Subaward Best Practices: For OSR Staff

UCSF Projects with Outgoing Subawards

Proposal

 

Next

Award

 

New Subaward

 

Next

Subaward Amendment

 


Determine Agreement Type Early

Making the correct determination of whether an agreement is a subaward or vendor/service agreement at proposal stage will mitigate issues at the award stage, such as the need to rebudget due to incorrect indirect cost calculation. 

The nature of the project informs the agreement type: 

  • Budget and time savings are not appropriate justifications for determining if an agreement is a subaward. 

Review the Subcontractor or Purchase Agreement Matrix

Check with your team manager if the sponsor is a for-profit entity to ensure proper agreement classification

If ambiguous, ask the Principal Investigator: 

  • Will there be designated PI at the subsite?
  • Will the subsite be involved in programmatic decision making and/or design of the project?
  • Does the PI at the sub entity define their scope of work?
  • Is the PI at the subsite devoting measurable effort and requesting salary and benefits to achieve the scope of work?
  • Is the sub entity responsible for adhering to applicable prime sponsor's terms and conditions/policies?
  • Is the subsite the sponsor of the clinical trial protocol? Work requiring human/animal protocol approval does not always signify an outgoing sub.
  • Does the sub entity provide the goods or services to others for a fee?

If the correct agreement is still unclear, consult with your team manager, who may also consult with the Subcontracts team.


Special Considerations


Know Your Resources