The Center for Audit Quality has selected four more academic research projects to fund through its grant program.

The four projects are the latest of 39 that the CAQ has helped fund over the past 10 years with the help of its Research Advisory Board. The CAQ also collaborates with the American Institute of CPAs on providing grants for academic research on auditing in an effort to improve the quality of audits. In addition, the CAQ runs an “Access to Audit Personnel” program that provides academic researchers with access to auditors who work at accounting firms for their studies.

The four projects announced Thursday include:

• “How Can Audit Committee Support Improve Auditors’ Application of Professional Skepticism?” by Joseph F. Brazel, North Carolina State University; Anna Gold, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; and Tammie Schaefer, University of Missouri – Kansas City.
• “‘Alexa, Audit Loan Grades’: Enhancing Auditor Reliance on Artificial Intelligence Through Anthropomorphism” by Sean Dennis and Benjamin P. Commerford of the University of Kentucky
• “Encouraging Relational Thinking to Enhance Auditor Use of Audit Data Analytics Output” by Cassandra Estep, Bright Hong, and Kathryn Kadous of Emory University.
• “CAMs and the Spotlight: The Effects of Auditor Disclosure on Auditor Judgments and Decisions” by Michelle McAllister and Brian Fitzgerald of Northeastern University.

“The CAQ and the public company auditing profession are dedicated to supporting independent academic research that can have important, real-world impact on audit quality and the future of auditing,” said CAQ executive director Cindy Fornelli in a statement. “We’re excited to continue our program, now in its 10th year, to fund academic research to help inform audit practice.”

To date, 14 of the academic research projects that the CAQ has supported have been published in peer-reviewed journals. The articles can be accessed through the CAQ website, along with a list of prior grant recipients.