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After the award decision is received, award finalization documents must be submitted to CFI within nine months of the CFI Board decision date. The first step in the award finalization process is updating the project budget and determining whether any revisions are required. If required budget changes involve an item valued at over $50k, or negatively impact the project, CFI approval of a Project Amendment will be required before an Award Agreement is issued and funds are released. Your Research Project Advisor will contact you to set up an award finalization meeting, attended by Research Services, Strategic Procurement Services, Research Accounting and Physical Plant Services (if your project includes a renovation valued at over $100k) to discuss the project budget and post-award administration requirements.

The following award finalization steps will be followed:

1. The application budget will be reviewed with the Project Leader at the award finalization meeting to determine if changes to the budget are anticipated.
2. Updated quotes must be acquired for new items, application quotes that are over one year old, items valued over $100k, construction estimates over $100k (a public tender is required), and for items with in-kind over $500K (a public tender is required).
3. Any changes to the application budget (including the addition or deletion or modification of items), must be documented and a research rationale provided.  This includes any changes to the construction or renovation line.  It is important to explain that the change will not impact negatively upon your research project. If the proposed change will enhance the proposed research, explain how. Changes to items valued at over $50k will require CFI approval. 
4. Any matching funding contributions will be reviewed and confirmed.
5. A timeline for the expected purchase date of each item is required.  From this information a project end date (one year after the date of the final purchase) can be established. The end date is the date by which all purchases have been acquired, installed and for which invoices have cleared the account. Note end date extension will require justification and CFI approval.
6. Award conditions, if applicable, must be addressed.
7. Inter-institutional agreements, or other relevant agreements, if applicable, must be completed.
8. Please note that while only single quotes are required for award finalization (with the exception of items with in-kind over $500K, and construction/renovations over $100K), at time of purchase competitive bidding requirements of the  Queen’s Procurement Policy will be applied.

Changes to the project budget can be requested after the award finalization documents are submitted and approved by CFI. Changes to items over $50k in value will require CFI approval. Changes to items less than $50k in value will be reviewed and documented internally. Quotations for new items will be required. Changes to the location of the infrastructure must also be documented. All changes to the project budget require justification and must support the originally proposed research.

Annual progress reports are required each year to demonstrate the impact and outcome of CFI investments; the report is not used by CFI to evaluate the success of your Project.  Annual progress reporting is required for 4 years (for projects with a total CFI contribution under $1M) or 5 years (for projects with a total CFI contribution over $1M).

In either the second year after award finalization (for projects with a total CFI contribution of under $1M) or the third year (for projects with a total CFI contribution over $1M), researchers will be asked to confirm, through the CFI Awards Management System (CAMS), whether the infrastructure is operational to the extent that their research project has been initiated. Reporting will commence only when a positive response is received. If the researcher has not yet indicated that the infrastructure has achieved operational status by the time the final financial report is submitted, reporting must commence during the next April-June annual reporting period. Research Services will contact the PI directly to confirm their operational status and when reporting will commence.

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Projects for which the CFI contribution is less than $1M are required to submit financial reports every two years. Projects with a CFI contribution over $1M submit financial reports annually.

The year-end date used by CFI is March 31st, which is one month prior to the financial year-end of the University (April 30th). Financial reports are due to CFI by June 15th. All reports that are due must be filed by this time.

Research Accounting will notify you by email in mid-April if an annual Financial Report must be prepared.

Researchers can review their project spending at any time by logging into the FAST reporting tool.

FAST training is available here 

For a report on your in-kind contributions to date, please contact  Nasser Hossenbaccus in Research Accounting, Financial Services.