have already requested.

An English version of the memo is being prepared and will be circulated asap.

The main change is that overheads charged to a grant are not computed on the basis of FTEs, as before, but depend on the type of grant and of the total amount of funding granted. Specifically

- For 3rd money stream grants for which overhead is covered by the grant provider (ERC, MSCA IEF, MSCA DN, but also Templeton, NIH, Human Frontiers etc), in the new system the amount of overheads charged to the grant coincides with the amount allowed by the grant provider. For example, ERC grants provide 25% overhead, so now the VU will just charge 25% overhead to an ERC grant, so that no extra contribution from the department will be needed, at least related to overheads. The same holds say for MSCA fellowships: if the EU pays for 12% overheads, then the VU will charge only 12% overheads.

- For 2nd money stream projects (NWO, KNAW), which in the current system are not charged overhead, the VU will change now overheads. For Beta, this ranges between 2% to 4%, depending on how large the grant is. For example, for a Vici the overheads charged will be 60K (irrespective of how many FTEs are requested)

- For 3rd money stream projects (public) which do not allow charging overheads (such as the National Growth Fund) Beta will charge a flat overhead of 20% to the department.

- For For 3rd money stream projects (private), nothing changes.

This change is overwhelmingly positive for the department, since we have a large portfolio of "Cluster 2" projects and it makes possible e.g. 
hosting MSCA fellowships which with the old system were not allowed. 
This means that many new opportunities for grant application open for us, and we should do our best to fully exploit them. Of course there are also negative aspects (in particular the fact that now overheads are also charged to NWO projects) but by and large this new policy will be beneficial for the department.

Note that, overheads aside, grant applications sometimes require own contributions from the department e.g. due to equipment depreciation or mismatch between salaries paid by the funding provider and the real salaries. So, as we have been doing so far, we will still look at individual project applications critically, but nevertheless the bottom line is that in principle *there is no funding source (except 3MS
private) which will be excluded a priori*.

We understand that this significant change will raise many questions. We ourselves are still trying to understand all the details of the new system. If you have some very urgent questions feel free to reach out to Jordi. We have planned a dedicated discussion on the topic at the next Section Representative Meeting on May 13th, so you can also discuss internally your questions within the section and we will do our best to answer them.

We hope that this development further strengthens our already very successful efforts on external funding acquisition!!

Best,
Juan (on behalf of the MT)

--
-------------------------------------------------
Prof. Dr. Juan Rojo
Professor of Theoretical Physics
Head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty of Science, VU Amsterdam De Boelelaan 1081, 1081HV Amsterdam
----
Nikhef Theory Group, Science Park 105,
1098 XG Amsterdam, The Netherlands
----
Webpage: http://www.juanrojo.com/
Zoom: https://vu-live.zoom.us/my/juanrojo
E-mail: j.rojo at vu.nl
         j.rojo at nikhef.nl
-----------------------------------------------
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 23042025 New overhead method for research projects 1-5-25 (EN).pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 621994 bytes
Desc: 23042025 New overhead method for research projects 1-5-25 (EN).pdf
URL: <https://listserver.vu.nl/pipermail/senior-staff-physics-and-astronomy/attachments/20250501/e4184708/23042025Newoverheadmethodforresearchprojects1-5-25EN-0001.pdf>