Office of Research and Project Administration

SPONSORED PROGRAMS COMPLIANCE

18. Project Closeout

Reports and Records

Projects are considered completed or "closed out" after the sponsor receives and approves all reports as required by the terms and conditions of the award, and notifies UR of its acceptance and closure of the project. It is the responsibility of the PI to be aware of when reports are due and to submit programmatic reports by the required dates. Closeout procedures may vary by sponsor. ORPA is available to assist PI's in the closeout process.

Reports required at the close of a project are generally due within 90 days of the project end date. These include:

• a final technical report—submitted by the PI
• final invention report—submitted by the PI to ORPA for submission to sponsor
• final financial report—submitted by ORACS upon the certification of expenditures by the PI
• final property report—submitted by Property Accounting

If the technical report is still being sent via hard copy, the Department should send a copy of the transmittal letter for final technical reports to ORPA. This will facilitate post award audits, and minimize requests to the PI and Department staff for evidence that reports were submitted.

Failure to submit required reports by the sponsor's deadline can result in the sponsor withholding continued funding or final payment on an award, and/or suspension and termination of any and all active awards.

In some cases, all of a sponsor's awards to UR are held pending submission of reports. In other situations, a sponsor may hold up funding to a PI in another department because of an individual's failure to respond to repeated requests for a technical report.

In 1994, the University was in danger of losing its expanded authorities privilege for NIH awards because of the number of delinquent reports.

Project records, both scientific and administrative, need to be retained for specified periods after close-out. Normally, the retention period is three (3) years after the termination date. Records are subject to audit at any time during this period.