Funded Agreements

Last Updated: October 3, 2024 2:06:14 PM PDT

Find insight on Sponsored Research Agreements with Industry entities.

A research agreement is a contract between UCSD and an external, for-profit entity (sponsor) that provides funding for UCSD, and its subcontractors, as appropriate, to perform a research project based upon a mutually agreed upon scope of work and budget for the benefit of both parties. The terms and conditions of the research agreement are negotiated between the Sponsored Projects Office (SPO) and the Sponsor, and upon execution, serve as the award document for the proposed research project.

Research agreements with industry typically cover the rights and obligations of each party, including, but not limited to: publication, intellectual property, data rights, indemnification, payment of research costs, confidential information, export controls, and period of performance of the project.

A sponsored research agreement is intended to cover a single research project in the laboratory of a UCSD principal investigator. Commonly, a research collaboration agreement is needed when a company and a principal investigator are engaged in similar or complementary research and the company supports the full cost of research in the UCSD laboratory. The primary focus of this type of agreement is to assure that the rights of the parties are protected with respect to retention of ownership and restrictions on dissemination prior to the exchange of such information.

Non-disclosure/confidentiality agreements are generally only negotiated in advance of a formal research agreement and are generally limited to addressing topics such as the definition of confidential/proprietary information, the manner in which the information will be exchanged, and information that is excluded from being considered confidential/proprietary. In the event that prior disclosure is not necessary, appropriate non-disclosure/confidentiality terms will typically be included as part of the actual research or collaboration agreement.

Submitting Requests

Create a Kuali Research Record: For tips and guidance related to entering various agreements into the enterprise system of record.

Kuali Research Systems Training: To register for various eCourses and Virtual Instructor Led training related to the various Kuali modules and to access the Kuali Research Training Guides.

Additional Resources and Help: To get more information on various resources, search the knowledge base and how to contact a Research Administration Client Experience agent.

Clinical Service Agreement (CSA) and Clinical Consulting Agreement (CON)

UC provides a service for a fee: Professional (Medical director, patient care, clinical trial oversight, faculty consulting, data management for multi-site studies); Clinical (nurses, dieticians, research personnel); Educational Programs: (CME, preceptorships, community health outreach)

Clinical Trials

An agreement for the controlled, clinical testing in human subjects of investigational new drugs, devices, treatments, or diagnostics, or comparisons of approved drugs, devices, treatments, or diagnostics, to assess their safety efficacy, benefits, costs, adverse reactions, and/or outcomes.

Such studies may be conducted under an industry-developed protocol or a principal investigator-developed protocol.

For more information visit the Clinical Research and Trials page.

Contracts

A mechanism used for the procurement of a product or service with the primary benefit to the sponsor. A contract contains specific obligations on the part of both the sponsor and the university, including specific deliverables or milestones. The research goal often originates from the sponsor with the scope of work and budget negotiated between the sponsor and University. A contract is the most restrictive funding mechanism with most changes requiring renegotiation and a formal contract modification. Agency personnel will interact frequently with the PI and University staff about the progress of the research and expenditure of the funds.

Cooperative Agreements

Similar to a grant except the sponsor’s staff is usually actively involved in the design and conduct of the research activities. Generally used by the federal government.

Federal Flow-Through (including SBIR/STTR)

Definitions:

Federal Flow-Through: an agreement that contains funding provided by a federal agency (e.g. Army, Navy, NASA, DOE, NIH, etc.) to an entity such as a University, For-Profit, or Non-Profit, to UCSD in support of UCSD's participation in a research project.
SBIR: Small Business Innovation Research
STTR: Small Business Technology Transfer

Federal Flow-Through Contracts Under SBIR/STTR

Federal Flow-Through Contracts under SBIR/STTR Program Agreements are subaward contracts or grants flowing through a small business entity to provide federal funds to UCSD for a research project.

A proposal is submitted by the small business to the federal agency and UCSD prepares and negotiates an agreement with the small business once the small business receives their Notice of Award from the federal agency.

The flow-through award (subcontract) covers the rights and obligations of UCSD and the funding pass-through entity (PTE), as well as the Prime federal agency. The document provided by the PTE also flows down applicable terms and conditions from the Prime award down to UCSD.

For more information see the SBIR/STTR page.

Fellowships

For more information visit the Fellowships page.

Grants

A form of financial assistance awarded to conduct research or other programs that are specified in an approved proposal or statement of work. The benefit of the project is for the public. A grant agreement typically includes minimal deliverables such as reports, and does not require a specific outcome. The most common funding mechanism used by agencies to fund research. A grant provides maximum flexibility in the expenditure of funds and performance of the proposed work. There is little agency involvement and grant terms and conditions may be standard and referenced rather than included in the grant agreement.

Grant Transfers

NIH calls a Grant Transfer a Change of Recipient Organization. Most are submitted electronically via the ASSIST module in eRA Commons, but a few are still submitted via paper. Please refer to the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to determine which option is the correct option for you and your PI.

To locate how you may submit your application, it is under the Activity Code, which is just below the Funding Opportunity Title, near the top of the FOA.

Please see the Review Priorities document which outlines both the department's and the Sponsored Projects Office (SPO) responsibilities in reviewing Grant Transfer (Change of Grantee Institution) applications.

