UR Finances 101: Frequently asked questions
WORK IN PROGRESS

Here is more information about some of these revenue sources:

· Long-term investment income has to do with the endowment.

· Grants and contracts have to do with in external research funding, mostly from the federal government. This amount has increased by over 60% since 2000. Roughly half of it comes from the National Institutes of Health. The university currently ranks 25th in this category.

· Royalty income has to do with technology transfer, the money the university receives for inventions, patents, and so on. UR's tech transfer revenue is among the top ten in the country.

· Annual giving exceeded $100 million for the first time in FY 2008. It has increased rapidly in recent years.

The Core Budget is the total of the operating budgets of the academic divisions that draw upon endowment resources to support operations. In the pie chart below, all dollar figures are in millions, and the total is $406 million.

Core Budget Revenues 2007-08

The “indirect cost recovery” portion of this means the following. The university currently receives over $350 million each year in external research funding, mostly from the federal government. Most of these funds are divided into direct and indirect costs. The direct cost is the amount spent on the actual research. The indirect cost is the amount charged on the grant by the university (54% of the direct cost, a figure that is negotiated with the federal government) to pay for overhead. It amounts to roughly 35% (.54/1.54) of the total amount. Roughly two thirds of the university’s external research funding is subject to this charge, which results in the $82M shown above.

Last revised December 4, 2008.

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