Should a Research Support Office be self-sustained through the money allocated from overheads or is this a service to be provided at the institutional level? What incentives will bring out the best services of the office?
Overhead money is often the source of a tug-of-war between research support offices and principal investigators. Institutional policies are often in place to regulate the use of overhead money, yet there seem to be no right or good models that prevail. Hence, discussions are ongoing, and at times inconclusive.
The Finance and Governance Committee (FGC) of EARMA hosted an online session for EARMA members on this topic on the 26th of October 2023. The aim of the online session was to present the overhead conundrum to the audience, compare some of the models applied in a number of institutions and encourage participants to share their views of the challenges and models applied in their respective institutions. As a starting point for the online session, the FGC collected data from various universities and other research-performing organizations to map the various models in use throughout Europe and beyond, identifying practices and challenges, and possibly some differences caused by national funding structures and policies as well as types of organizations.
This discussion table aims to continue the conversations with attendees at the EARMA conferences interested in joining the debate and contributing towards building a general overview of the overhead distribution policies. This will be another opportunity for members to challenge, promote or share knowledge from the model applied in their own institution, while understanding the driving forces and finding some best practices.
