This policy applies to all federal and non-federal sponsored agreements. Cost sharing normally represents a reallocation of departmental or school resources to partially support an externally sponsored project. Cost sharing on federal projects must be from non-federal sources. Examples of cost sharing include contributions of personnel effort and associated fringe, equipment, tuition waiver and other direct costs associated with a project. Indirect costs may not be cost shared without the approval of the Vice Chancellor for Research or designee.
Cost sharing is classified as either mandatory or voluntary.
Voluntary cost sharing also includes situations where a commitment is not made in a proposal, but the campus absorbs costs which directly benefit the project. An agreement to cost share, whether voluntary or mandatory, represents a commitment, subject to audit, of the Amherst campus to provide the stated services or assets during the performance of the project. Although mandatory cost sharing was eliminated as a requirement by the National Institutes of Health in the eighties, mandatory cost sharing is still a requirement of some private and government sponsors. Mandatory cost sharing can include any direct cost budget item and indirect costs, depending upon the specific requirements of the sponsor. It is the policy of the Amherst campus to assume a cost-sharing commitment only when required by the sponsor or by the competitive nature of the award, and then to cost share only to the extent necessary to meet the specific requirements.