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Cost Sharing Policies and Procedures
(Revised 1/13/2006)

The Associate Dean for Research (ADR) is charged with distributing and overseeing the College of Engineering's cost sharing commitments in support of sponsored research. Below is information on how to request cost sharing, how requests are evaluated, and when additional funds may be provided by the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR).

Requesting Cost Sharing
To make a request for cost sharing on a research proposal, please email the Associate Dean for Research with the information below no less than one week before the proposal deadline.

Be sure to include the approval email(s) from the ADR and/or OVPR with your proposal approval form. In the proposal budget the cost sharing commitment must be reflected in the budget calculation, and the budget justification must clearly state how the cost sharing will be allocated and spent.

Information to Provide When Requesting Cost-Sharing
In making requests for cost sharing on research proposals, the ADR requires certain common information to evaluate the request against College of Engineering priorities and other cost sharing requests. All requests for cost sharing should include:

1. Brief description of the proposal
2. Sponsor or agency to which the proposal will be submitted
3. Total budget request and project duration (number of years) and what fraction will be through the U-M and the College, respectively
4. Total amount of cost-sharing being requested
5. Is cost sharing explicitly required by the sponsor? If not, is it expected? If so, what percent of the total budget is expected to be cost shared, or what is the going rate for funded proposals of the same scope from that agency?
6. What will cost sharing be used for (equipment, etc. List specific items)?
7. List participating departments, principal investigator (PI), co-PI(s), and other participating faculty.

Cost sharing commitments must be reflected in the budget calculation, and the budget justification must clearly state how the cost sharing will be allocated and spent.

For requests below $30,000, the expectation is that the College and the Department (or PI) will share equally in the cost sharing. In all cases, cost sharing must be approved by the department first, before submission to the College.

Priority System for Evaluating Cost-Sharing Requests
1st priority: Cost sharing is required by the funding agency.
2nd priority: Cost sharing that is not explicitly required, but is strongly recommended or encouraged by the agency or program manager, as evidenced by the cost sharing levels of successful grants in the same program. Also includes cost sharing to support strategic CoE or U-M research initiatives, and equipment and facilities that strengthen the CoE infrastructure.
3rd priority: All other requests.

Cost-Sharing Support from OVPR
Requests for cost sharing above $30,000 are eligible for cost sharing support by the Office of the Vice President for Research according the following guidelines:

• OVPR will cost share at a "minimum" level of $10,000.
• OVPR will provide no more than 1/3 of the total equipment cost sharing request.
• OVPR will provide a maximum of $100,000 per year for any given proposal.

For requests that meet these criteria, cost sharing will follow the formula:
1/3 OVPR - 1/3 College - 1/3 Department(s)/PI(s)

In this cases, cost sharing must be approved by the department first, followed by the College, then OVPR.

New cost-sharing pilot program for graduate student support
The Rackham Graduate School, College of Engineering and Office of the Vice President for Research have agreed on a pilot cost-sharing program for supporting Ph.D. students.  The program will begin implementation immediately on new proposals. 

The objective of the Rackham-CoE-OVPR pilot program is to support interdisciplinary multi-investigator research programs. It will provide support for a fourth GSRA as cost-share for every three GSRAs that are supported by the external grant, through the duration that the grant supports the other GSRAs.  The cost share support is capped to two GSRAs per project/grant.  Support at the Ph.D. candidate level is preferred.

CoE, OVPR and Rackham each contribute 1/3 of the cost of the graduate student support.  As such, the standard cost-sharing procedure that has been used by CoE and OVPR will be followed in the student support program except that Rackham will provide 1/3 of the cost share instead of the PI/department.  To make a request for such cost share, the PI will initiate the discussion with Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education in the College, upon agreement the ADR will then make the requests to OVPR and Rackham on behalf of the PI. Commitment to cost share requests depends on availability of funds.

The pilot program will be run for two years with the option for a third year.