Minimum Requirements for SPO Review

NIH or AHRQ	Change of Recipient Organization (Grant Transfer)
PD Record
Basics: Proposals Details	Indicate the proposal type as New.
Basics: Delivery Info	Indicate the ASSIST # at the Submission Description.
Basics: Sponsor & Program Information	Indicate the FOA # at Opportunity ID. Indicate the FOA title at Opportunity Title. Indicate the NIH Grant # at Sponsor Proposal ID.
Compliance	Indicate the IACUC and/or IRB protocol # for congruency review.
Attachments: Internal	Internal Budget (Excel) Copy of Awarded Application Copy of the Most Recent NoA Relinquishing Statement If applicable: Copy of IRB and/or IACUC protocol, if applicable UC/VA Salary Worksheet Salary Waiver PI Exception Subaward Packet(s) Cost Share Documentation
Proposal	When the application is ready to submit, change the status in ASSIST to "Ready for Submission" and notify the SPO Analyst via email.

Confused Between the GPS, Guidelines, FOA, and Notices?

The Grants Policy Statement (GPS) has instructions on what the minimal requirements are to transfer a grant to a new institution. This can be found by visiting the NIH Prior Approval Requirements page. This should be used in conjunction with both the current Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) and the current SF424 (R&R) Guidelines. The current FOA is PA-21-268 and the current SF424 (R&R) Guidelines are for applications utilizing version Forms G. Note, that the FOA always trumps the SF424 (R&R) Guidelines when it comes to two conflicting requirements. Moreover, if a Notice is published, the Notice then trumps the other three. If all also fails and you are still confused, then please do not hesitate to contact the SPO Analyst for assistance.

The image below is for most instances. A grant transfer also has information in the GPS, so the GPS and the Application Guide (SF424 R&R Guidelines) would be considered the default instructions.

Helpful Additional Resources

Lab Service Agreement (LSA)

Pre-clinical activity involving non-human clinical observation such as performing assays, gathering data, and testing proprietary substances in a controlled setting. The results are provided to the sponsor.

Limited Submissions

For more information visit the Research Development page.

Master Agreements

Master Agreements are research contracts between a single sponsor and UCSD to cover a multitude, or variety, of research projects at UCSD or within a UCSD Department or Center.

The terms and conditions of the master agreement can govern all UCSD projects with the sponsor; therefore, an agreement does not need to be prepared or negotiated for each project, but a master agreement may require a long time to finalize due to its applicability to undefined research projects.

Once the master agreement is finalized, the sponsor will usually require pre-approval of a UCSD principal investigator’s proposal describing the scope of work and other project-specific aspects such as budget and schedule.

Membership Agreements

A Membership Agreement allows an external entity to become a member of a UC San Diego research center or institute to support a specific research area and engage with researchers and students involved in that area. A membership provides general support for a research center’s operation.

Multi Campus Award (MCA)

An agreement between two UC campuses when more than one campus will be engaging in a sponsored project. An MCA is a formal agreement between one UC campus and another to delineate roles in the research program, where the overall project is funded by an external sponsor. This is processed as a type of subaward, even though legally the two UC campuses are a single entity.

For more information visit the Multi-Campus Award (MCA) page.

Multi-Project Grants

Per the National Institutes of Health (NIH) page Multi-project grants share the following features:

At least two interrelated research projects (unless stated otherwise in the NOFO) related to a theme with each capable of standing on its own scientific merit but complementing one another.
Collaboration and interaction among projects and investigators to achieve a common goal.
Synergy among projects.
One grantee institution will be legally and financially responsible for the use of funds.
Support as needed for shared resources—core resources or facilities—that provide services or resources to at least two research projects.

Other Transaction Authority (OTA)

An OTA is a unique type of federal award that is neither a federal assistance award (grants and cooperative agreements) nor a procurement contract governed by the Federal Acquisition Regulations.

United States federal agencies with the authority to issue Other Transaction Authority agreements are increasingly issuing them to engage with non-traditional partners in research, development, and prototyping projects. Universities typically receive OTA funding directly from an agency; via subaward from another university; or through a consortium, an organization that flows down and coordinates OTA funding for the government in specific technology areas and aims to streamline the funding process for its members.

Unlike more traditional award types, OTAs are exempt from many federal regulations. While this flexibility can be beneficial in that the government can move very quickly to issue awards, it also demands that recipients pay more attention to the details of the terms and conditions as well as to non-standard compliance requirements.

Federal Agencies with Other Transaction Authority Include:

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
Department of Defense (DoD)
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
Department of Transportation (DOT)
Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)
Department of Energy (DOE)
Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)
Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO)
Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA)
Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E)
Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority (AGARDA)
Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Personnel Agreements

A payment mechanism to maintain the employment status and pay of a UCSD employee who is working on a project on behalf of another institution or agency.

Service/ Vendor Agreements

A vendor/service agreement is another name for a procurement contract under which UC San Diego receives payment to perform unique services for or provide unique products to an outside entity. Existing, approved recharge rate facilities are frequent users of service agreements. Groups that don’t have approved recharge rates can also enter into service agreements on a case by case basis. UCSD acts as a pair of hands and gets no rights out of performing the work.

Subaward (Grant or Contract)

A subaward is an agreement that transfers a portion of the research and effort/budget of an award to another institution. A research subaward will be consistent with all of the terms and conditions of the original award (prime award). UC San Diego both receives and issues subawards. Also known as a flow‐through award, this can take the form of a subaward grant or subcontract depending on what the prime award is. This is distinct from a vendor (service) agreement as outlined below.

Training Grants

Training grants are externally funded programs that provide funding and training for undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and/or clinical residents. UC San Diego provides a broad variety of campus resources to support training programs, PD/PIs, mentors, and trainees, making UC San Diego an ideal training environment. For institutional resources ranging from research ethics training to diversity programs to grant administration tools visit Training Grant Program Resources.

For more information or questions email researchadmin@ucsd.edu.