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Just to clarify, because there is a lot of misinformation about overhead considering the Trump administration wants to cut it. 55% overhead means for every $1,

Just to clarify, because there is a lot of misinformation about overhead considering the Trump administration wants to cut it. 55% overhead means for every $1, another 0.55 gets routed to MIT (so about a 1/3 goes to overhead). Also, the overhead goes to real research. For example, my lab doesn't pay an electricity bill, or a heating/cooling bill, or a cleaning bill, or rent, etc. Also, you can get more exact numbers on MIT here [1]. [1]. http://web.mit.edu/facts/financial.html http://web.mit.edu/facts/financial.html

gravypod 9y ago
What you are saying is true but I have two issues with it. 1) Most universities get federal funding for facilities. That's what the student's tuition and taxes are meant to pay for. Now I agree that won't make up the difference (right now I've got ~300 machines running my code on my school's super computer) but that means more then half of the money for the research doesn't go directly to the research. Your grant for curing kittens of sadness also has to fund the super top secret nerve gas researchers work down the hall. 2) Many universities require you to pay for utilities, working space, and other things and still take overhead! I know a few who I don't want to point out an laugh at directly but we all know unfortunate colleagues who work at these universities (a few of which are publicly funded). We, as researchers, shouldn't be so dismissive of the blatant pocket-lining that universities do just because maybe a quarter of it will go back to helping us. Overhead basically makes it extremely difficult to start research in "convincing and novel" aspects of research when few people (maybe under 50 in the world) understand that what you're doing has value. In R&D that's most of the things that people are working on. If you're not fortunate enough to have someone already established take you under your wing your great idea will never see the light of day.
- skosuri 9y ago
  1. I don't know where you are getting this but this is wrong. First of all tuition doesn't pay anywhere close to even breaking even at this point much less investment. Second MIT is a private university so I don't know where you are getting tax thing. Where do you get more than half of funding doesn't go directly to my research? I think you are misunderstanding overhead rates. For example, a 50% overhead rate means to spend a million dollars for my lab, I need to raise 1.5M. 2. Most universities that do that don't require you to pay for space, but will base the amount of space you have on grant dollars you bring in. None that I know of make you pay for electricity, gas, cleaning, grant admin, compliance, bookkeeping, etc. 3. How does overhead make it difficult to do convincing and novel research? In fact overhead helps it in my opinion. This idea that getting rid of overhead will somehow make anything better or have better value for the money is seriously misguided.

gravypod 9y ago

What you are saying is true but I have two issues with it. 1) Most universities get federal funding for facilities. That's what the student's tuition and taxes are meant to pay for. Now I agree that won't make up the difference (right now I've got ~300 machines running my code on my school's super computer) but that means more then half of the money for the research doesn't go directly to the research. Your grant for curing kittens of sadness also has to fund the super top secret nerve gas researchers work down the hall. 2) Many universities require you to pay for utilities, working space, and other things and still take overhead! I know a few who I don't want to point out an laugh at directly but we all know unfortunate colleagues who work at these universities (a few of which are publicly funded). We, as researchers, shouldn't be so dismissive of the blatant pocket-lining that universities do just because maybe a quarter of it will go back to helping us. Overhead basically makes it extremely difficult to start research in "convincing and novel" aspects of research when few people (maybe under 50 in the world) understand that what you're doing has value. In R&D that's most of the things that people are working on. If you're not fortunate enough to have someone already established take you under your wing your great idea will never see the light of day.

skosuri 9y ago
1. I don't know where you are getting this but this is wrong. First of all tuition doesn't pay anywhere close to even breaking even at this point much less investment. Second MIT is a private university so I don't know where you are getting tax thing. Where do you get more than half of funding doesn't go directly to my research? I think you are misunderstanding overhead rates. For example, a 50% overhead rate means to spend a million dollars for my lab, I need to raise 1.5M. 2. Most universities that do that don't require you to pay for space, but will base the amount of space you have on grant dollars you bring in. None that I know of make you pay for electricity, gas, cleaning, grant admin, compliance, bookkeeping, etc. 3. How does overhead make it difficult to do convincing and novel research? In fact overhead helps it in my opinion. This idea that getting rid of overhead will somehow make anything better or have better value for the money is seriously misguided.