Office of Research and Project Administration

The National Science Board report to Congress on Cost Sharing is posted at

www.nsf.gov/nsb/publications/2008/rprt_congress_cs_policy.pdf

As expected, the Board recommends reinstating cost sharing on the EPSCoR,
Engineering Research Center, and Industry/University Cooperative Research
Center programs. According to the report, removing mandatory cost sharing on
these programs hampered the ability of these programs to achieve their
strategic goals and, in some cases, ³virtually eliminated the incentive for
participation by industry.²

The other recommendations focus on the need for clear communication by NSF
to the grantee community on the principles of its cost sharing policy, the
need to accurately track and report cost sharing, training of program
officers with respect to requests for voluntary cost sharing during budget
negotiations with PIs, and periodic review of cost sharing policies.

Kelvin Droegemeier, the Chair of the NSB Task Force, and Jean
Feldman, Head of the NSF Policy office will be discussing this report in
more detail, including next steps on these specific recommendations, and
further review of cost sharing by NSF, at the upcoming COGR meeting.

Tony DeCrappeo <tdecrappeo@cogr.edu>
President
Council on Governmental Relations
1200 New York Ave. NW
Suite 750
Washington, DC 20005
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202.289.6698(fax)