Award Document
Negotiation and Acceptance of Agreements
Negotiation is the process of formal discussion between the sponsor and the recipient institution to resolve any conflicts in scope of work, budget, or terms and conditions. If successful, this process leads to the preparation by the sponsor of a mutually acceptable award document (grant, contract, or cooperative agreement).
A sponsor’s program officer may contact the Principal Investigator (PI) directly to discuss the proposed budget, investigator’s level of effort, and the scope of work. Reductions in proposed budgets should be evaluated to determine whether there is a change in the scope of work. These discussions and evaluations should be relayed to the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP).
When the award document is received, the OSP will review the terms and conditions of the award for conformity with university policies and procedures. Further negotiation between the OSP, the PI (as appropriate) and the sponsor may be necessary to eliminate or revise unnecessary or inappropriate terms and conditions.
Once the award document is acceptable to all parties, the OSP will have the award agreement signed by the authorized university representative and will return the signed agreement to the sponsor. PI ’ s are not authorized to sign award documents on behalf of the University. Grant and Contract Award documents requiring an authorized signature must be brought to the OSP.
The Award Document
The award document includes: Dates of the budget period or other specified funding period. Amount of the funds authorized for obligation by the grantee during the period indicated Special terms and conditions binding upon the award. An outline of general terms applicable to the award. Appended to the grant award document, or as an additional notification, will be a schedule for filing technical and financial reports. The award document must be received before the project can begin or anticipated funds can be expended.