Office of Sponsored Projects:
Post Award – Award Management
Participant Support Costs
Participant support costs (as defined in 2 CFR 200.75) are direct costs including stipends or subsistence allowances, travel allowances, and registration fees paid to or on behalf of participants or trainees (but not employees) in connection with conferences or training projects. The Uniform Guidance (2 CRF 200) requires prior approval of the Federal Agency in order to incur Participant Support Costs under federally sponsored awards. The Participant Support Costs must be incurred within the period of performance of the project and be specifically allowed by the sponsoring agency. The National Science foundation (NSF) defines participant support costs as “direct costs for items such as stipends or subsistence allowances, travel allowances and registration fees paid to or on behalf of participants or trainees (but not employees) in connection with meetings, conferences, symposia or training projects. For some educational projects conducted at local school districts, however, the participants being trained are employees. In such cases, the costs must be classified as participant support if payment is made through a stipend or training allowance method. The school district must have an accounting mechanism in place (i.e. sub-account code) to differentiate between regular salary and stipend payments.”