Cost Share is the portion of a project or program cost that the sponsor does not pay for. It is the University’s share in the cost of conducting the project/program. Cost sharing occurs either when a sponsor requires, or the University volunteers in a proposal, funds beyond those awarded by the sponsoring agency to support a particular grant or contract.
These costs are charged to an alternate source (UW or third party). You must identify all sources, and they must agree (via the eGC1 approval process) to commit the necessary funds. For more information, review the GCA Cost Sharing Page or the GIM 21 Cost Sharing Policy.
This page is used to indicate the types and amounts of any cost sharing for this proposal.
Note: When the Fiscal Compliance question F-3 is answered Yes, then cost sharing information is required and the fields will become editable.
Cost Sharing sections:
Cost Sharing Addendum Form
Cost sharing occurs when the research grant does not pay for all allowable expenses (personnel, tuition, equipment or services). For detailed information on cost sharing, see the GCA Cost Sharing Page or GIM 21 Cost Share on Sponsored Programs.
When applicable, the PI or department must complete and submit the eGC1 Cost Sharing Addendum to OSP at the time of award. If OSP has not received this form before they send the Funding Action to GCA, then GCA will set up the account with restricted 02 status. GCA will block any related advance budget requests.
Cost Sharing Types
Cost sharing occurs when the research grant does not pay for all allowable expenses (personnel, tuition, equipment or services). For detailed information on cost sharing, review the GCA Cost Sharing Page or the UW Cost Sharing Policy.

See the sponsor’s guidelines for this information. The University discourages cost sharing commitments when not required by the sponsor.
Field |
Description |
Mandatory |
Check this box if mandatory cost sharing is required by the sponsor as a condition of the award. |
Amount or percentage pledged |
Enter the dollar amount or percentage of the direct cost required for cost sharing by the funding sponsor. |
If sponsor has a web page… |
Enter the web address (URL) for the sponsor’s page that provides specific information about their requirements, if available. Otherwise, attach appropriate sponsor cost sharing documentation. |
Voluntary |
Check this to indicate voluntary cost sharing, which is a voluntary contribution of effort or other costs offered by the Principal Investigator (PI) but not required by the sponsor as condition of the award. |
Amount or percentage pledged |
Enter the dollar amount or percentage of the direct cost voluntarily contributed toward this project. Because the sponsor does not require this as a condition of the award, the University discourages this type of cost sharing. |
Explain and justify |
Enter an explanation for this cost sharing. |
Personnel Cost Sharing
Personnel cost sharing refers to amounts committed by any UW unit for personnel salaries (plus benefits and Facilities & Administrative costs). This table reflects personnel entered on the Personnel screen.

By default, personnel cost sharing is assigned to the individual’s home or primary department. If the cost sharing source is not the home department, click the Change the Cost Center? link to identify the correct unit, and provide an explanation in the Additional Information box on the Certify & Route page.
The information displayed is the person’s name and the Cost Sharing Cost Center ID and Name for the person’s primary department.
Use the Amount field to enter the dollar amount of the cost sharing for this person, for all budget periods combined. If there is no amount, leave the field blank.
UW Cost Sharing (Other)
UW cost sharing refers to non-personnel (non-salary) and “TBA” (to be assigned) Personnel items only. You enter Personnel (salary) cost sharing in the Personnel section.

Add a Cost Center
Click the Look Up Cost Center button to open the Cost Center Chooser and search for and select a department or unit. The selected Cost Center ID and Name will display.
Enter a Description and Amount for this item (direct costs plus the third party’s F&A costs) for all budget periods combined.
To add another department or unit, click the Add another Cost Center link.
Delete a Cost Center
Remove an existing entry by clicking the Delete link to its right.
Addendum Form
In addition to entering cost sharing data on the eGC1, you must complete the Cost Sharing Addendum form and submit it to OSP at the time they are reviewing the application.
Third Party Cost Sharing
Third party cost sharing is an amount that a non-UW source has committed. For each contribution, enter appropriate information and attach a letter of commitment from the third party source on the Attached Documents page.

