Cost Sharing for Investigators

1. Cost Sharing for Investigators

2. What is Cost Sharing? • Cost Share or matching means that portion of project or program costs not borne by the funding agency. • It includes all contributions, including cash and in-kind, that a recipient makes to an award. This means the government does not fully reimburse the performer for all allowable costs associated with the specific effort.

3. What is Cost Sharing? • Cost sharing effort is included in the calculation of total committed effort. Effort is defined as the portion of time spent on a particular activity expressed as a percentage of the individual’s total activity for the institution.

4. What is Cost Sharing? • Cost Sharing is auditable and must be allowable under cost principles and verifiable to records. Cost sharing costs must occur during the life of the project.

5. What is Cost Sharing? • If the award is federal, only acceptable non-federal costs qualify as cost sharing and must conform to other necessary and reasonable provisions to accomplish the program objectives.

6. Cost Share Must Be: • Allowable: Acceptable per the agreement, regulations, and public laws. • Reasonable: A prudent person would have purchased this item and paid this price. • Allocable: Can be assigned to the activity on some reasonable basis.

7. Example of Cost Sharing • Personnel listed on the project budget (showing % effort) for whom no salary is requested in the budget, or if salary is requested, it is less than what is needed to pay for the entire % effort. • In addition the fringe benefits and indirect costs associated with those costs, would be considered cost sharing.

8. Sources of Cost Sharing • University Funds • Unrecovered Facilities and Administration (F&A) costs • Third party contributions • Other sponsored project (non-federal)

9. Mandatory Cost Sharing • Mandatory cost sharing is required by sponsor as a condition of obtaining an award. It must be included or a proposal will receive no consideration by the sponsor.

10. Voluntary Committed Cost Sharing • Voluntary Committed Cost Sharing represents resources offered by the university (documented and quantified in the proposal) when it is not a specific sponsor requirement. It becomes a binding commitment which the university must provide as part of the performance of the sponsored agreement.

11. Uncommitted Voluntary Cost Sharing • When a faculty and/or senior researchers donate effort to sponsored agreements over and above that which is committed and budgeted for in a sponsored agreement as either sponsor paid or cost shared.