Santa Clara University

As defined in the Faculty Handbook (5.1), a sponsored project is any externally funded activity which is subject to an agreement that is binding on the University and that includes any of the following conditions:

• It commits the University to a specific plan of research or scholarly inquiry.
• It makes a specific commitment regarding the level of personnel effort, items of output, or achievement of specific performance targets.
• It requires both adherence to a line item budget and either a detailed fiscal report or an external audit of the project.
• It requires that any unexpended funds be returned to the sponsor at the end of the project period.
• It provides for the disposition of either tangible property (e.g., equipment, records, or technical reports) or intangible property (e.g., patents or copyrights) that may result from the activity.

Proposals including any of the above conditions must be reviewed by the Sponsored Projects Office before submission unless they are for student financial aid (see Financial Aid Office), endowment funds (see Development Office), or construction projects (see Development Office).

Proposed activities which entail the use of human subjects, laboratory animals, radiological hazards, biohazards, or recombinant DNA also must be reviewed by the Sponsored Projects Office for compliance with University policies and external requirements even though they may not meet the definition of a sponsored project given above.

Unrestricted gifts from private parties, or those restricted only to a general area without any of the conditions above, are not considered to be sponsored projects and should be processed through the Development Office.