Cost Sharing and Matching

Cost Sharing 

Cost sharing is that portion of the total costs — direct and indirect — of a sponsored research award that meet the following criteria:

• is not provided by the sponsor.

• is included in the itemized costs of the project or program's budget that has been approved by the sponsor.

These costs may be contributed by the university or by third parties. The university will only commit to cost-sharing on a project if it is required by the sponsor and generally only in the amount required.

Categories of Cost Sharing

• Mandatory Cost Sharing: Cost contribution required of the grantee by the sponsor as a condition of the award, such as the matching requirements of challenge awards.

• Voluntary Cost Sharing: Cost contribution voluntarily offered by the Principal Investigator and accepted by the sponsor in the program budget.

Types of Cost Sharing

• faculty effort

• other university resources such as non-faculty salaries, equipment, supplies and materials necessary for the project; letter of commitments is required by OSP.

Are cost-sharing and matching the same?  

While the terms matching and cost-sharing are often used interchangeably, matching has a specific meaning. Some agencies have programs which will "match" funds raised by the university from third parties. The match is given in addition to the basic award. Investigators can prepare budgets with full cost-sharing details and, if not provided by the sponsor, can create an appropriate budget form to show the cost-sharing.  

Cautionary Note about Matching Funds 

Federal funds cannot be used to match other federal funds. Also, one source of funds, whether internal or third party, may not be used as a match more than once, nor used to meet more than one cost-sharing requirement. 

How to Apply for University Support

The Office of Proposal Development oversees the process for Research Support Requests, please see here for additional information about submission processes.