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Office of Research and Innovation
Research Administration and Compliance

Technical Reports Management

A technical report is an interim or final report written by a researcher detailing the status and/or results of a project. Paramount to NC State University’s ability to sustain its extensive externally sponsored endeavors is the timely, meaningful and high-quality technical reporting required by individual sponsored agreements.

Guidelines

  • Submit  Technical Reports in a timely manner. Late technical reports can prevent or delay payment to NC State and impact future funding to the investigator and university.
  • Provide a copy of the report to College for upload to RADAR after submission.
  • Ensure data repository requirements have been met (if required).
  • Disclose inventions to the Office of Research Commercialization (ORC) by the project’s end.

If the technical report includes financial data provided by the PI but not reviewed by C&G, the PI should include the below statement:

The financial information included in this report is a preliminary estimate only, unaudited, and subject to revision upon completion of NC State’s Contracts and Grants certified financial reporting processes. It is provided solely to provide financial context to technical activities and for general understanding and planning purposes and should not be relied upon for invoicing purposes. In the event of discrepancies, financial data provided by the Office of Contracts and Grants shall be considered official.

Delinquent Technical Reports

Delinquent technical reporting damages the institution’s reputation with sponsors, often leads to nonpayment, and jeopardizes future funding.  To facilitate compliance with technical reporting requirements, and remedy delinquent technical reports, SPARCS subscribes to the following guidelines associated with securing timely and satisfactory results:

Instructions

From time to time, the institution receives notification from external sponsors that technical reports are overdue. When such notifications are received, the standard procedure SPARCS follows to ensure a satisfactory response and resolution is to:

  • Forward a copy of the request by email to the principal investigator (PI), copying the designated college research officer (CRO), to request that they submit the technical report to the sponsor. Monthly follow-ups are performed until reports are submitted.
  • A copy of the technical report must be submitted to the designated CRO, to be uploaded into the Research Administration Data and Reporting system (RADAR), in order to dispute any future assertions by the sponsor of noncompliance with the technical reporting requirements.

Sanctions

Unsatisfactory response by the PI, department or college may result in escalation to the appropriate associate dean for research (ADR) and the director of Sponsored Programs.