Guidelines for Grant and Contract Management

404. Subawards

These guidelines outline procedures for the administration of subawards when the University has been awarded a prime agreement (contract, grant or cooperative agreement). Most subrecipient agreements involve sharing a portion of the scope of work among research collaborators. Three prototypical research agreements, a prototype invoice, and cost sharing expenditure report follow. The Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) member and nonmember forms are also available via the links below. These prototype agreements are only for research subawards. If the activity of the subaward is not the conduct of research, for example publishing a book or preparing a media presentation, these templates should not be used, as special conditions are often needed. For non-research activities, please contact your URA Grants & Contracts Manager. – February 2006

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A subaward is a formal agreement that is legal and binding upon the institution. The University enters into these agreements when a substantive portion of the work outlined in the prime agreement is conducted at another institution. A subaward normally involves collaboration with another educational or research institution but may be entered into with any organization outside the University.

Proposals: Known subawards must be included in the proposal submitted to the funding organization. Each subaward must be identified and accounted for separately. The subrecipient must provide a complete budget along with a work scope. The subrecipient's budget should include both the direct and indirect costs for the subrecipient organization. A cover page including the sign off of the Principal Investigator/Project Director and the authorized institutional official at the subrecipient organization is also needed, as well as a copy of the subrecipient's F&A agreement.

Typically, nonfederal subawards include indirect costs at the sponsor’s permitted indirect cost rate unless sponsor policy dictates otherwise. The total costs of the subrecipient are included as Direct Costs on the University of Chicago proposal.

For federal proposals, the University’s Facilities and Administrative (F&A) Rate Agreement defines the base for calculating F&A Costs as Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC). The first $25,000 of the subrecipient amount is included in the University’s defined MTDC base. These are the University of Chicago’s indirect costs, and are not the same as or duplicative of the F&A costs which are included in the subrecipient’s budget.

If the need for a subaward arises after the prime award is made, prior approval is required from the sponsoring agency before any commitment to the subawards institution can be made (see Post-award below).

Awards: When the subaward is included in the proposal, and approved by the funding organization in the award document, a Subaward Agreement is prepared. Generally URA initiates the subaward process, however if a local administrator prefers to expedite the process, he/she may draft the appropriate subaward agreement, forward to the principal investigator for review and approval, and then route to URA for institutional endorsement. The document is then sent to the appropriate office at the subrecipient's institution for signature.

Post-award: All funding organizations, whether federal or non-federal, require prior approval to subaward. If the PI wants to enter into a subaward after the award has begun, a written request must be forwarded through University Research Administration for institutional endorsement, and submitted to the sponsor for approval. (See "Subrecipients on Sponsored Projects")

The FDP has developed a subaward research agreement that may be used with FDP members and nonmembers and we highly recommend using this template, if possible. The FDP Subaward Agreement may be used between any FDP member institutions. For work with non-FDP agencies/institutions, or for any non-FDP member institution that is covered under A-110, the Non-FDP version of the Subaward Agreement may be used.

In addition, the following standard agreements for research purposes have been approved by the University and, when necessary, may be used.

Non-Research Subaward Agreements
Because of the special needs of such agreements, the local administrator should contact URA who will work with the Office of Legal Counsel to prepare an agreement appropriate to the requirements of the project.

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