Overhead Funding
The Higher Education Pact 2020 agreed by the German federal government and the states allows the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – initially up to 31 December 2015 – to pay programme allowances for indirect project costs for approved projects. With effect from 1 January 2007, for Collaborative Research Centres, Research Centres and Research Training Groups an additional lump-sum payment will be granted to cover indirect project expenses associated with the funding (Programme allowances for indirect project costs). From 1 January 2008 (date of the approval), this also applies to new funding approvals in the general research funding programmes, in all but a few exceptional cases.
The level of the programme allowance for indirect costs is 20 % of the directly chargeable project expenses. The approval of the programme allowance does not require any separate funding proposal. The payment of the programme allowance is made in instalments together with each payment request. The relevant pre-printed forms for payment requests can be found below.
The full cost of financing of the programme allowances for indirect project costs is borne by the federal government.
