NSF's Cost-Sharing Policy

Updates to NSF Research Security Policies

On July 10, 2025, NSF issued an Important Notice providing updates to the agency's research security policies, including a research security training requirement, Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Program annual certification requirement, prohibition on Confucius institutes and an updated FFDR reporting and submission timeline.

The U.S. National Science Foundation generally does not allow voluntary committed cost sharing in its proposals.

NSF's Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) details NSF's cost-sharing policy. Refer to PAPPG II.D.2.f(xii) for cost sharing information for NSF proposals, and PAPPG VII.C for cost-sharing information for NSF awards.

Programs with mandatory cost sharing

A small number of NSF's programs have mandatory cost-sharing requirements, which have been authorized by the NSF director, the National Science Board or legislation. The programs that require cost sharing are:

Projects with mandatory cost sharing

Two current NSF-funded projects have mandatory cost sharing:

Computing Innovation Fellows Project 2021, Award No. 2127309, Prime Awardee: Computing Research Association (subawardees' indirect cost recovery limited to 35%)
Computing Innovation Fellows Project 2020, Award No. 2030859, Prime Awardee: Computing Research Association (subawardees' indirect cost recovery limited to 35%)

Additional resources

Implementation of the 2nd NSB Cost Sharing Report: NSF Revised Cost Sharing Policy Statement