General. Awardees may be required to match the Federal funds received under a NIFA award. The required percentage of matching, type of matching (e.g., cash and/or in-kind contributions), sources of match (e.g., non-Federal), and whether NIFA has any authority to waive the match will be specified in the subpart applicable to the specific Federal assistance program, as well as in the RFA.

A recipient of a NIFA competitive grant programs that are awarded under a covered law provided in section 3371 of under the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 must provide funds, in-kind contributions, or a combination of both, from sources other than funds provided through such grant in an amount that is at least equal to the amount awarded by NIFA unless an exception applies. NIFA will determine program applicability of this match and include in the RFA for those programs: The match requirement, exceptions, waivers, and any other information necessary to determine applicability of the match requirement. In accordance with section 1492 of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 3371), as added by section 7128 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (Pub. L. 113-79), for grants awarded after October 1, 2014, the recipient of an award must provide funds, in-kind contributions, or a combination of both, from sources other than funds provided through such grant in an amount that is at least equal to the amount awarded by NIFA unless one of the exemptions described herein is applicable.

The matching funds requirement does not apply to grants awarded:

To a research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); or

To an entity eligible to receive funds under a capacity and infrastructure program (as defined in section 251(f)(1)(C) of the Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994, 7 U.S.C. 6971(f)(1)(C)), including a partner of such an entity. Entities eligible to receive funds under a capacity and infrastructure program and exempt from the matching funds requirement include:

1862 Land-grant Institutions, including State Agricultural Experiment Stations receiving funding under the Hatch Act of 1887;

1890 Land-grant Institutions;

1994 Land-grant Institutions;

Entities eligible to receive funds under the of Continuing Animal Health and Disease, Food Security, and Stewardship Research, Education, and Extension Program Funds—Capacity and Infrastructure Program (CIP);

Hispanic-Serving Agricultural Colleges and Universities (HSACU);

Insular Area Schools Eligible to Receive Funds from the Distance Education/Resident Instruction Grant Programs;

Entities eligible to receive funds under the of McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Program Funds;

Non-Land Grant Colleges of Agriculture (NLGCA)—(for exemption from the new matching requirement, these applications must include NLGCA certification, see instructions for requesting certifications at http://www.nifa.usda.gov/form/form.html, and for attaching the certification in Part IV, B. of this RFA);

Entities eligible to receive funds under a program established under section 1417(b) of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 3152(b)), including:

1890 Institution Teaching, Research, and Extension Capacity Building Grants Program;

Higher Education Challenge Grants Program;

Higher Education Multicultural Scholars Program; and

Food and Agricultural Sciences National Needs Graduate and Postgraduate Fellowship Grants Program.

Individual public or private, nonprofit Alaska Native-Serving and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions of higher education (see 20 U.S.C. 1059d).

Indirect Costs as in-kind matching contributions. Indirect costs may be claimed under the Federal portion of the award budget or, alternatively, indirect costs may be claimed as a matching contribution (if no indirect costs are requested under the Federal portion of the award budget). However, unless explicitly authorized in the RFA, indirect costs may not be claimed on both the Federal portion of the award budget and as a matching contribution, unless the total claimed on both the Federal portion of the award budget and as a matching contribution does not exceed the maximum allowed indirect costs or the institution's negotiated indirect cost rate, whichever is less. An awardee may split the allocation between the Federal and non-Federal portions of the budget only if the total amount of indirect costs charged to the project does not exceed the maximum allowed indirect costs or the institution's negotiated indirect cost rate, whichever is less. For example, if an awardee's indirect costs are capped at 22 percent pursuant to section 1462(a) of NARETPA (7 U.S.C. 3310(a)), the awardee may request 11 percent of the indirect costs on both the Federal portion of the award and as a matching contribution. Or, the awardee may request any similar percentage that, when combined, does not exceed the maximum indirect cost rate of 22 percent.