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.

Items that are required from proposed subrecipients on a University of Chicago prime award:

  1. Institutional endorsement from the subcontracting organization. Examples:
    • For PHS applications -- fully signed Face Page
    • For NSF - fully signed Proposal Budget {NSF Form 1030}
    • For All Other agencies -- follow agency guidelines. For Non-Federal Agencies, a letter of intent to collaborate is usually routed.
  2. Workscope (may be substituted with abstract for NIH grants) from the subcontracting institution
    • 2-3 paragraphs which describes the work to be done by the subcontract. This should not be the same as what is being submitted by the prime institution but should, instead, be institution/project specific.
  3. Budget and justification
    • this should be prepared by the subrecipient -- they know their budgeting instructions (fringe rates, indirect costs, and inflation rates) and see NSF note above.
  4. Biographical Sketches (PHS 398 9/04 format)
    • follow agency requirements
  5. Resources Page if a significant amount of resources are utilized by a subcontractor
  6. Checklist Page (for PHS proposals only)
  7. F&A Agreement

Items that are required if we are a subrecipient on another organization's prime award:

  1. Completed Proposal Transmittal Form.
  2. Institutional endorsement forms:
    • For PHS/NIH: Face page - signed by PI and ready for institutional endorsement.
    • For NSF - PI signed Proposal Budget (NSF Form 1030)
    • For All Other agencies -- follow agency guidelines.
  3. Workscope
    • this indicates which portions of the overall statement of work will be the responsibility of the University of Chicago and need consist of no more than 2-3 paragraphs
  4. Budget and justification
    • this should be prepared following departmental, divisional and institutional policies.
  5. Biographical Sketches (PHS 398 9/04 format)
  6. Resources Page if a significant amount of resources are utilized at UChicago
  7. Checklist Page (for PHS proposals only)
  8. Latest F&A Agreement may be requested by prime institution (can be found here)

NOTE: This is intended to be a guide for the minimum required information for subawards; awarding agencies may have additional guidelines and required documents.
*Please review the agency policies.

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")

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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