To establish guidelines for the charging and approval of expenditures on awards from non-federal sponsors which do not reimburse the University at the approved Facility and Administrative cost rate.
November 2003
revisedDecember 2014
May 2024
Responsible OfficeResearch Services
Research Services
The cost of a sponsored project is comprised of both direct costs incident to its performance plus a portion of the Facility and Administrative (F&A) costs of the University. Direct costs are those costs that can be specifically identified with a particular sponsored project, an instructional activity, or any other institutional activity relatively easily and with a high degree of accuracy. Typical costs charged directly to a sponsored project include but are not limited to: the compensation of employees working on the project; employee benefits; the cost of supplies and equipment used solely in the performance of the project; travel; sub-awards costs; service center charges; human subject fees and long distance telephone costs.
In order for the university to recover costs that are typically included in our Facility and Administrative rate from sponsors that do not reimburse the university at the full approved rate, schools and centers are encouraged to include the costs identified below in proposals to these sponsors for grant and contract awards. The items of cost that may be requested for reimbursement are:
Sponsor approval must be granted in the terms and conditions of the award prior to charging these costs to any project.
As with federally sponsored projects, the Principal Investigator is responsible for the management and administration of the award within the constraints imposed by the sponsor and in accordance with University policy. The Principal Investigator must authorize all expenditures of project funds.
Documentation of the appropriateness of these expenses in relation to the project must be maintained by the department. Appropriateness of the cost must also be considered prior to processing the expenditure. The factors for assessing appropriateness are allowability, allocability, and reasonableness as explained below:
Sponsor limitations on specific items of direct cost expenditures are included in, or referred to, the Account Information Sheet (AIS) or the Notice of Award.
Certain costs may not be charged to sponsored projects either as direct costs or as part of the F&A rate. See Policy No. 2111 for a description of unallowable costs.
The source of this document is Research Services.