To add rows, click the Add another Contributor/Subaward Recipient link. Add a Description of the item, and the total dollar Amount (direct costs plus the third party’s F&A costs) for all budget periods combined.
To delete an existing entry, click the Delete link to right of that entry.
Unrecovered F&A Costs
Sometimes the University’s Facilities & Administration (F&A or indirect cost) rate is higher than the rate agreed to on an award. As a result, the University is awarded F&A Costs at lower than the negotiated rate. In this situation, the University ends up with a shortfall called “unrecovered F&A costs.” Some sponsors allow this shortfall to be applied as a cost share contribution.
If you are entering unrecovered F&A costs as cost sharing, you must complete the eGC1 Cost Sharing Addendum form. On the addendum, be sure to indicate the source of cost sharing as “unrecovered F&A costs.”
You may use Unrecovered F&A costs as a source of cost sharing if the sponsor guidelines indicate that “unrecovered F&A costs” are a valid cost sharing contribution or if prior sponsor approval is obtained. See the GCA Unrecovered Indirect Cost Page for more information.
Enter the unrecovered F&A cost amount.

UW Summary by Unit
This section displays the grand total of all UW personnel and non-personnel cost sharing amounts for each UW unit (by Cost Center). The total does not include Third Party amounts.
For each unit, the system displays the Cost Center ID, Cost Center Name, and Amount.

Total Cost Sharing
This section displays the total cost sharing from all UW sources (personnel and non-personnel), third party sources and Unrecovered Facilities & Administration (F&A) costs. This amount is automatically calculated by SAGE.

You can review a comprehensive list of Research Administration course offerings covering SAGE and other aspects of the research lifecycle and sign up for classes on the CORE (Collaborative for Research Education) page. For on-demand resources including eLearnings and job aids, check the Research Administration Classes section of the SAGE landing page.
You can also use the SAGE Training Site, which is intended solely for practice. None of the data you enter there will cause reviewer notifications or any other communications to occur.
Access the SAGE Training Site with your UW NetID from the SAGE Home Page just below the main Sign In button. ASTRA permissions are not required for the Training Site.
To learn more about SAGE Budget or SAGE Award Setup and Modifications, visit the curated collections of training resources that include job aids, videos, on-demand eLearnings, and links to the live classes:
To learn more about grant administration at the University of Washington, review the Welcome to SAGE web page.
In addition, visit some of the research administration essential resources:
Other research administration training opportunities, live events and office hours:
SAGE is available 24/7 with the following exceptions:
- When the SAGE team releases planned updates to improve SAGE. You can sign up for System Notifications on the Manage Your Subscriptions page. A pink banner at the top of all SAGE pages will also announce the date and time of an upcoming release.
- When central systems have unplanned downtime.
The ORIS Support Desk provides assistance for SAGE users from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday, when the UW is open.
Sub budgets may be included in any budget. Each type of sub budget serves a particular purpose.
Field |
Description |
Internal UW Budget |
Since it inherits all of the parent budget’s UW business rules, benefit rates, and F&A settings, it can be used to break out budgets for separate UW departments, for example. |
Fabrication Budget |
The data in this sub budget rolls up to a single line on the parent budget under the (06) Equipment category. |
Subcontract Budget |
The data in this sub budget rolls up to a single line on the parent budget under the (03) Other Contractual Service category.
A subcontract sub budget can also support custom external F&A rates and external benefit rates. |
The Sub Budgets tab lists all sub budgets associated with the parent budget.

If there are existing sub budgets, the following information displays:
Field |
Description |
Ref # |
The unique number assigned to the sub budget. Click it to display the budget’s worksheet. |
Type |
Internal UW Budget, Fabrication Budget, or Subcontract Budget |
Working Title |
The name of the sub budget. |
Origin |
Describes the source of this sub budget – either created directly or imported (copied). |
A Delete link displays to the far right of each sub budget listed. Click the link to remove the sub budget from the parent budget.
Below the list are two links.
- Add Sub Budget: Click this to create a new sub budget.
- Import Existing Budget: Click this to search for and select an existing budget to be related to this parent budget. The imported budget will be added as an Internal UW type sub budget.
Another way to access a sub budget is through the list at the bottom of the parent worksheet.

