UCSF Funded Research Agreements (UFRA)

A University Funded Research Agreement (UFRA) is a type of outgoing agreement, similar to a subaward, that funds collaborations with discretionary or gift funding. There is no prime sponsor such as from federal, non-profit, or industry. 

Please note that the University Funded Research Agreements are limited strictly to research projects supported by unrestricted funds, such as gifts intended to support the project or discretionary funds such as faculty startup or other departmental funds. OSR has the unique skillset to handle research terms and conditions of UFRAs (clinical trials, IRB, IACUC, intellectual property terms and conditions for IP licensing related to the research, and research compliance matters generally). If your project does not require research contracting terms and conditions and is instead to procure services, please work with Supply Chain Management to process a Purchase Order (PO) instead of a UFRA.

The following must be provided to the Subcontracts Team: [email protected] for processing a UFRA: 

  1. University Funded Research Agreement Request Form that is complete with the following:
    1. Chartstring 
      1. The fund should be coded as gift (7000), endowment income (7700, 7705, 7710), or discretionary (5000, 5014, 5018). 
      2. The funds must be unrestricted or specifically designated for the research project. 
      3. For chartstrings not pre-approved by the Budget and Resource Management (BRM) Office as unrestricted, the department must provide supporting justification to confirm the Chartstring may be used for the research project. 
    2. PI and Department Signature

      1. For department signature, an authorized dept./division representative, typically a CAO or financial manager.

      2. Expenditures need to use Function 45 to identify the expenses as Research  

    3. Statement of Work
      1. Statement of Work (SOW) with clear milestones: Describes the work to be conducted by the Recipient. Define the deliverables including scientific reporting requirements and outline the time frame in which they are to be delivered. It should be accurate and concise as to what, when, and if appropriate, how the Recipient will accomplish the work to be performed.  It is the UCSF PI’s responsibility to include clear milestones into the scope of work to ensure there are clear and manageable expectations between the parties.
    4. Budget
      1. Budget: Total costs will include the Recipient’s direct costs for the project. Indirect costs are awarded at the discretion of the UCSF PI but are not required. If indirect costs are included, please provide the base and the calculation, along with total direct costs and total indirect costs.

Post-award/Invoicing Instructions:

  1. Invoicing will follow the same process and procedure for Subcontract invoicing. The Agreement will list the department financial contact’s email address for invoice submission. 

  2. Once received, the financial contact should obtain the PI’s approval via Docusign or their department’s own internal Subcontract Invoice Approval process.

  3. Once approval is obtained, the invoice can be submitted to [email protected] for Supply Chain to pay the invoice.