Funding our laboratories

The Rockefeller University is unusual — in fact almost unique amongst U.S. universities — in providing ongoing significant direct support to individual laboratories as part of its routine annual operating budget. Much of this direct support is quantified by the application of a formula. Over the past few years, the university has worked to make the funding allocation process transparent and more readily understandable to the community. The objective has been to provide core support to all laboratories, varying by laboratory type, plus additional unrestricted resources based on the level of external support received. The recently announced 2008 funding formula follows these same principles and objectives but increases the level of funding distributed.
        A portion of the fiscal 2008 funding formula includes allocating funds to each lab to cover the professor and associate professor head of lab’s full salary and benefits. This is the first time that the university has provided full salary support for associate professors. The formula also includes a core grant which varies depending on whether the HOL is tenured or not, and on whether the lab is “wet” or more theoretical because, generally, wet labs have greater overhead costs. Lastly, the formula also allows for a portion of the grants and other income brought in by the labs from external sources to be “matched” by the university, increasing the total sum provided.
    The administration’s objectives continue to be to have in place a transparent system which supports faculty generously and to encourage them to work toward bringing in grant revenue which supports both individual laboratory projects and the general running and infrastructure costs of the university.
    In addition to modifying the FY 2008 funding formula to increase laboratory funding, the university has also designated a “reserve” fund within the 2008 operating budget that can be used to respond to specific funding shortfalls in individual laboratories. These funds can be allocated on a case-by-case basis throughout the fiscal year. This is a particularly important resource, given the continued problems with federal funding. Funds can also be provided to support specific imaginative but high-risk projects.
    The university will also continue with the elimination of the charges made by Information Technology for network connections and computer maintenance and the fees that our glasswashing facility charges for cleaning and sterilizing labware. The university now absorbs the costs of providing these services, with a consequential increase in the amount of money available for the labs to spend on other activities.
    The introduction of the new formula, together with last year’s reduction in internal cross-charging in some areas, will increase direct support to the laboratories by $4.8 million each year, an increase of 15 percent. We are in the position to be able to make these beneficial changes for several reasons: an increase in federal support gathered by faculty, outstanding fundraising from our Development Office, and the Board’s decision to increase the university endowment spending level. This winter the Board of Trustees voted to increase the university’s endowment spending level for the second time, from 5.25 percent (of an average market value) to 5.5 percent. This action means that more of the income from our investments can be used to fund the university’s laboratories.
    Overall, as a result of the improved funding formula and the other changes described above, the laboratories will be in a better position financially from FY 2008 than in the recent past and, equally importantly, a fair and transparent funding formula will have been applied across the board.