The UC Merced Office of the Controller is issuing the following guidance on the Project Attribute in the Common Chart of Accounts (CCoA).
The Project Attribute tracks the financial activity for a “body of work" that often has a start and end date that spans fiscal years or activities funded by a sponsor.
The UC Office of the President uses CCoA attributes to collect and report out on the consolidated activities of the UC. The Project Attribute, when coupled with Function 44, is used to track research-related activities of the campus. UC Merced must ensure it captures the required Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number (CFDA) coding and/or the required National Science Foundation (NSF) Discipline Code in each project attribute so the campus can transmit the Project Attribute’s related field of research as defined by NSF for systemwide research reporting.
The Controller’s Office recently conducted an audit of current PPM and GL Project Attributes and found the NSF Discipline Code is missing on many of the projects. As a result, UC Merced now requires the assignment of an NSF Discipline Code as part of the initial data on all new Project Attributes, even if the project is not expected to have research-related expenditures.
Effective immediately, all campus partners who request a new Project Attribute will be required to provide the appropriate NSF Discipline Code. Please refer to this NSF Code Reference Guide for the NSF code listing and guidance on code assignment.
Questions? Please reach out to Associate Vice Chancellor and Controller Amanda Preston-Nelson (anelson10@ucmerced.edu).
