Since procurement contracts can span over many months/years, the end date of the sponsored award or the entire project’s end date may occur before the end date of the procurement contract. For those contracts, what is preferred?

This is a question of allocability. Does the contract provide a direct benefit to the sponsored award over the entire life of the contract? For contracts that extend beyond the end date of an award, the cost should be allocated on a reasonable basis. Typically that basis is the number of months the award is active during the life of the contract. Once the award ends, the contract is no longer providing a benefit to the award, so that portion of the contract cost is not allocable to the award.