Understanding Low Levels of FEC Cost Recovery on UKRI grants

Research grant proposals and fellowship applications submitted to UKRI Research Councils are costed based on their ‘full economic costs’ (FEC). Those that are successfully awarded typically receive 80% of the FEC from UKRI, with the research organisation funding the remaining balance of funds for the project/fellowship from other sources.

However, analysis of TRAC data returns shows that, on average, UK universities recover only about 70% of the FEC of research activities supported by UKRI Research Councils. In this report, we investigate universities’ views on why we observe this low level of cost recovery through a series of detailed interviews with senior staff across the UK university sector.