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Guidance on Cost Share

  • Cost Sharing is the portion of total project costs NOT paid by the sponsoring agency. There are several types of cost share:
    • Mandatory cost sharing: Required by sponsor. When claiming mandatory cost share, the applicant will be required to present the published description of cost-share requirements to Office of Research and Sponsored Programs before the proposal is routed for approval in Cayuse 424.
    • Voluntary COMMITTED cost sharing: NOT required by sponsor, quantified in proposal’s budget or narrative.
    • Voluntary UNCOMMITTED cost sharing: NOT formally required by sponsor, NOT quantified in the proposal or narrative, No need not be tracked or reported to the sponsor.
    • In-Kind Contribution: An In-Kind Contribution is another form of a match and represents any non-cash donation of a good or service that can be given value and is used in achieving the project objectives. A Documentation of In-Kind Cost Sharing form must be completed for any in-kind donation and sent to the Grant Accounting Office. The form can be found here.
    • Salary Cap Cost Share: This cost sharing occurs when UCA records effort by individuals whose salary exceeds a sponsor-imposed limit for individual salaries (most notably NIH). Salary Cap Cost Sharing must be identified for effort reporting, but it is unallowable toward Mandatory Committed Cost Share.
  • We must document and verify mandatory and voluntary committed cost sharing amounts.
  • Office of Research and Sponsored Programs strongly recommends that PIs and their departments/divisions do not include cost-share on a project unless it is required by a sponsor/program.
  • If your grant includes cost share:
    • During proposal stage, PI has to submit a Request for Cost Sharing Authorization form. The form can be found here.
    • After award release is sent, Grant Accounting will create a separate index to track cost share. 
    • PI will submit a Budget Transfer Form to move the funds to the cost share index. The form can be found here.
    • PI spends the cost share funds during the project period. One common mistake to avoid is to wait until getting close to the end of the project for spending cost share funds. 
    • If cost-share includes a portion of PI’s salary, PI has to reflect that in PAF.