SUBMITTING PROPOSALS AFTER LEGAL CLOSE
If you plan to collaborate with VUMC investigators,
you will need to include a VUMC proposal for an
outgoing billing agreement or subcontract.
If VUMC plans to include a VU investigator, the VU
investigator will need to route a proposal for an
incoming billing agreement or subcontract.
Use of Subcontract/Subaward Relationship
Purpose:
A subcontract is required when a research project is carried out by the recipient and one or
more other organizations that are separate legal entities. Under the agreement, the recipient
must perform a substantive role in the conduct of the planned research. These agreements
typically involve a specific level of effort from the consortium organization and a categorical
breakdown of costs, such as personnel, supplies, and other allowable expenses, including F&A
costs..
Rule of Thumb:
If for example, Duke would provide services to VU, that would require a subaward for work
outlined in the grant application, we in the future would require a subaward if VUMC fulfilled
the same type of activity.
The use of the “Billing Agreement” is not intended to circumvent the formal subaward process
but to fill the void when work required by VU faculty, staff or students does not meet the
definition of subrecipient activity.
Proposal Review Process:
Prime/Lead Organization
Grant applications are due to the preaward central office for review and approval five (5)
business days prior to the stated agency/sponsor submission deadline. The requested
deadline for actual submission to the funding agency is two (2) business days prior to the
stated agency deadline, allowing the preaward office three (3) business days to complete our
review.
Subrecipient Organization
Sufficient proposal lead time should be given to allow for review of subrecipient documentation
by preaward central office to ensure material is approved and supplied to Prime/Lead
Organization to meet five (5) business days prior to stated sponsor deadline rule.
When To Use Sponsored Activity Billing Agreement
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Reimbursement for salary, fringe (and tuition/health insurance if graduate student)
Billing agreements may also be used for other supporting staff
F&A is not recoverable as overhead
1:1 match for each “non-grantee entity” individual working on the project (i.e. separate
billing agreements required for each individual per project)
Since billing agreement doesn’t include F&A at the collaborating institution, F&A will be
charged on the prime award.
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In the prime budget going to the agency, the costs will be shown as if they were the prime’s
costs. Full IDC would be collected minus any exclusions, such as tuition. The account
codes will be prime account codes for salary and fringe, for example. The budget
justification will explain the relationship.
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It will be expensed on the GL side as a “service” (i.e. not personnel).
One-page sponsored billing agreement
Proposal Submission Process: VU Prime
What to include in your proposal from VUMC if it includes a proposed subcontract to VUMC:
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detail budget including VUMC F&A,
budget justification,
scope of work,
biosketch and
letter of commitment signed by an authorized representative of the subcontractor institution
[This means that VUMC will be routing their subcontract proposal through COEUS for institutional
approvals before it is provided to VU.]
The lead VU PI then incorporates this information into the proposal.
The amount of the Subcontractor's total budget (direct and indirect costs) is included as a separate
item in the "other direct cost" or "consortium/contractual" category of the prime proposal budget with
a reference to the Subcontractor's complete proposal, including a line item budget with sufficient
justification, elsewhere in the proposal. Finally, the subaward is subject to VU indirect costs % on
the first $25,000 for proposals submitted to agency after 04/30/2016..
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Proposal Submission Process: VU Sub-recipient
When a VU investigator is asked to collaborate
VU PI builds the subaward proposal, to be forwarded according to the usual routing in Coeus
to Sponsored Programs Administration for review and approval.
Documents include:
• detail budget (including VU F&A)
• budget justification,
• scope of work,
• biosketch and
• letter of commitment signed by Sponsored Programs Administration
Once approval is granted by SPA, the department of the sub-recipient provides information to
VUMC.
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Scenarios of proper agreement type use
Agreement Type
Scenario*
1
VU student working in a VUMC lab
on a training grant owned by VU
2
VU graduate student works on
VUMC owned R01 in VUMC lab
3
4
5
1
2
VU Student supported from a VU
owned T32 transitions to VUMC
owned R01 under the direction of
VUMC faculty
VU staff member working in VUMC
lab on a grant or contract owned by
VUMC
VU Faculty member performing
substantive programmatic work on
VUMC owned R01
3
No subaward or billing agreement
required as the employer and
owner of the grant are the same
Billing agreement required to
reimburse VU for students salary,
health insurance and tuition
supported by VUMC R01 grant
No subaward or billing agreement
is required while on T32, however
when transitioned to VUMC owned
R01 a billing agreement will be
required
4
Billing agreement is required
5
Formal subcontract w/ IDC required
*Same applies for reverse VU/VUMC scenario’s
Note: When using the “billing agreement”, IDC is not recoverable for non-grantee
site. Formal subcontract allows for IDC recovery as resources at collaborating
site are being utilized.
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BASIC SCIENCE INDUSTRY CONTRACTS
All contracts (including industry contracts) should be submitted in COEUS
prior to the start of negotiations:
• Insures that COEUS has all the institutional data and approvals concerning
submitted proposals
• Allows the contract intake form in PEER to be simplified since all regulatory
questions will be answered in PEER
• Allows departments to use center management to obtain center numbers
• Contracts for negotiation will still be submitted to SPA using PEER
BEST PRACTICES FOR USING PEER
• ALL university contracts should be submitted to SPA using PEER to initiate
negotiation by the contracts team in SPA
• All non disclosure and confidentiality agreements to be negotiated by SPA
should be submitted using PEER
• Any other “unfunded” agreements to be reviewed and accepted by SPA should
be submitted using PEER
Drinking from the firehose?