Joint Associations Group (JAG) on Indirect Costs

The Joint Associations Group (JAG) on Indirect Costs — sometimes referred to as the Joint Associations Group on F&A Costs — is a coalition of ten national higher-education and research associations formed in April 2025 to develop a community-based proposal for reforming how the U.S. federal government reimburses facilities and administrative (F&A) costs on federally sponsored research. It sits alongside, not in place of, each member association’s own ongoing advocacy work.

Who makes up JAG

JAG’s ten member organizations are the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the American Council on Education (ACE), the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), the Association of Independent Research Institutes (AIRI), the Council on Governmental Relations (COGR), the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), and the Science Philanthropy Alliance (SPA). Research administrators will recognize several of these bodies individually — COGR and NACUBO in particular publish their own separate, long-standing guidance on NICRA negotiation and F&A cost policy — but JAG’s recommendations are a distinct joint output, produced through a coalition process rather than by any single association.

Why JAG was formed

JAG was convened in response to federal proposals to cap or restructure indirect cost reimbursement on research grants — most visibly, proposed caps on NIH and NSF F&A reimbursement rates that drew significant concern from the research-university community over their potential effect on the actual cost of conducting federally sponsored research. Rather than have each member association respond independently, the ten associations organized a joint subject-matter-experts process — drawing on people with direct, practical experience in university finance, sponsored-programs administration, F&A rate regulation, and research project leadership — to develop a single, shared set of recommendations for federal officials and Congress.

What JAG has produced

JAG’s principal public output is a set of recommendations for an updated F&A cost reimbursement model, released to federal officials, Congress, and the broader research community. The stated aim of the proposal is a more efficient, transparent structure for funding the real indirect costs institutions incur running federally sponsored research — costs such as facility operation and maintenance, research administration, and compliance infrastructure — while addressing federal officials’ stated concerns about the current negotiated-rate system’s complexity and variability across institutions. JAG has also held informational webinars and town halls for the research-administration community as part of communicating its recommendations. Because this is an active, ongoing federal-policy process rather than a settled regulatory change, research administrators should treat JAG’s recommendations as a proposal under consideration, not as a change already reflected in 2 CFR 200 or in any institution’s current NICRA.

What JAG is not

JAG is not a standards-setting body and has no regulatory authority. It does not negotiate, set, cap, or approve any individual institution’s indirect cost rate — that remains the function of each institution’s federal cognizant agency under the Uniform Guidance at 2 CFR 200 Subpart E, formalized in the institution’s own NICRA. JAG also is not a single association; it is a coordinating coalition of ten existing associations, several of which continue to publish their own separate F&A policy guidance independent of JAG’s joint recommendations.

Why this matters for research administrators

Indirect cost reimbursement policy is a live, high-stakes issue for research institutions’ financial sustainability, and JAG is currently the primary coordinated voice representing the higher-education and research-institution perspective in that federal policy conversation. Research administrators tracking proposed changes to F&A reimbursement — whether for internal budgeting, board briefings, or federal-relations purposes — should monitor JAG’s published recommendations alongside their own institution’s federal relations office and their member associations’ individual guidance, since JAG’s proposals, if adopted in whole or in part, would materially change how F&A costs are funded relative to the current negotiated-rate system.