I have heard the term "imputed cost share" used before. What does that mean?

Answer

For federally funded research programs, the University is required to show some level of effort by the PI or senior researchers.  In cases where the federally funded project has no direct salary charged or cost share effort provided by the PI or senior researchers, an estimated amount of effort must be computed by the University and included in the organized research base for use in the indirect cost study.  The term “imputed cost share” is sometimes used to describe this estimated level of effort that has been attributed to, or assigned to, the organized research base under this requirement.