Sponsored Project Outgoing Agreement Guide

Subrecipient

A binding legal agreement between UT Austin and a non-UTA entity where:

• A defined portion of the work statement’s intellectually significant activity is assigned to another entity (“the subrecipient”) to fulfill.
• The subrecipient takes full responsibility for administrative and programmatic decisions, including intellectual leadership, for the portion of the overall work statement that they will undertake.
• The award terms and conditions UTA has accepted from our funding agency must be “flowed down” to the subrecipient, who must also agree to comply with them.

A subaward or subrecipient agreement may be appropriate if you can answer yes to any of the following:

• Does the entity’s statement of work represent an intellectually significant portion of the overall project?
• Does the entity have responsibility for overall programmatic decision-making?
• Is there an identified principal investigator for the entity? Is he or she a co-investigator on the primary proposal?
• Could the entity’s work result in intellectual property developed?
• Are publications anticipated from the entity? Will individuals at the entity be co-authors with UT Austin?
• Should the entity be subject to compliance protocols (IRB, IACUC, Financial Conflict of Interest, etc.) for its portion of the work?

Return to top.

Contractor

A contractor (or consultant, vendor, or service provider) provides ancillary goods or services that are needed to conduct the research effort.

Examples include (but not limited to):

• Expert advice or consulting
• Non-University labor or services paid a “fee for service”
• Commercially available supplies and expendable materials
• Equipment or component parts for fabricated equipment or equipment which will be delivered to and used by the sponsor or other entity designated by the sponsor

A contractor agreement (or other procurement action) may be appropriate if you can answer yes to any of the following:

• Does the entity provide the goods or services within its normal business operations?
• Does the entity provide similar goods and services to many different purchasers?
• Is the entity providing goods or services which are ancillary to the overall objective of the prime award?
• Is the entity performing a series of repetitive tests or activities requiring little to no discretionary judgement?
• Does the entity operate in a competitive environment?
• Will the entity NOT be subject to the compliance requirements of the prime award?

Return to top.