Equipment Management
Equipment Management pertains to the record keeping for acquiring, maintaining, protecting, and properly disposing of capital equipment. Equipment is defined as tangible personal property (including information technology systems) that have a useful life of more than one year and a per-unit acquisition cost which equals or exceeds:
- $5,000 for all awards beginning on or before June 30, 2025
- $10,000 for all awards beginning on or after July 1, 2025
FAS departments are required to maintain records of equipment purchased with both federal and non-federal funding, as well as Government Furnished Property (GFP) where title remains with the government and the equipment is in the department’s possession. All equipment purchases on sponsored awards must comply with Harvard University Procurement Policies. Some sponsors or specific award terms may require notification or prior approval before purchasing equipment, so it’s important to review equipment-related terms carefully.
Once equipment is purchased, departmental and tub-level property management teams are responsible for updating the Oracle Fixed Assets (OFA) system and applying a University property tag to the item.
School Subject Matter Experts
Faculty of Arts and Sciences: Nancy Guisinger and Christine Boyer
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences: Nancy Guisinger and Christine Boyer
Related Documents:
- Equipment Management: Learn about Harvard’s equipment management process, from proposal preparation and budgeting to purchase, ownership, reporting, and closeout requirements, for all sponsored awards.
- Capital Equipment: Summary of Policy for Capital Equipment in Schools with Sponsored Research
- Sponsored Equipment Threshold Flowchart: A step-by-step guide for selecting the correct object codes for sponsored equipment purchases.
- Sponsored Equipment Roles and Responsibilities Matrix: Review the matrix outlining key responsibilities across Harvard roles, from PIs to central offices, for managing sponsored research equipment throughout its lifecycle.