A DSP Reminder: Other Sponsored Activities

In an attempt to provide clarity as to which projects meet the definition of “Other Sponsored Activity” for the application of the University’s appropriate facilities and administration (F&A) rate, the Division of Sponsored Programs provides the following information.

Other sponsored activities includes programs and projects that involve the performance of work other than instruction and organized research. This includes the following:

• Public service projects, such as sponsored health and/or community service projects, legal clinics and public information services
• Symposia, workshops, seminars and conferences that DO NOT meet guidelines for instruction, research training, or research
• Support for public events
• Support library collections, acquisitions, bibliographies or cataloging collections
• Extension services
• Field trials
• Program evaluation, which is defined as an award to evaluate a sponsor’s program or a sponsor-designated program. If an evaluation award includes actual performance of plans to improve, modify or develop a program that has been evaluated, and the majority of the work under an award is for these activities, the award should be classified under the appropriate activity category of Instruction or Research (i.e., whichever best reflects the actual performance).
• Contract-for-service activities, such as material testing agreements or fee-for-service agreements (unit provides a routine service as part of its normal business operations). Animal clinical trials may fall under this category if they meet the controls listed below.
  • Note that work providing analysis of the results or any inquiry, experiment or investigation to increase the scholarly understanding of the involved discipline is not testing but is research. Keys include:
    • How controlled is the protocol? Did the sponsor provide detailed protocols for completing the testing from which deviation is not allowed?
    • What is the deliverable UF is providing? Is it simply the data from the testing or is UF providing reports leveraging faculty or staff knowledge of the industry that is not generally available and adds to the understanding of the data or the overall discipline.