When a Principal Investigator (PI) receives a new sponsored award or there is a gap in the sponsor authorizing the next budget year of funds, there may be a period between the award notification and receipt of the awarded funds. To allow the PI to begin or continue work on the sponsored project before funds are in hand, the Sponsored Awards Management Office (SAM) can establish a risk account.

Procedure to Request a Risk Account

To request the establishment of a risk account, the PI must receive approval from the department or unit chair/director and dean of the department/unit to establish an account. 

Fully approved risk account requests should be submitted to the Post Award Sponsored Awards Administrator no less than thirty days prior to the desired start date of the project or the end date of the expiring budget period. 

To initiate the process, the PI should prepare a memorandum or email containing the following information:

1.  Title of project
2. Sponsor
3. Minimum dollars required by detailed budget code to accomplish objectives
4.  Dates of proposed risk account (not to exceed three months)
5.  Justification for the RISK account (e.g. the proposal is approved and awaiting final administrative action by the sponsor)

The memorandum or email should be sent to the department chair. Upon approval by the department chair, the request should be forwarded to the unit's or department's dean for approval. Fully approved requests are then forwarded to the designated SAM Post Award sponsored awards administrator for review and processing.