Forum Post
It was recently relayed that WSU will start taxing F&A accounts in 2026. It is our opinion that this policy will have a strong negative impact on the ability of WSU faculty to perform high impact research.
Currently, 85% of the F&A generated from successful grants written by WSU faculty is allocated to the WSU administration, with 15% of F&A returned to the unit of the faculty who wrote the grant to support that units’ research operations. Some units then provide a portion back to the faculty who wrote the grant to support their labs research. These funds are essential for maintenance of a high impact research unit.
A major use of the F&A returns is for the maintenance or replacement of research equipment. This is the predominant funding mechanism that allows units or individual labs to repair or update equipment essential to their research. However, most of the time the need for these equipment funds cannot be spent within a single calendar year but are needed immediately, but occasionally, when essential equipment breaks. Whether the equipment that breaks is a -80 °C freezer or a farm tractor, the repair or replacement can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Likewise, units are more and more frequently asked to contribute to the start-up package of new faculty, or to provide matching funds for grant supported new equipment purchases. F&A funds are one of the main sources of unit funding that can be used for these purposes to support new faculty and research equipment. F&A funds accumulate slowly as a proportion of grant expenditures, and it can take several years for meaningful levels of F&A funds to accumulate. If unit and faculty F&A accounts are taxed on a yearly basis this will inhibit accumulation of F&A funds for major equipment repairs, upgrades, or for start-up packages to attract top research faculty to WSU and will thus greatly reduce the research infrastructure and research capabilities of WSU.
An additional common use of F&A funds is for supporting graduate research assistants during academic year and for their summer salaries. The typical federal grant lasts 3 years, but most graduate students take 4-5 years to graduate. If new funding is not secured immediately when one grant ends, F&A funds can provide a grace period to supply funding for both the student salary and research supplies while new funding is sought. As with equipment repair, use of the F&A funds may not be needed during each year of the grant but will become very important to support the student at the end of the grant cycle. Therefore, taxing of F&A funds on a yearly basis will reduce mechanisms available to support graduate education and research.
Part of being fiscally responsible is planning for the future. We believe that taxing units that are successful at generating F&A funds will only reduce their ability to continue to be successful in conducting impactful research and securing new research funds in the future, including new total F&A for the university. Thus, it is contradictory to the goal of making WSU a university that excels in Use Inspired Research.
We believe the faculty senate should take this issue to the provost and request a reverse in this policy, or at least be involved in negotiations that will both support the financial needs of WSU and the research responsibilities of the units that generate the F&A. Possible compromises may include: a sufficient minimum amount of F&A funds that is not taxed and allows planning for future equipment upgrades and repairs, and for the temporary support graduate students (e.g. $35,000 for individual faculty or $200,000 for units); and a portion of the F&A tax collected set aside by the Office of Research to support emergency equipment repairs or RA student support with clear guidelines of how faculty and units can gain access to those funds.
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