Special Research Projects (SRPs) are a type of research project used to hold funding that meets the following three conditions:
- No financial reporting requirements
- No project end date
- No requirement to return unspent funds
If any of the above criteria are not met, the funds cannot reside in an SRP.
These projects must be used to incur research related expenses, in accordance with the Special Research Projects Procedure.
All SRPs require a minimum opening balance of $2,000.
There are two types of Special Research Projects (SRPs): internal and external. Faculty members may only hold one of each.
- internal SRPs are used when the funding is awarded by a Queen鈥檚 program or unit.
- external SRPs are used when the sponsor/source of funding is external to Queen鈥檚.
PROCEDURES AT A GLANCE
For more detail, please refer to the Special Research Projects Procedure.
- To open a new SRP, please create a TRAQ DSS. See the general checklist for a more detailed step-by-step guide
- Project title: please include 鈥淚nternal SRP鈥 or 鈥淓xternal SRP鈥
- If internal SRP: select Queen鈥檚 as the 鈥淎gency鈥 and your Faculty or Department (depending where the funds are coming from) as the 鈥淧rogram鈥
- If external SRP: if the sponsor is not an available Agency, please contact traq@queensu.ca to request adding them to the list of available sponsors
- Upload a copy of the funding letter: dated, addressed to the PI as recipient of the funds and the amount, stating no conditions (as listed above)**
- Attach any required certifications (Human Ethics/Animal Care/Biohazard)
**Please note that an invoice or cheque is NOT sufficient documentation to set-up a new SRP.
Additional Notes
- If you have an active SRP, additional funds of the same source category (internal or external) may be deposited directly by your departmental finance officer without notifying Research Services
- Please speak with Research Accounting at research.accounting@queensu.ca if you are receiving funds from a collaborator to offset costs already incurred as eligible expenses against another research project, e.g., when offsetting expenses related to training student from a collaborator鈥檚 research group. Research Accounting staff can help determine whether the scenario is eligible for External Cost Recovery instead of setting up a new project
- Depositing personal funds into an SRP requires pre-approval from your Associate Dean (Research), Research Accounting and the VP Research portfolio
- Questions regarding indirect costs revenue or management of residual funding from other projects should be directed to research.accounting@queensu.ca and do not require a new TRAQ submission
For more information:
- Special Research Projects Procedure
- Research Accounting guides for Researchers/Major Funding Agencies/Internal Queen鈥檚 Funding
If you have any questions, please reach out to a Research Facilitator in Research Services:
Jenn Nicol