The Sponsored Project Lifecycle
Project management
Sponsored research at NAU
Sponsored research, one of the primary missions of NAU, is defined as funding from outside sources for scholarly inquiry performed by university faculty and staff. Sources of funding can include the federal government, state and local agencies, hospitals, foundations, corporations, and foreign entities.
Maintaining the public trust
Managing the regulatory and fiduciary responsibilities of sponsored research funds is a complex undertaking as this funding is highly regulated. Additionally, there are multiple internal parties involved and many phases within the “life cycle of an award” from searching for funding opportunities to setting up the account to monitoring expenditures to reporting and closing out the account.
Sound financial management of these sponsored funds is critical in maintaining the public trust in research results and outcomes, its trust as research participants, and its trust in how millions of dollars of public funds are spent every year.
Stewardship and compliance
Proper stewardship results in the effective management of public funds to maximize research outcomes and higher standards of research integrity. Managing these funds properly will also decrease serious cases of fraud, institutional mismanagement, and poor management of federal funds.
Resources
- Budget Modifications
- Effort Distribution reports
- NSF sexual harassment reporting process
- No-cost extension
- Participant support costs
- PI Dashboard
- Program income
- Record Retention
Other resources:
Audit of Sponsored Projects Accordion Closed
All sponsored projects are subject to audit by the sponsoring agency and are the responsibility of the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP). If a department/Principal Investigator is contacted directly by the auditor, the auditor needs to be referred to OSP. To reduce cost and time to sponsoring agencies and the university the Federal government has adopted a policy of appointing one Federal agency as the “cognizant audit agency.” The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is the cognizant audit agency for NAU.
Paid absences Accordion Closed
Vacation, holiday, sick leave pay and other paid absences are included in salaries and wages and are charged to federal projects as part of the normal charges for salaries and wages. Separate charges for the cost of these absences are not made.
Treatment of other fringe benefits Accordion Closed
Our organization charges the actual cost of each fringe benefit direct to federal projects. However, it uses a fringe benefit rate which is applied to salaries and wages in budgeting fringe benefit cost under project proposals. The following fringe benefits are treated as direct costs: FICA, health insurance, pension plan, unemployment insurance, and workers compensation.