AAMC President and CEO David J. Skorton, MD, issued the following statement reiterating the AAMC’s ongoing support for the Financial Accountability in Research (FAIR) model:
“As a founding member and ongoing contributor to the Joint Associations Group on Indirect Costs (JAG), the AAMC reiterates its strong support for the Financial Accountability in Research (FAIR) model. In addition to the other founding organizations, more than 160 other national organizations across the research community have expressed their support for the FAIR model as an alternative to the impractical policies that federal research agencies have sought to impose on research institutions for determining facilities and administrative (F&A) costs for federally funded research.
The federal investment in research – including medical research supported by the National Institutes of Health at medical schools, academic health systems, and teaching hospitals nationwide – drives the nation’s global leadership in innovation and results in new and more effective treatments, diagnostics, therapies, and cures that improve people’s health and drive economic prosperity. Support for F&A costs – including state-of-the-art research laboratories, high-speed data processing, maintenance of research infrastructure such as electricity and utilities, and compliance with security, health, and safety protocols – is indispensable to enable research to occur.
In the FAIR model, the JAG has put forward a proposal that further enhances transparency and accountability associated with the federal government’s support for these real expenses at research institutions across the country. Developed by subject matter experts from within and beyond the research community and informed by elements of the private foundation funding model and industry charging structures, the approach enhances visibility of research costs for taxpayers, government officials, researchers, and institutions alike, without undermining the critical support that makes research possible.
The AAMC urges policymakers to embrace and codify the FAIR model.”