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Office of Sponsored Programs
Prisma Health–Upstate and its Health Sciences Center are poised to significantly improve patient care through an innovative and ambitious research agenda. The Prisma Health–Upstate Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) provides critical infrastructure support. Its primary responsibilities are to:
- ensure accountability in the application for and management of sponsored funding;
- enhance and facilitate the ability of faculty and staff to seek out and secure external funding for scholarly activities, education, training, research, programs, and civic engagement;
- support faculty and staff in their efforts to manage external award funds efficiently with the purpose of ensuring all sponsor commitments and expectations are fulfilled; and,
- exercise best practices in establishing appropriate internal controls that will ensure compliance with federal, state, and agency regulations, university policies, and sponsor commitments.
To accomplish its mission, the OSP serves as the single point of contact for faculty, staff, sponsors, and other stakeholders for sponsored programs. By managing proposal submissions, award negotiation, and award management in one business office, OSP maintains complete and accurate information on sponsored programs activity; develops, communicates, and enforces standard policies and procedures; and provides grants management expertise and excellent customer service. Without standards in place, Prisma Health–Upstate risks audit findings that can require a return of funding, result in a designation as a “high-risk” institution, and cause general damage to its reputation, both publicly and within the funding community.
The OSP follows the direction of the federal government as outlined in the Uniform Guidance document, which provides standard definitions, general provisions, and pre- and post-award requirements across the OMB Circulars. The federal government requires that federally sponsored projects be treated with like consistency as non-federally sponsored project, so one system of internal controls is utilized.
What is a sponsored program?
A sponsored program is a project, normally in the form of a grant or contract or cooperative agreement, which is funded from external sources including federal, state and local governments or private corporations or foundations. The award of a contract or grant creates a legal relationship to achieve a purpose or objective under specified conditions. The purpose of the award, the nature of the relationship established and the control exercised by the awarding agency often make a grant indistinguishable from a contract. However grants, unlike contracts, do not allow for profit or a fee in excess of actual costs. The projects are designated as restricted current funds because separate accounts are mandated for each project. These separate accounts document the receipt and expenditure of such funds for the “restricted” purpose or project for which the sponsor intends.
