OMB Circular A-21 defines major project as a project or activity that requires an extensive amount of administrative or clerical support which is significantly greater than the routine level of such services provided by academic departments. Major projects/activities are those that are administratively intensive and are not necessarily defined by the amount of funding. The administrative functions that relate directly to the activities that make the project major may be direct charged. In some cases that may be all of the administrative expense on the project.

A-21 provides examples of major projects, which are listed below in bold type followed by Stanford-specific examples. The examples illustrate projects where direct charging of administrative expenses may be appropriate. These examples are not exhaustive, nor are they intended to imply that direct charging of administrative expenses would always be appropriate for the situations illustrated in the examples.

The following examples may not be used as a checklist. The presence of one component (e.g., human subjects) does not necessarily mean that the project is major. The project must be administratively intensive and also meet the requirements of the policy (see Section III of these guidelines). It is the responsibility of the PI in conjunction with knowledgeable departmental administrators to determine whether a project is major.

The SU-42 Proposal Routing Forms for general campus, the School of Medicine, and the School of Engineering include a "major projects" section that is to be completed during the proposal preparation and routing process. The section contains yes/no boxes that must be checked depending on whether or not the project is considered major and administrative expenses are budgeted. Information regarding the SU-42 is available on the web.

1. Large complex programs such as General Clinical Research Centers, Primate Centers, Program Projects, environmental research centers, engineering research centers, and other grants and contracts that entail assembling and managing teams of investigators from a number of institutions.
   
   Stanford examples:
   • Grants/Contracts that make multiple or complex subawards to different faculty and/or other institutions
   • Large complex programs such as Gravity Probe B (GPB), Plant Genome Research Program, Materials Research Science & Engineering Center (MRSEC), and Energy Resource centers
   • School of Medicine General Clinical Research Center
   • Program Project Grants (with subawards/suballocations given to different faculty)
   
   
   
2. Projects which involve extensive data accumulation, analysis and entry, surveying, tabulation, cataloging, searching literature and reporting (such as epidemiological studies, clinical trials, and retrospective clinical records studies).
   
   Stanford examples:
   • Grants/Contracts with clinical components involving substantial patient care or patient care data (including patient recruitment and patient billing)
   • NIH Training Grants
   • Education research projects that require extensive data collection and dissemination
   • Telephone or mail surveys
   
   
   
3. Projects that require making travel and meeting arrangements for large numbers of participants, such as conferences and seminars.
   
   Stanford examples:
   • Conference/workshop grants
   
   
   
4. Projects whose principal focus is the preparation and production of manuals and large reports, books and monographs (excluding routine progress and technical reports).
   
   Stanford examples:
   • Curriculum development grants
   • Grants to develop electronic reference materials
   
   
   
5. Projects that are geographically inaccessible to normal departmental administrative services, such as research vessels, radio astronomy projects, and other research field sites that are remote from campus.
   
   Stanford examples:
   • Grants/Contracts partially or entirely performed off-campus (locations remote from campus)
   • Dissertation grants when performed at a remote location
   • Other research conducted at field sites remote from campus
   
   
   
6. Individual projects requiring project-specific database management; individualized graphics or manuscript preparation; human or animal protocols; and multiple project-related investigator coordination and communications.
   
   Stanford examples:
   • Projects requiring extensive administrative management/record keeping of human or animal subjects performed by an administrator rather than technical staff