Research Universities Defeat DoD Cap on Research Cost Rates

The Department of Defense on Friday became the fourth federal agency to have its across-the-board cap on indirect research costs struck down by a federal judge.

Universities and academic membership groups won an order setting aside the Pentagon’s cost-saving proposal that schools said would have ground research to a halt and led to cutbacks at research institutions across the country.

The Defense Department’s “obtuseness to the obvious effects of this policy, including on their own mission, renders [the policy] arbitrary and capricious,” said Judge Brian E. Murphy of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. “Even more, it ...