Comment by mNovak
3 years ago
Which agency is this from? 30% is an insanely low indirect rate. My experience comes dominantly from DoD SBIR, where for Phase I's you propose your own indirect rate.
But yes, this law is awful for SBIR companies, because we're forced to give a giant out of pocket interest-free loan back to the gov
NIH, it's 32%. You can negotiate a custom one somehow, but I haven't waded into those waters yet.
I'm guessing this was NSF or HHS, both of which have tons of rules. DoE and DoD are much less controlling.
NSF has safe harbor of fringe + indirect @ 50% of salary, IIRC.