This page allows the eGC1 Preparer to add an Administrative Contact and a Pre-Award Budget Contact, both of whom are optional.
In the Access section, the preparer and other owners (contacts and PI) are listed. One person may hold more than one of these roles. Owners have edit access.
With edit access, you can give other individuals read-only or read/write access to the application. Review Assign Access for how-to steps.
When you connect a SAGE budget to an eGC1, then the Budget Preparer is listed in addition to the eGC1 Preparer, and the two items have a shared access page.
If you create an Advance Budget Request for the eGC1 (with or without a connected budget), the Advance Preparer(s) and any others assigned access to the Advance will also be listed in the Access section of the eGC1’s page.
The System to Administer Grants Electronically (SAGE) is an internal UW web-based compliance and approval routing system for sponsored grant applications and Non-Award Agreements (NAA). Review details on when an eGC1 is required.
In the University of Washington’s grant lifecycle, you would use SAGE during the Application phase, and to manage subawards.
The eGC1 (electronic Grant and Contract form) is a required online UW form. It summarizes information about your grant application and routes it electronically for review and approval before submission to the sponsor.
There are 4 stages to an eGC1 application:
- The PI and/or Research Administrator on the research team prepare the eGC1.
- The application routes to campus reviewers to review and approve.
- The application is Ready to Submit and reaches a status of In OSP at least 3 business days prior to the sponsor’s deadline. This allows sufficient time for OSP to review and approve application.
- OSP approves the application and submits it to the sponsor.
The following articles in this guide explain how to access SAGE with the appropriate ASTRA (Access to Systems, Tools, Resources and Applications) roles, and how to complete your eGC1 and route it for approval.
This page includes three sections:
- Fiscal Compliance: contains three required questions
- Connect a SAGE Budget: you have the option to connect your budget and application, which will populate the eGC1 Budget section
- eGC1 Budget: summary budget information for the current period and the project
Note: for a Grant Runner application using the RR Detailed Budget, the data from a connected budget will also populate the RR Detailed Budget form.
The following articles, linked above, cover these sections in more detail.
What is Grant Runner?
Grant Runner enables you to complete grants.gov applications for certain National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding opportunities from directly within SAGE. It integrates the standard government grant application forms (also known as the SF424 Forms) with the UW electronic grants and contract (eGC1) application. With the click of a button, the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) can electronically submit your application via Grants.gov to the sponsor.
What are the Benefits of Grant Runner?
- You can complete the SF424 form set directly in SAGE.
- Grant Runner pre-populates your SF424 forms with UW institutional codes, OSP contact information, and other standard material.
- Grant Runner automatically checks for common SF424 errors. It alerts you when you need to complete a required field or adjust an entry to meet NIH standards.
- You can view the Grants.gov tracking number and NIH status directly from the History and Comments section of your eGC1.
Who is Eligible to use Grant Runner?
You can use Grant Runner if you are completing any of the supported National Institutes of Health activity codes.
The Grant Runner Wizard will step you through a series of questions to verify if your application is eligible to use the automated submission process to Grants.gov. To complete the wizard, you must provide the funding opportunity number. Be sure to note this number when you search for funding opportunities on Grants.gov.
If your funding opportunity does not meet the Grant Runner eligibility criteria, you may begin a standard (non-Grant Runner) eGC1 form. You will then need to complete an application via NIH’s Application Submission System & Interface for Submission Tracking (ASSIST) system.
If you’re new to Grant Runner, you might want to read Before You Begin for information on preliminary steps (account setup, SAGE access, etc.).
For help with specific Grant Runner forms, see the corresponding user guide article.