The FDP Faculty Burden Survey

To better understand the administrative burdens placed on faculty who perform research, the Faculty Standing Committee of the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) invited 23,325 full-time faculty members who were Principal Investigators (PI) or Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PI) on active federally funded research grants to participate in a web-based survey that contained questions on the nature, size, and impact of the administrative tasks associated with their research projects. The responses of the 6,081 faculty respondents show that the administrative burden on faculty is very significant: 42% of the time spent by an average PI on a federally funded research project was reported to be expended on administrative tasks related to that project rather than on research. This administrative burden does not stem from one or a few exceptionally onerous tasks, but instead reflects the cumulative effect of the many administrative burdens imposed by different funding agencies, different offices within agencies, auditing and accrediting agencies, and academic institutions. The lack of institutional assistance contributes to the administrative workload of the faculty. Many burdens are remarkably constant across funding agencies, universities, disciplines, and faculty subgroups. The report documents the negative effect reported for these administrative burdens on the productivity of researchers, the careers of young faculty members, and the training of students.