[secabeen]

Close. Many universities don't charge overhead (which is usually 50%+, not 20%) on large equipment purchases. Faculty successfully made the case that it doesn't cost $450k to house a $1 million instrument as compared to $1 million in salaries for researchers.

Also, costs for graduate students do not linearly map to costs for Post-Docs and PIs. This would de-couple the funding for graduate students from the actual enrollment, and would make the computation of the appropriate overhead rate even more complicated and fraught than it already is.

The other important thing to note is that the grantors don't pay the overhead until the actual underlying cost is incurred. Trying to project what it would be would be very hard.