Source: OSP Website
At-Risk Accounts
An At-risk Account is a project account that allows the PI to initiate spending on a sponsored fund before the University receives and/or accepts an award. Such expenditures incurred are made at the department’s risk and require a back-up account string in the event that the project is not funded. For guidance, please refer to SPH's At-Risk Accounts Procedure and OSP At-Risk Account Guidance and the other resources listed at the bottom of this page.
Purpose of an At-Risk Account
At-risk accounts may be requested for a variety of reasons:
- Notification of a sponsor’s intent to fund a proposal has been received but the initiation of the actual sponsor award may be delayed;
- A prolonged negotiation period is anticipated;
- An immediate need to hire personnel or purchase critical equipment required to ensure the project is ready to begin on schedule; Or
- A continuation of an existing award requires the next year’s account be established in Year-Logic.
Requesting an At-Risk Account
To request an at-risk account in GMAS, from the segment home page, select “Actions” and then “Create request”. Follow the prompts to enter the required information before locking and routing.
Information Needed
- Which accounts you wish to make at-risk
- An at-risk amount, start date and end date for reach requested account.
- An account string to which charges will be moved if the project is not funded (added as a note in the “Comments” field).
- The project team needs to be confirmed and all approvals (i.e. IRB, IACUC, COI, etc.) must be in place before the at-risk account can be created.
- Other information as required by the sponsor, department, or University.
Responsibility for At-Risk Account Request
- The department holds primary responsibility for entering information in GMAS to formally request at-risk accounts and monitoring spending against the approved amount
- The OSP Awards Management team reviews at-risk account requests once all required signatures are obtained on the GMAS request.
- The OSP Operations team initiates a revision on the account in GMAS
- The OSP Awards Management team reviews and commits the revision to the account, generating an action memo that is sent to those listed on the Administrative team in GMAS
- When the award notice is fully executed and logged to the project, the Awards Management team requests a second revision to remove the at-risk status and award the funds obligated by the notice.