What is cost sharing?
Cost sharing is the financial support contributed by universities to sponsored projects. Some federal agencies have a long-standing expectation that the cost of the research they sponsor will be shared by universities because the benefits are shared. The notion is that research often provides important educational benefits to students (both in exposure to leading-edge ideas and in financial assistance) as well as professional benefits to the faculty. These agencies argue, therefore, that universities should be willing to help support sponsored projects. This general expectation is open to various interpretations by agencies and institutions, and therefore, specific cost-sharing requirements vary widely from sponsor to sponsor. For some sponsored programs, cost sharing has been made a requirement by Congress. In others, cost sharing is explicitly mandated by the sponsoring agency in the written program guidelines. In other programs, however, cost sharing is more expectation than require
