Just read a blurb that the Department of Defense wants to reduce the indirect costs rate for grants from the current 45-55% to 20%. For those not aware of it when we write a grant on top of the money we request is a percentage - the indirect costs. This is supposed to pay for things required by the university to keep the research enterprise going - lights, electricity, housekeeping, etc. What has happened is that the University has become dependent on that income stream to keep the operation afloat - including the operation of departments. With the budget cuts from our state to the university ALL the state money in our Department is for faculty and staff salaries. We live off the indirect costs our Department gets - when someone in our Department loses a grant it hurts us all as we lose that indirect cost money. Almost monthly we see how much grant money and indirect costs we bring back compared to all the other departments. Money, money, money.