Cost Sharing Requirements
Many sponsored agreements require that the university and or a third party contribute a portion of the costs of the project being performed. Documentation and accounting for cost sharing is as important as documentation of costs charged to the sponsor.
Cost sharing requirements may be achieved in several ways including:
Split Funded Purchases
A purchase of budgeted items, generally equipment, may be made utilizing project, departmental, and/or funds from the Ohio Board of Regents. Researchers will need to work with the department providing the cost sharing contribution (such as the Office of Research for equipment cost sharing) in order to access cost sharing funds. Cost sharing for split funded purchases is captured in the project budget at the time the purchase order is created and reported directly to the sponsor by the Research Foundation.
Third Party Cost Sharing
This is generally accomplished through a subcontract to either a vendor or a subrecipient of the award whereby the subcontractor agrees to contribute additional support to the effort. The Research Foundation will post the cost sharing to the project financial statement after it is reported by the subcontractor.
Cost Sharing Reporting Requirements
To report cost sharing expenditures not captured on Research Foundation purchase orders, investigators submit a copy of the Ohio State monthly Financial Statement (or other equivalent documentation), annotated with those items to be reflected as cost sharing on the appropriate Research Foundation project along with a statement of certification. The Research Foundation will record these expenditures on the project and report them to the sponsor as part of the regular fiscal reporting.
If cost sharing is to be provided by a third-party agency (other than through a subcontract), documentation equivalent to that cited earlier is required from that agency. The principal investigator is required to obtain this documentation. The Research Foundation will report third-party cost sharing to sponsors but will not post these expenditures to the project financial statements.
