[mukara]

This might be shocking to some, but when a researcher receiver a federal grant (for example), the university takes a significant cut which they refer to as Facilities and Administrative (F&A) costs [1]. The F&A covers the so-called "indirect" costs of conducting research on university facilities: buildings, utilities, admin and accounting, support staff for compliance with federal regulations, etc.

Each university has its own F&A rate, which can be as much as 60% of received federal funds [2]. This rate has historically trended upward.

An example of funds allocation for a typical small NSF grant: https://austinhenley.com/blog/grantbudget.html

[1] https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED517263.pdf

[2] https://financeandbusiness.ucdavis.edu/finance/costing-polic...