Spending Sponsored Project Funds
Charging Sponsored Awards
PSU's Sponsored Awards Charging Policy describes the principles to be followed when charging costs to sponsored awards.
Costs charged to a sponsored award must be allowable, reasonable, allocable, and consistently treated. For a given cost to be charged to a sponsored award, all four of these criteria must be met.
To be directly charged to a sponsored award, ALL costs, regardless of category or sponsored award funding source, must (with relative ease and with a high degree of accuracy) be specifically identified with the awarded project, and must be allowed by all terms and conditions of the particular award.
The fact that a cost was included in a budget as awarded by the sponsor does not alone mean a cost can be directly charged to a sponsored award.
Guidance on Specific Costs: Located in Appendix A of Sponsored Awards Charging Policy
Responsibility for Spending Sponsored Project Funds
Investigators initiate personnel and purchasing actions
Departmental/Unit staff process requests
SPA staff approve payments for personnel, goods and services; and review expenditures charged to awards
Guidance for Initiating Personnel Action and Purchases
Personnel/Payroll Actions
Appointments and labor distribution for personnel on sponsored projects are subject to PSU Human Resources Policies as well as applicable Collective Bargaining Agreements and must be processed using HR Forms and Procedures.
Cost Type
How to Intiate Request
Description and Additional Information
New Hires/Appointments
New Project-funded Employees
Faculty Summer Appointments
Postdocs, Graduate Assistantships
Student Employees
Renewal of expired appointments
Changes to Existing Appointments
Change to pay rate,
Change to appointment end date,
Change in job duties
Change to number of hours or FTE.
DO NOT use form for changes to funding sources (see next item)
Change to Funding Sources (Labor Redistribution)
Increases and decreases to percent of effort (FTE) among funding sources,
Addition or removal of funding sources for a specific employee.
Goods & Services
All purchases of goods and services must be made using PSU purchasing processes (See: PSU Contracts and Purchasing, University Financial Services)
Cost Type
How to Intiate Request
Description and Additional Information
Purchase of Materials & Supplies*
*Exceptions: Direct purchases through PSU departments (e.g. Chemistry Stores, departmental copy charges) or PSU contracts with vendors (see Payment of Vendor Invoices below)
Purchase of Equipment
Equipment is defined as Items having a unit acquisition cost of $5,000 or more and a useful life of one year or more
Services* (Consultants or other Service Contracts)
*Exceptions: Direct purchases from PSU departments that provide goods and services to other departments (e.g. special-purpose equipment usage, machine shops, and OIT services: large format/3D printing, data storage)
High Performance Research Computing
The Office of Information Technology (OIT) is offering priority access to the Coeus HPC cluster in addition to the Free access tier. Priority access makes it possible for researchers to reserve dedicated computer time for their funded research needs. Details are available in OIT’s description of the High Performance Computing (HPC) Clusters service, including a link to the HPC Priority Access request form where researchers can engage with OIT to assess their HPC requirements in order to include funding for Priority access in future research grant proposals.
Personal Reimbursement for Goods* Purchased
*Personal reimbursement of services is not allowed
Hosting Events: Meeting and Conference Costs
Payment of non-travel business meals, refreshments, and other hospitality expenses with university funds. Non-travel business includes hosting official guests, training sessions, conferences, or other university-sponsored events to conduct official PSU business.
All food and hosting must be made using PSU Non-Travel Meals, Refreshments & Hospitality Expenses Policy and Hosting Guidelines.
Food and hosting expenses are only allowable on a sponsored project if expressly approved by the sponsor and must conform to PSU Policy. Expenses require review and approval by Sponsored Projects Administration prior to purchase.
Cost Type
How to Intiate Request
Description and Additional Information
Meals and Refreshments
Hosting official guests or hosted events occurring in state and out of state are limited to PSU's high city travel per diem rates.
Housing for Project Participants
Hosting official guests or hosted events occurring in state and out of state are limited to PSU's high city travel per diem rates.
Other Costs Associated with Sponsored Project-Funded Events
Payments to Project Participants
Cost Type
How to Intiate Request
Description and Additional Information
Participant Support Stipends and Tuition
Costs associated with an individual’s participation in certain project activities may be allowed under the sponsoring agency’s program guidelines as participant support costs.
Research Subject Incentive Payments (Gift Cards or Cash)
Submit Sponsored Projects Purchase Request Form
DRA coordinates with PI and staff to gather information and facilitate processing
Payments to individuals about whom an investigator conducting research obtains data through intervention or interaction with the individual or identifiable private information.
Travel
Travel expenses on sponsored awards are subject to PSU Travel Policies and Procedures.
Travel arrangements (booking flights, hotels, etc.) can be made by the traveller or departmental staff.
Cost Type
How to Intiate Request
Description and Additional Information
Travel Authorization
Form required prior to initiating travel for all travel out-of-state, foreign, and in-state with airfare.
Vehicle Rental/Vicinity Mileage for a trip not associated with a Travel Authorization
See PSU Travel Guidelines
Mileage reimbursement limited to PSU Travel Reimbursement Rates
Travel Reimbursement for Meals & Incidentals, Lodging, Airfare & Transportation
Submit UFS Viking Travel Form [form is auto-generated and emailed to traveller after completion of a trip associated with an approved Travel Authorization]
Form required to reimburse employees and authorized non-employees traveling on official university business.
Motor Pool Vehical Rental
To use a Motor Pool vehicle, the department must apply for a Motor Pool Check Out card. Contact vikingtravel@pdx.edu for additional information.
State Motor Pool vehicles may be checked out for official business trips. Location: Salem Motor Pool (1100 Airport Road SE, Salem, OR)
Subawards
Subawards are issued to non-PSU entities to whom PSU assigns responsibility for carrying out a portion of the programmatic effort under a sponsored award issued to PSU.
Cost Type
How to Intiate Request
Description and Additional Information
Subaward Invoices
Send approved invoices to your assigned SPA Team
Subaward invoices are typically sent to SPA who forwards to PI for review and approval
Payment of Vendor/Contractor Invoices
Send invoices for goods and services received that should be charged to sponsored projects to your assigned SPA team along with written confirmation of receipt (packing slip, etc.)
In cases where the investigator or project staff purchase supplies directly through PSU’s accounts with vendors the PI must forward the invoice to SPA along with information about the project(s) to charge and a written statement of the business purpose (benefit of the cost to the sponsored project).
For all other expenditure types not listed above or questions about spending sponsored projects funds contact your assigned SPA team.