University of Montana Office of Research and Development faces possible $675,000 deficit

University of Montana budget and accounting officials are hustling to stave off a significant projected deficit in the Office of Research and Development http://www.umt.edu/research/ .

Earlier in the month, the projected deficit – in a worst-case scenario – was $1.2 million.

But as campus accounting, budgeting and grant experts dove deeper into the numbers, the shortfall decreased to about $675,000, said Bill Muse, associate vice president for UM’s Office of Planning, Budget and Analysis.
Although UM wrangled a record-breaking $62 million in research grants last year, there is a cash flow problem.

The projected deficit is rooted in an overhead account that deals with the portion of federal grants called “indirect costs,” which is money UM receives from granting agencies to pay bills and other expenses related to the funded research.

By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/articles/2008/09/21/news/local/news05.txt