Getting started

Once an award is approved by both the sponsor (funding agency) and the recipient (USC), Sponsored Awards Management (SAM) will establish a new project and the PI will be notified that the new project is set up in USC’s financial system.  Investigators can occasionally begin incurring expenses on a project that is in the approval process by requesting a risk account.

Request a risk account

1. To seek approval for a risk account, send an email to your department chair that includes:
   1. project title,
   2. sponsor,
   3. amount requested for risk account only by budget category (e.g. personnel, travel),
   4. period of performance for risk account only,
   5. justification for why an account must be created prior to receipt of official award (include evidence that the grant will be funded),
   6. SAM office administrator contact information, and
   7. USCERA proposal number (i.e. number assigned to proposal in USCERA, not the sponsor’s proposal number). 
2. Requests approved by the department chair should be forwarded with all attachments to Jeff Twiss, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at twiss@mailbox.sc.edu with a cc to:  CASgrant@mailbox.sc.edu.
3. The requesting PI should submit a fully approved request to the originating department’s SAM administrator.  

Award Guidelines

Read your award notice from the sponsor closely, pay particular attention to any special or non-standard terms and conditions.  Your grant likely references other sponsor-specific award guidelines that you can view on the sponsor’s website.  If you have questions or concerns regarding anything in your grant documents, contact the CAS Grants team.

Purchase Tax Exempt Research Equipment

Research equipment might qualify for tax exemption if it meets certain criteria. A completed tax exemption form for research equipment must be provided to the Purchasing office at the time a purchase order is processed. Download the Exemption Form [pdf].

Request an Extension

Many grants have different extension requirements.  Contact your post-award Grants Manager or your SAM administrator to help determine what your sponsor allows.

 

Monitoring Your Account Balance and Rebudgeting

Your post-award Grants Manager will send you a monthly Budget Report to aid in monitoring your grant expenditures.  See the sample Budget Report [pdf].  Also, you can log in to the Finance Intranet and check your grant balance any time. See our guide for retrieving basic grant information from the Finance Intranet [pdf].

Many grants have different rebudgeting requirements.  Contact your post-award Grants Manager or your SAM administrator to help determine what your sponsor allows. 

Reporting

Please consult your award notice for annual and final reporting requirements. Contact the CAS Grants Team or your SAM administrator with any questions.