About Sponsored Programs
While much of SP administrative responsibilities relate to the conduct of research at SVSU, it is actually involved with all sponsored projects. Sponsored projects fall within several general functional categories. Examples of these categories include: research, training, curriculum development, public services, fellowships, art exhibitions, and equipment awards.
Sponsors of these activities include the federal government, state and local governments, foundations, international organizations, research institutes, and corporations. These organizations fund sponsored projects through a variety of mechanisms such as contracts, grants, letter agreements, purchase orders, cooperative agreements, and a variety of awards that fall under the heading of subcontracts.
SP does not involve itself with gifts or other unrestricted funds that fall within the purview of the SVSU Foundation. The following definition of a sponsored project is pertinent to clarifying the distinction between the types of funding handled by SP and the SVSU Foundation.
Sponsored projects are research, training, or instructional projects involving funds, materials, other forms of compensation, or exchanges of in-kind efforts from sources external to SVSU under awards or agreements which contain any one of the following criteria:
- The award or agreement binds the University to a scope of work that is specified to a substantial level of detail. This would, for example, include funding that is dedicated to an investigator's particular research project, a grant to a department under which seed money for particular projects would be distributed, and the training of graduate students on specific projects. It would not include funding that provides general research support to a department or individual.
- A line item budget is involved. A line item budget details expenses by activity, function, or project period. The designation of indirect or administrative costs qualifies a budget as "line item."
- Financial reports are required and/or the expenses are subject to audit.
- The sponsor defines a period of performance during which funds may be used and/or unused funds must be returned to the sponsor.
- The award or agreement provides for the disposition of either tangible or intangible properties which may result from the project. Tangible properties include equipment, records, formal activity reports, theses or dissertations. Intangible properties include rights in data, copyrights, or inventions, or research-related materials.
Services
The Office of Sponsored and Academic Programs Support can assist you with the following:
- Finding a sponsor and making contacts
- Developing a proposal
- early discussions
- writing the narrative
- Reviewing, editing and writing help
- Hints on writing a proposal
- cost sharing
- significance of the project
- expertise
- dissemination
- planned activities
- peer evaluation
- chances for funding
- Hints on writing a proposal
- Processing/submitting grants
- Project administration
- Providing SVSU institutional information for proposals