Cost-sharing

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

It is not provided by the sponsor, i.e., Dartmouth College has agreed to fund it.
It is included in the itemized costs of the project or program's budget that has been approved by the sponsor.

Cost sharing as defined above may be included in either of the following categories:

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.

Cost sharing is a requirement for receiving an award from certain agencies and is proposed in the budget of the original proposal from Dartmouth to the prospective awarding agency. When the award is received, that same budget, or a modification of it, is referenced to and a condition of, the award. This means that Dartmouth is responsible for recording cost sharing in a centralized location (Office of Sponsored Projects), available and subject to audit. If Dartmouth is called upon to demonstrate cost sharing to an agency and does not have the documentation to do so, costs may be disallowed and future funding jeopardized.

Quick Reference

Portion of total costs paid by Dartmouth College.
Itemized cost share expenses reviewed by sponsor.
Mandatory/Voluntary cost share.
Cost Sharing is reportable and auditable.
Cost Sharing is signed off by fiscal office via routing form; GL-account to be provided by department.
When the Notice of Award makes no mention of Cost Sharing, but it was listed in the proposal, we still need to capture it.
When cost sharing clinic or hospital employee’s salary and fringe benefits, a DHMC Cost Share Form must be filled out, once fully signed, a copy needs to be kept by department, original is sent to Office of Sponsored Projects Grant Manager for that particular department.

Federal Regulations Regarding Cost Share Dollars

In order to be acceptable for cost sharing, costs must:

(Per OMB Circular A-21):

Be allocable, i.e., necessary and reasonable for proper and efficient accomplishment of sponsored research award objectives.
Be allowable under the applicable cost principles.

(Per OMB Circular A-110):

Be verifiable from the grantee's records.
Not be included as contributions for any other federally-assisted sponsored research award.
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 Circular A-110.

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.

Recording of Cost Share Transactions

Costs financed by departmental budgets or any other non-federal fund source(s) may be claimed as a cost sharing contribution for a federal sponsored research award if they are directly identifiable with the applicable federal research award and are contributed during the performance period of the sponsored research award. Again, this depends upon how the cost sharing was proposed. Costs which duplicate the types of costs included in the Facilities and Administration Cost rate and costs which are charged to another federal sponsored research award cannot be used as cost sharing.

Typically, cost sharing is derived from university funded salaries and wages of faculty and staff directly engaged in the award along with the employee benefits and Facilities and Administration Costs associated with those salaries.

You will be asked for a department account to be charged for the costs. A payroll authorization will need to be created to put the appropriate personnel on and off the cost share PTAEO account. If cost sharing Clinic or Hospital employee salary and fringe benefits, a DHMC Cost Share Form must be filled out. Once the form is fully signed, the original should be sent to the Office of Sponsored Projects Grant Manger for that particular department.