A contribution to a sponsored project that is required by the sponsor as a condition of the award and must be documented, tracked, and reported, typically as a percentage of total project cost or as a specific dollar value.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
An NSF MRI award requires 30 percent cost share, to be met from institutional funds and quarterly reported.
Is an instance
A Horizon Europe co-funded action mandates 50 percent national contribution as cost share.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
An institution's optional decision to contribute beyond what is required is voluntary cost share.
Not an instance
A subaward partner's salary charge to the project is not cost share.

Editorial commentary

Mandatory cost share is explicitly stated in a funding opportunity announcement or solicitation. It commits the recipient to provide a defined level of non-sponsor resources (cash, salary, equipment, third-party in-kind) to the project. Once committed, mandatory cost share must be tracked through the institution's financial system and reported to the sponsor. Under-delivery may trigger award reduction or disallowance. Many US NSF programmes and EU co-funded actions feature mandatory cost share.

References

US Office of Management and Budget Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200.306; NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide.

Also known as

Required cost share · Mandatory matching

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Cost share (mandatory)"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/cost-share-mandatory" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/cost-share-mandatory",
  "name": "Cost share (mandatory)",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/cost-share-mandatory",
  "description": "A contribution to a sponsored project that is required by the sponsor as a condition of the award and must be documented, tracked, and reported, typically as a percentage of total project cost or as a specific dollar value.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/funding-finance#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/cost-share-mandatory",
  "sameAs": [
    "Required cost share",
    "Mandatory matching"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-05-21T02:22:58",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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