Latest Federal Funding Updates
LSU Research and Lives at Risk
LSU relies on federal funding for most research projects that support the university’s strategic priorities to improve lives in Louisiana and around the world. This is particularly true for biomedical research that is nearly all funded by NIH and leads to new discoveries that improve the health of our citizens every day. The threat of reducing indirect costs to 15% of direct costs would result in a loss of about $12M per year to LSU. This is a conservative estimate and about half of the indirect costs we currently recover. The combination of cutting both total funding and indirect costs for biomedical research reduces the ability of universities to make new discoveries across the health sciences. LSU would have to find new avenues of funding to pay utility bills and maintain research labs, support graduate students and post-doctoral fellows involved in research, upgrade aging lab equipment, and ensure the research we do is safe and secure. If we cannot do this—and few public universities without large endowments can—it’s not only the people, services, and facilities covered by indirect costs that will be curtailed—it’s the entirety of the LSU research enterprise and the full economic impact we have, as a research university, on society.
—LSU Vice President of Research & Economic Development Robert Twilley
Recent Updates
Have Questions?
If you are a researcher with questions or concerns about ongoing projects, contact research@lsu.edu
FAQs
Facilities and administrative (F&A) costs—also referred to as indirect costs—are costs for essential research infrastructure and administration that are needed beyond individual projects. They include lab and equipment maintenance; services such as utilities, IT, and hazardous waste removal; and—importantly—research support staff who help with grant administration, safety, and regulatory compliance. Without F&A, universities would need to secure alternative funding to cover these real and necessary costs or reduce research activity.
No. F&A does not generate “extra” or discretionary funds. Cutting F&A shifts real and necessary costs onto universities, reducing research activity.
LSU relies on F&A reimbursement to maintain research infrastructure, support faculty and student researchers, and sustain research excellence. Cuts could:
- Hinder LSU’s growth as a leading research institution.
- Threaten funding for critical research centers, like LSU’s seven NIH Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBREs).
- Limit faculty and student access to the essential resources they need to conduct groundbreaking work.
- Weaken LSU’s ability to attract the best and brightest faculty and students.
- Slow critical biomedical advancements and economic development in Louisiana.
- Jeopardize LSU’s goal of achieving Top 50 research university and AAU status.
F&A cuts impact:
- Students who will have less access to research opportunities, scholarships, and assistantships.
- Faculty who will have less support and reduced access to well-maintained, secure research facilities.
- The Louisiana economy, which will see fewer jobs, reduced investment, and slower innovation in life-sustaining fields like healthcare, energy, and agriculture.
- Everyone, since reduced research funding delays medical discoveries and scientific advancements.
LSU’s research enterprise brings in hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding each year, driving economic growth and innovation in Louisiana and across the United States. Cutting F&A reimbursements will not only hurt LSU but also weakens the state’s ability to attract top talent and hinders advancements that improve lives statewide.