Participant Support Costs

Background

Participant support costs are funds used to support individuals participating in training or workshops as part of a sponsored training award. The costs are intended to enable and encourage individuals to attend conferences or training programs as part of the project without undo financial burden.

Federal rules require these costs to be tracked separately, and the agency must approve them in advance. Rebudgeting them often requires prior agency approval.

Participant support costs are also excluded from indirect cost recovery when applying NIU’s federally negotiated indirect cost rates or if otherwise stipulated by the sponsor.

Who is a Participant?

A participant is defined as a non-NIU employee who is the recipient, not the provider, of a service or training associated with a workshop, conference, seminar, symposium, or other short-term instructional or information sharing activities.

Unlike employees, participants are not required to provide any deliverables, other than meeting the program requirements (e.g., attendance, testing, etc.).

Participants may be:

• Students
• Scholars
• Scientists
• Teachers
• Private Sector Representatives

Who is Not a Participant?

• A NIU employee (including graduate assistants and student employees)
• Advisory Board Members
• Interns who have paid appointments
• Anyone who has a deliverable or is providing a service to the project
• Human research participants

Types of Projects with Participant Support Costs

Because participants do not provide services for a project it is not always clear how their activities benefit the award. Further, Uniform Guidance does not explicitly address allowability of stipends; the only allowance for payments to individuals that do not represent compensation (i.e., salary and wages) is when the purpose of the award is to provide training for selected participants and when the payment is approved by the federal agency. As such, only projects responding to funding opportunities specifically identifying participant support needs should include participant support costs.

Examples of projects where such costs would be appropriate are:

• NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) and Research Experiences for Teachers (RET)
• K-12 Education Outreach Projects

What are Participant Support Cost Categories

• Stipend
• Travel
• Subsistence
• Fees
• Other (e.g., lab or training materials if approved by sponsor)

The following are not participant support costs:

• Guest speaker or lecturer fees
• Conference support costs such as facility and audio/visual equipment rental
• Service or independent contractor agreements
• Incentives, memorabilia or gifts
• Participants in human research studies

Procedures

Pre-award

Projects that need participant support costs must include them in the proposal budget, and the budget narrative must include a description of how the costs benefit the project.

Principal Investigators should discuss their plans to pay participant support costs with their Proposal Coordinator to ensure the costs are allowed as part of the program and if so, are properly classified in the budget.

Post-award

Participant support costs will appear in the grant Financial Status Report (FSR) under the following PeopleSoft account codes:

Costs are budgeted and expensed to these account codes to meet federal tracking and reporting requirements.

Principal Investigators (PI) should closely monitor these budget categories on their Financial Summary Reports (FSR) to make sure the funds are being spent commensurate with project goals.

Any rebudgeting of these funds requires prior SPA or agency approval. If you do not anticipate using all the funds and wish to use them for other program activities, please complete a SPA Rebudget Form. Your Grants and Contracts Associate will determine if SPA can make the change internally or they must receive prior agency approval.

Any unspent participant support costs must be returned to the sponsor.

Paying Participant Support Costs

The PI and their department are responsible for initiating requests for payment of participant support funds by submitting the correct accounting form to their Grants and Contracts Associate.

Common accounting forms include:

• Scholarship/Stipend Form for stipend payments. When using this form for participant stipends, use Account Code 860230.
• Check Request Form to reimburse participants for travel, subsistence, conference fees or other expenses less than $2,500, use a Purchase Order when these expenses exceed $2,500.

If you are not sure which form to use, your Grants and Contracts Associate is available to help you.