Sponsored project fiscal accountability includes the maintenance of necessary documentation to support the allowability, allocability, and reasonableness of all financial activity throughout a sponsored project’s life cycle.

The sponsored project lifecycle consists of the following seven processes:

• Define opportunity
• Develop proposal
• Submit and negotiate
• Award setup
• Manage subawards
• Execute project
• Close out project

“The concept of accountability for use of public resources and government authority is key to our nation’s governing processes. Management and officials entrusted with public resources are responsible for carrying out public functions and providing service to the public effectively, efficiently, economically, ethically, and equitably within the context of the statutory boundaries of the specific government program.”(Government Auditing Standards 1.01).

Sponsored projects are a grant, contract, cooperative agreement, purchase order, or any other mutually binding agreement with an external sponsor that restricts the use of funds or property and stipulates conditions with which the university must comply. Sponsored projects have a Principal Investigator, a proposal, a scope of work, and a budget.

The decision to classify a source of support as a sponsored project is coordinated amongst Knowledge Enterprise, the ASU Foundation, and ASU Financial Services.