Astera Institute uses the following policy for any contribution or funding it recommends from any source:

We require all awardees, unless otherwise agreed to in the terms of the award agreement, to refrain from using award funds to pay for any indirect costs, and there shall be no allocation of indirect costs to an award, in each case, unless expressly agreed in writing in the agreement to permit the award to be spent on indirect costs. In other words, the awardee should not include any indirect costs in an award’s budget unless expressly agreed.

In cases where an indirect-cost allocation is allowed per the terms of the award agreement, then the following rules shall apply:

• indirect costs may not exceed 10% of the total award;
• the allocation rate must be approved in advance by the program manager or other office; and
• the indirect-cost allocation must be included as a line item in the project budget