5.  Financial Issues in
      Project Management

Staying on top of things   

The discussion in the photo above is taking place in the Stanford Learning Lab, a program to improve the learning experience at Stanford and elsewhere. In a changing environment, it takes special programs and efforts to stay informed and effective - in the realm of teaching and research, just as anywhere else.

Because of the critical importance of regulations dealing with federal funding, Stanford University requires ALL individuals with signature authority to spend ANY University funds to complete a brief course entitled Cost Policy. This class focuses on expenditure management, and on methods to prevent the charging of unallowable costs, either directly or indirectly, to the government.

Those who support the management of sponsored projects know that changing regulations and requirements can complicate the development of proposals and the expenditure of awarded funds. The following brief list of topics, linked to associated policies or resources, only highlights a few issues where policy guidance and further classroom instruction are important:

The resources listed in the panel on the left will connect you to directories of other tools and information on these and other topics.

Stanford University also offers special classes each quarter for staff who support the University's research enterprise. These classes include:
(For each of the following, select "Sponsored Projects" from the "pull-down" menu.)

a classroom discussion of this overview
      (FIN 650)

Proposal and Budget Preparation
      (FIN 660)

A hands-on experience dealing with the regulations and mathematics of proposals and project budgets.

Postaward Financial Administration
      (FIN 670)

Titled "The Regulatory Environment," this class focuses on regulations affecting the direct charging of expenses to sponsored projects.

In addition, Cardinal Curriculum provides a series of online and classroom courses for staff who support the sponsored research enterprise at Stanford.

Cardinal
Curriculum
Training site

(See memo from Geoff Grant, October 8, 2002.

The remaining sections of this presentation present organizations and other places to get assistance in sponsored project administration.