External Research Grants and Contracts Project Files

Function

Finances

PIB

PIB-092

RRSDA Number

2012-002

Department

Finance

Description, purpose and use of records

Records relating to the financial management of external research awards, agreements, grants, and contracts. External funding comes from a number of sources, including provincial and federal governments, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and industry (e.g. Canada Foundation for Innovation, Canada Research Chairs, CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC, etc.).

These records document Research Accounting's evaluation, review, and approval of proposed budgets, payment arrangements, reporting requirements, audit requirements, potential liabilities, conflicts of interest, and financial risk factors associated with a research award, agreement, grant or contract.

Records may include but are not limited to award letters, contract and grant documents, transmittal memos and email, signing authority forms, approval forms, expenditure supporting documentation, copies of cheques and original cheque stubs, financial reports, invoices, budget appropriation forms, new project data input forms, research project notification forms, approval memos, project summary sheets, financial administration information forms, and research funding application signature sheets.

Note that the Office of Research Services and Research Accounting collaborate of the management of research funding. The former is primarily responsible for assisting Principal Investigators with applying and securing funding while the latter is primarily responsible for ensuring the financial conditions of awards, agreements, contracts and grants are in compliance with SFU's accounting policies and procedures. This RRSDA covers the project files created and maintained by Research Accounting.

Retention periods

Records	Active Retention	Semi-Active Retention	Total retention	Final disposition
Project files:	CY + 1 year	5 years	CY + 6 years	Destruction

Active = Active Retention Period, Keep in Office; Semi-Active = Semi-Active Retention period, transfer to University Records Centre; CY = Current calendar year; CFY = Current fiscal year; CS = Current semester; S/O = Superseded or obsolete; OPR = Office of Primary Responsibility; Non-OPR = All other departments

Authorities

These records are created, used, retained and managed in accordance with the following authorities:

University Act (RSBC 1996, c. 468)
SFU Policy R 10.01, External Research Grants and Contracts
Tri-Agency Financial Administration Guide 2011
Agreement on the Administration of Agency Grants and Awards by Research Institutions between SFU and CIHR, NSERC, and SSHRC (January 1, 2013)
Policy and Program Guide: Canada Foundation for Innovation (March 2012)
Income Tax Act (RSC 1985, c. I-3.3 (15th Supp.))

Retention rationale

A total retention period of "CY + 6 yrs" is sufficient to meet the University's business need for these records. This retention period encompasses all the external audit requirements by which the University must abide.

Retention and filing guidelines

Research Accounting will occasionally assign multiple project numbers to a single research project if it simplifies accounting. For example, to help a Principal Investigator keep track of multiple budget line items, a project number may be assigned to each line. These "sub-project" files should be collocated and disposed of concurrently since taken as whole, they comprise a single "intellectual file" documenting the whole of the accounting activities associated with a single, externally funded research project. That is, do not dispose of some of these "sub-project" files earlier or later than others.

Paper case files are labeled with the following information:

project number followed by a fund number;
Principal Investigator's name followed by the sponsoring body's name; and
home department name

related RRSDAs

Status

RRSDA is in force

Approval Date

14 Aug 2012

Last Revised Date

31 Jan 2013

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Archives and Records Management