What is Cost Sharing?
Cost-sharing: The project costs that are not borne by the sponsor. Cost sharing of effort is the provision of faculty, staff, and/or student time and related fringe benefits that were committed and provided in support of a project but are not paid for by the project sponsor. There are three types of cost sharing:
- Mandatory cost-sharing: Required by a sponsor as a condition for making an award and usually refers to an overall percentage of total project costs to be contributed by a source other than the sponsor.
- Voluntary committed cost-sharing: University faculty, staff and/or student effort that is over and above that which was not committed or budgeted for in a sponsored agreement.
- Voluntary uncommitted cost-sharing: University faculty, staff and/or student effort over and above that which is committed and budgeted for in a sponsored agreement. This differs from mandatory or voluntary committed cost sharing which is cost-sharing specifically pledged in the proposal’s budget or award. Overruns and unallowable expenses are considered voluntary uncommitted cost share.
Cost Share Best Practices
- Review and verify sources of cost share for the award that were submitted with the proposal.
- Determine a plan for tracking cost share expenses.
- Cost share should be directly charged to the Cost Share Speedtype of an award where possible. When it is not practical, then another tracking method should be used.
- If you need assistance with tracking cost share please contact your Office of Post-Award Services and Financial Compliance (PASC) grant account manager.