Agreement Types

Agreements can be Funded (have money attached to them that will need to be managed according to the conditions outlined in the signed agreement) or Unfunded (have no money attached to them, but still offer a formal agreement with terms and conditions).

Funded: Agreements that have funding attached to them.  Examples include:

• Gifts
• Grant
• Contract
• Cooperative Agreement
• Fellowships

Unfunded: Agreements that do not have funding attached to them.  Examples include:

• Material Transfer Agreement (MTA)
• Data Use Agreement (DUA)
• Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)

An incoming agreement refers to an agreement UC San Diego receives from another institution.  For example, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides funding to UC San Diego. 

An outgoing agreement refers to an agreement that UC San Diego is sending to another institution. For example, UC San Diego provides funding to another institution.

Service: A service agreement is a legally binding agreement between UC San Diego and an external customer, such as a corporation, other university, or federal agency, setting forth the terms and conditions under which UC San Diego will provide goods or services to that customer as a vendor/contractor. UC San Diego is not engaging in its own research under the agreement. Examples include:

• Routine statistical analysis for a pharmaceutical company
• Cloud storage services at San Diego Supercomputer Center
• Testing a piece of equipment on the Shake Table at UC San Diego's Structural Engineering Department

Research: Research is a logical and systematic search for new and useful information on a particular topic. Examples include:

• Basic research
• Applied research
• Mixed research
• Quantitative research

An award provided by a pass-through entity to a subrecipient* for the subrecipient to carry out part of a federal award received by the pass-through entity. It does not include payments to a contractor or payments to an individual who is a beneficiary of a federal program. A subaward may be provided through any form of legal agreement, including an agreement that the pass-through entity considers a contract. Sometimes referred to as a flow-through. Note: you may hear the term “Federal Flow-through” which is simply referring to the fact that the prime sponsor is federal.

Outgoing Subaward: Funding comes from the Prime Sponsor (e.g. National Institutes of Health (NIH)) to the Sponsor/Agency (pass-through entity) (e.g. UC San Diego) and then to the subrecipient (e.g. Johns Hopkins University).

Incoming Subaward: Funding comes from the Prime Sponsor (e.g. National Institutes of Health (NIH)) to the Sponsor/Agency (pass-through entity) (e.g. Johns Hopkins University) and then to the subrecipient (e.g. UC San Diego).

Gift: 

A contribution that is donative in intent, given voluntarily and without expectation of consideration.

Grant: 

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.

For more information visit the Gift vs. Sponsored Research page.

Grant: 

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.

Contract: 

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 the 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.