Policies & Compliance
- Research Conduct
- Combatting Human Trafficking
- Federal Disclosure Requirements
- Research Handbook
- 1. Roles & Responsibilities
- 2. Standards for Conduct of Research
- 3. Overview of Sponsored Projects Administration
- 4. Funding Sources & Opportunities
- 5. Proposal Development
- 6. Budget Development
- 7. Procedures for the Submission of Proposals
- 8. Award Acceptance
- 9. Award Management
- 10. Research Related Regulations, Policies & Procedures
- 11. Other Conduct of Research Issues
- 12. Acronyms & Definitions
- 13. Glossary
- Procedure Library
- Regulations Library
Award Acceptance
8.7 Companion Project Set-Up
When a sponsored project involves collaboration among two or more investigators who contribute significant effort, a companion project may be established to support appropriate fiscal management and recognition of contributions across departments or units.
An investigator is generally considered to be contributing significant effort when one or more of the following apply:
- The individual has responsibility for a key component of the project's objectives;
- The individual has committed more than 10% effort to the project;
- The individual supervises students or staff performing substantive project activities; and/or
- The individual is expected to receive 15% or more of the total project funding.
When companion projects are used, one investigator is designated as the Principal Investigator (PI) and retains overall responsibility for programmatic oversight, compliance, and reporting for the entire award. Other contributing investigators may be designated as Project Executives (PEs) and assigned companion project accounts corresponding to their portion of the work.
Companion projects allow for the allocation of funds - including applicable Facilities & Administrative (F&A) costs - to the appropriate administrative departments or units associated with each PE, while maintaining a single, unified award structure.
Detailed guidance on establishing companion projects and F&A distribution is available in the Procedure Library under Establish Companion Projects or F&A Distribution.
System Access and Reporting Considerations
After a companion project is created, investigators or administrators may experience limitations in viewing financial information within management or reporting tools, particularly when administrative responsibility spans multiple departments.
While the PI will retain access to overall award information, visibility of companion project accounts may require additional security permissions. To ensure appropriate access for all responsible investigators, departmental accountants, and administrators, departments should submit a Security Authorization form through General Accounting to establish or update viewing and reporting privileges.
