Cost sharing is when resources are contributed to a sponsored project over and above the support provided by the extramural sponsor of that project. This means that the sponsor does not fully reimburse the campus for all allowable costs associated with the project and the terms of the award may require the University to contribute a portion of the costs for that project. The requirements of the award and the funding source determine the type of contribution.

Priority is given to cost-share for projects that are cross-college, multi-PI strategic opportunities for campus, have a requirement for cost-share in the solicitation, and (if funded) will generate F&A.

Cost Share Tracking on Sponsored Projects

When cost share is committed on a proposal, it must be tracked and included with the proposal documents that are submitted to SPO for review. The cost share will be tracked throughout the life of the project, through the revised budget and award stages. Committed cost share is explicitly quantified in the proposal AND reporting on the cost share is required in the award agreement.

The details of the committed cost share are tracked and communicated between SPO/TIA, EMF, and the administering department via the Cost Share Commitment Form (CSC Form).

The CSC Form is a Google Sheet and contains the following sections: 

• Proposed (Section II)
• Revision tab Awarded (Section III)
• Funded (Section IV)
• Accounting (Section V)

Form Creation and Completion

The link to the CSC Form will prompt the proposal preparer (the PRA) to create a copy of the form which will automatically save in the PRA’s Google Drive. The PRA can then move the form to another location, if desired. The CSC Form has been designed to be completed using Google Sheets and will print to PDF with footers that denote the form version and the date it is being printed. Please do not convert the form to Excel to avoid formatting issues. The CSC Form has hover-over notes throughout that are intended to help the PRA/RFA as they are filling out the form. There is also a Sample tab with a hypothetical example to show how a form may look when it is complete at the end of the award stage.

Form Submission and Approval

At proposal stage and/or revised budget stage:

• The PRA will fill out the appropriate section of the Cost Share (CSC) Form (Section II for Proposed or the Revisions tab for revised budgets) and convert it to a PDF for submission to SPO.
  • The PDF version of the CSC Form, along with all backup, should be included with the detailed budget upload when the proposal or request is submitted to SPO in ORBiT.
• SPO will review* the form and accompanying documents as part of their review of the proposal or request and provide comments.
• A corrected version of the CSC Form and the backup must be included in the eFinal, after the detailed budget.

At the award acceptance stage: 

• The PRA will complete the Awarded and Funded sections (Sections III and IV) of the CSC Form and the RFA will complete the Accounting section (Section V).
• Once completed, the PRA will submit the form and all backup to SPO/TIA as a single PDF named “E_CostShare MMDDYY”.
• SPO will review* the form - Please note that SPO/TIA will not be able to fully accept and finalize an award until the completed CSC Form has been received and any corrections or comments have been addressed.
• The final form will be sent to the EMF team as part of the integration between ORBiT and OFC PGM

At each stage, SPO will verify that the commitment required by the sponsor will be met, ensure the form was filled out accurately, and confirm the proper backup from control point(s) has been provided.

Resources

UCSB Office of Research - UC Cash Request Form (google form)
For questions regarding the form or process, please contact costshare@research.ucsb.edu