Definition
Investigators occasionally must create equipment that is not available elsewhere. Fabricated equipment items are created either for use by the sponsor or for use by the University. Fabricated equipment is defined as an item of equipment that is built or assembled from individual parts by a PI and/or other sponsored project personnel, an internal shop, or an external shop with and aggregate cost of $5000 or more. When a completed item of fabricated equipment has an aggregate cost of $5,000 or more and when that item will be recorded as capital equipment in the University's asset system, the individual component costs associated with the fabrication (regardless of the individual amounts) will not be assessed indirect costs (also known as "Facilities & Administrative (F&A)" or "IDC"),
To be considered a fabrication, all components must work as one unit; parts alone are not considered a fabrication. All items that comprise the fabrication project are considered "equipment" regardless of the dollar amount of those items. An instance where components are simply connected together in a system, such as when individual computers and servers are joined to create a network, does not constitute a fabrication.
Fabrication does not apply to swapping out parts in a completed piece of equipment
Standard items that are altered or customized to make them usable on a sponsored project do not qualify as fabricated property.