Participant Support Costs (PSC)
Participant support costs are direct costs paid to or on behalf of participants or trainees, who are not an LSU employee, for their participation in meetings, conferences, symposia, workshops, or other training projects.
Generally associated with programs that provide research training or experience for participants, such as the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and the Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) on NSF projects.
PSC Budget
- Separate budget category in the federal project’s proposed budget
- Number of participants must be identified.
- Description of costs must be included.
- If budgeted for costs other than stipends, subsistence allowances, travel allowances and registration fees, these other costs must be separately identified and described in the proposal’s budget justification.
PSC Post Award
- Allowable costs on federally sourced projects with the prior approval of the federal agency or sponsor
- Must be accounted for in a separate grant worktag.
- May be subject to additional sponsor terms or regulations.
- Excluded from the calculation of facilities and administrative (F&A) costs.
PSC Rebudgeting
- Cannot be re-budgeted to other direct cost categories without prior written approval of the federal agency or sponsor.
- Cannot be used for non-PSC activities. Unspent PSC budget amounts cannot offset a deficit in the other non-PSC lines of the project unless prior approval has been received from the sponsor.