Sponsored Projects Collection Refresh Schedule

The Sponsored Projects data collection tables that stored current data are no longer available. They were decommissioned after the source of the data (the Research Services System) was converted to PennERA in October, 2003. For current data, please use the PennERA Proposals data collection.

For pointers about mapping Sponsored Projects queries to PennERA Proposals queries, and for other relevant information, please see the conversion help page.

Annual snapshots of the Sponsored Projects data are available to authorized users. (The access request form is available here.) To support longitudinal studies, a snapshot of the tables in the Sponsored Projects data collection was taken in October, 2002 and December, 2003. These snapshots also include the Employee and Job_Class tables (in the Salary Management data collection), as well as many of the reference tables for the Balances table (in the General Ledger data collection). A snapshot is identified by the snapshot fiscal year, which is the latest closed fiscal year as of the date when the snapshot job was run. The snapshot job that ran in 2003 did not change the data for snapshot fiscal year 2002; it simply added the data for the new snapshot. It refreshed the "snapshot" version of a given table by appending a complete copy of the "current data" version of the table. The snapshot job was not automatically scheduled, but was run upon Data Administration's request. For snapshot fiscal years 2004 and thereafter, see the PennERA Proposals collection snapshots.

Source of the Data
The Sponsored Projects current data in the Data Warehouse came from the Research Services System (RSS), the University’s research administration system (last used on October 13, 2003). The Office of Research Services used RSS to track pre- and post-award information on sponsored projects (such as grants and contracts).

The Sponsored Projects snapshot data in the Data Warehouse (accessible via the Business Objects SPONPROJ - Static Copy Universe) came from the tables in the Data Warehouse that stored current data for the Sponsored Projects, General Ledger, and Salary Management data collections.

Time Span Covered
The Sponsored Projects current data in the Data Warehouse included records for sponsored projects that were active as of October 13, 2003, as well as historical data going as far back as approximately 1982. Historical data from before 1982 is spotty.

The data accessible via the Business Objects SPONPROJ - Static Copy Universe includes data for snapshot fiscal years 2002 and 2003. A snapshot is a static copy of all of the records that were in the source tables when the snapshot job was run. A snapshot is identified by the snapshot fiscal year, which is the latest closed fiscal year as of the date when the snapshot job was run. (The University's fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30.) For example, in October, 2002, the data for snapshot fiscal year 2002 was loaded in the Warehouse. (By October, 2002, for most of the proposals submitted during fiscal year 2002, the sponsors had let the University know whether they had awarded funding or not.) Although the snapshot for fiscal year 2003 was taken in December, 2003, that snapshot data for the Sponsored Projects tables actually reflects the data that was current on October 14, 2003. That was the last time when the Sponsored Projects tables that stored current data were refreshed with data from RSS, which was then decommissioned.