Participant Support Costs
Payments to non-employee participants in a project: stipends, travel, registration, that are excluded from the F&A base.
Participant support costs cover people who take part in a funded activity such as a conference, training program, or workshop but aren't employees working on the project: their stipends, travel, subsistence, and fees. NSF in particular requires them to be budgeted and tracked in a separate category.
They're excluded from the Modified Total Direct Cost base, so they carry no F&A, and moving money out of this category usually requires sponsor prior approval.
Rebudgeting participant support into other costs without approval, or charging F&A on it, is a frequent compliance error.
Track this in GrantsManager
GrantsManager gives PIs and administrators one real-time view of proposals, awards, budgets, and compliance, so terms like this stop living in spreadsheets.