v2026.1CASRAI Dictionary 1,610 entries across 24 domains · CC-BY 4.01,610 entries · CC-BY 4.0

Dictionary termTrack EStablev2026.2

Burn rate (grant)

The rate at which a grant's funds are being expended over time, typically expressed as currency-per-month or as a percentage of the budget consumed per period, used to forecast end-of-period spend and identify under- or over-spend trajectories.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

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Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A grant six months into a 24-month period has a burn rate of 8 percent per month, projecting a 4 percent overspend.
Is an instance
A research finance dashboard flags any award with burn rate more than 1.5 standard deviations off the linear baseline.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A snapshot total spent at month 12 is not a rate.
Not an instance
A subaward's individual line-item spend without time context is not burn rate.

Editorial commentary

Burn rate is a core monitoring metric in post-award management. It is calculated as cumulative expenditure divided by months elapsed, projected forward to estimate the end-of-period spend. Significant deviation from the planned linear or weighted profile triggers management review. Research finance dashboards often visualise burn rate alongside encumbrance and remaining commitment. The term carries different connotations in venture-funded startups, but the post-award meaning here is operational.

References

NACUBO and ARMA post-award management guidance; US NIH financial monitoring guidance.

Also known as

Spend rate · Expenditure rate · Cash burn rate (grant)

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Burn rate (grant)"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/burn-rate-grant" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/burn-rate-grant",
  "name": "Burn rate (grant)",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/burn-rate-grant",
  "description": "The rate at which a grant's funds are being expended over time, typically expressed as currency-per-month or as a percentage of the budget consumed per period, used to forecast end-of-period spend and identify under- or over-spend trajectories.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/funding-finance#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/burn-rate-grant",
  "sameAs": [
    "Spend rate",
    "Expenditure rate",
    "Cash burn rate (grant)"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-05-21T02:22:59",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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