Economic stimulus ‘added $8,000’ to cost of each research grant

The US economic stimulus package, enacted into law in February 2009, enabled colleges and universities to get funding for critical initiatives and novel research areas—but also placed expensive administrative requirements on them, a survey has found.

The 100 institutions that responded to the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) survey reported incurring additional administrative costs of nearly $8,000 (€5,865) per research grant. The stimulus regulations did not provide funding to pay colleges and universities for the cost of complying with the extra requirements.