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

Dictionary termTrack EStablev2026.2

Direct costs

Project costs that can be specifically and unambiguously attributed to a single sponsored research activity, including project-specific personnel salaries, materials and consumables, equipment, travel, and subaward costs.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

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Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A postdoctoral salary charged 100 percent to a grant for the duration of an award is a direct cost.
Is an instance
Reagents ordered for a specific experiment and consumed entirely on the project are direct costs.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
The salary of a departmental secretary supporting many projects is typically indirect.
Not an instance
Utilities for the building are indirect, not direct.

Editorial commentary

Direct costs sit opposite indirect costs (overheads). Funder rules define which categories are eligible and how they must be documented. In US federal awards under 2 CFR 200 (Uniform Guidance), direct costs must satisfy allowability, allocability, reasonableness, and consistency criteria. In Horizon Europe, direct costs are subdivided into A (personnel), B (subcontracting), C (purchase costs: travel, equipment depreciation, other goods/works/services), D (other), and E (in-kind contributions). Mis-classification between direct and indirect is the most frequent audit finding.

References

US Office of Management and Budget Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200; Horizon Europe Annotated Grant Agreement.

Also known as

DC · Direct project costs

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Direct costs"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/direct-costs" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

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  "sameAs": [
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  "dateModified": "2026-05-21T02:22:58",
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