Indirect costs are “costs incurred for a common or joint purpose benefiting more than one cost objective, and not readily assignable to the cost objectives.” Such costs are not directly allocable to one specific project because they support multiple projects. For instance, water, heating and air conditioning or other HVAC system capabilities that may be required to improve the air quality in many laboratories. These are legitimate expenses required to keep a research organization running, but they are not easily charged to one specific project when one research building may house hundreds of projects.

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