v2026.1CASRAI Dictionary 714 entries across 20 domains · CC-BY 4.0714 entries · CC-BY 4.0

Dictionary termTrack EStablev2026.2

Audit (grant)

A formal examination of an institution's or project's financial records, internal controls, and compliance with sponsor terms, conducted by external or internal auditors to provide independent assurance of proper stewardship of grant funds.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A Horizon Europe consortium engages an external auditor to issue a CFS once cumulative claims exceed the threshold.
Is an instance
A US institution undergoes its annual Single Audit covering all federal awards above the threshold.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
An internal financial check by a PI is monitoring, not formal audit.
Not an instance
A sponsor's annual progress review is a programmatic, not financial, audit.

Editorial commentary

Grant audits range from project-specific desk reviews to institution-wide examinations such as the US Single Audit (Uniform Guidance) and the EU Horizon Europe certificate on the financial statements (CFS). Auditors verify allowability, allocability, reasonableness, and compliance with sponsor terms, with findings classified by severity. Audit-resolution processes can result in cost disallowances, repayment, or future-funding restrictions. Strong audit history is a baseline expectation for major sponsor relationships.

References

US Office of Management and Budget Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200 Subpart F; Horizon Europe Annotated Grant Agreement on CFS.

Also known as

Grant audit · Research audit · Financial audit (grant)

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Audit (grant)"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/audit-grant" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "name": "Audit (grant)",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/audit-grant",
  "description": "A formal examination of an institution's or project's financial records, internal controls, and compliance with sponsor terms, conducted by external or internal auditors to provide independent assurance of proper stewardship of grant funds.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/funding-lifecycle-and-financial-vocabulary/",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/audit-grant",
  "sameAs": [
    "Grant audit",
    "Research audit",
    "Financial audit (grant)"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}