Determination of On-Campus and Off-Campus Rates

MIT has separately negotiated F&A (indirect) costs and employee benefit rates for off-campus activities. To qualify for the off-campus rate, the following criteria must be met:

  • The employee must be away from campus for over six months and for more than 50 percent of the total project period of performance, or
  • Faculty whose summer or academic term appointment is 100 percent off campus (including less than full-time appointments), or
  • In exceptional cases where the Provost has approved off campus effort charges for large international initiatives (i.e. SMART and CERN), or
  • Employees hired to work only off campus at an established or approved site, or
  • Employees while they work at Draper Laboratory, Lincoln Laboratory, and Haystack Observatory, or
  • Employees who will be charged to a project that will be entirely off campus, or
  • GRAs whose summer or academic term appointments are 100 percent off campus for the entire summer, or
  • GRAs whose appointments are supported by Lincoln Laboratory even if the research is conducted on campus (requires the approval of the Office of Vice President for Research).
  • Employees who work at home because their assignments or departments allow for such an arrangement, or who work at home for convenience, are not allowed the off-campus rate.

To qualify for the off-campus rate on non-salary expenses, one of the following criteria must be met:

  • Projects where salary and wage plus employee benefit costs are incurred more than 75 percent on campus will have the on-campus rate applied to all non-salary costs.
  • Projects where salary and wage plus employee benefit costs are incurred more than 75 percent off campus will have the off-campus rate applied to all non-salary costs.
  • Projects where salary and wage plus employee benefit costs are incurred more than 25 percent, but less than 75 percent, off campus will have a separate WBS element established for the off-campus costs using the off-campus F&A rate.