Cost Sharing

Types of Cost Sharing

Mandatory Cost Sharing

Cost contribution required of the grantee by the sponsor as a condition of the award. For cost share tracking purposes, this means we need to set up a cost share account(s) for that grant or have In Kind Contribution forms completed for each individual who is donating/cost sharing a portion of their time to the grant.

Voluntary Cost Sharing

Cost contribution voluntarily offered by the Principal Investigator and accepted by the sponsor in the program budget. For cost share tracking purposes, this means we need to set up a cost share account(s) for that grant or have In Kind Contribution forms completed for each individual who is donating/cost sharing a portion of their time to the grant.

Voluntary Uncommitted Cost Sharing

Cost contribution not required by the sponsor and is not included in the proposal or award. We do not need to track or report this form of cost sharing.

Uniform Guidance Implementation

With the implementation of the Uniform Guidance which includes the administrative, cost and audit procedures for federal awards, the government puts limitations on federal agencies in issuing funding announcements that require cost sharing.  As stated in the Uniform Guidance under section 200.306 Cost Sharing "Cost sharing on federal proposals cannot be used as a factor during the merit review of a proposal except in certain circumstances."

Federal Regulations Regarding Cost Share Dollars

In order to be acceptable for cost sharing, per the Uniform Guidance costs must:

• Be allocable, i.e., necessary and reasonable for proper and efficient accomplishment of sponsored project award objectives
• Be allowable under the applicable cost principles
• Be verifiable from the grantee's records
• Not be included as contributions for any other federally-assisted sponsored project awards
• Not be paid by the Federal Government under another award, except where authorized by federal statute to be used for cost sharing or matching
• Be provided for in the approved budget when required by the federal awarding agency.
• Not be unrecovered Facilities and Administration Costs without prior approval of the federal awarding agency
• Conform to all other applicable provisions of the Uniform Guidance

Required Approvals for Cost Sharing

When cost sharing appears on a proposal budget, the source, type and amount of funds should be identified by and authorized by the signature of the appropriate dean. If the proposal budget contains required matching funds, the Development Office should also review it to ascertain who is responsible for raising the funds externally.

Tracking Cost Share Transactions

• Department needs to send the Office of Sponsored Projects a GL Account before we can set up a Cost Share PTA Account (The Office of Sponsored Projects will take care of inputting the Cost Share Budget).
• The Office of Sponsored Projects sets up a Cost Share PTA Account, the Award portion of the PTA  Account will have a C00XXX Number assigned, and this lets you know this is a Cost Share PTA Account.
• All Cost Share direct cost expenses should be charged directly to the Cost Share PTA Account, however if only indirect costs are being cost shared, they are cost shared on the main PTA Account.