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See also: Is it a sponsored project?
October 20, 1997
Processing Contracts and Contributions from Non-governmental Sources:
A Memorandum of Understanding
Between the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations, Office of the Vice President for Development and the Division of Research Development and Administration, Office of the Vice President for Research, University of Michigan
Correct classification and processing of external funds (contributions and contracts) assures the University's ability to comply with any terms specified by the sponsor/donor, meet state and federal reporting requirements, properly recover its costs--both direct and indirectand facilitate acceptable levels of accountability and stewardship for these funds. Classification and processing of these awards is sometimes complex and will require the exercise of informed judgment, particularly in the many cases where the nature of an award is not immediately clear.
CFR and DRDA pledge to work together collaboratively and to communicate effectively to simplify these processes on behalf of the University.
It is important to recognize that each award must be considered in its totality, rather than focusing on any single characteristic on the list of criteria.
- is primarily involved in external marketing, public relations, broad partnership or relationship building activities with corporations and foundations;
- creates maintains and enhances mutually beneficial relationships between these entities and university units;
- provides an infrastructure for prospect coordination, planning, solicitation and other services which empower university units to conduct these activities in the most efficient manner;
- serves as a broker between these entities and academic or research units; and
- solicits contributions from corporations and foundations particularly for multi-unit proposals.
The CFR office also provides coordination and a clearance system for academic and research units soliciting financial support from certain corporations and foundations that require limited proposals per year from the university or central university approval for solicitations. This centralized system applies to solicitation of contributions from certain corporations and foundations capable of making gifts of respectively $250,000 or $1,000,000 or more within a five year period. By avoiding duplication of effort and by equitably resolving competing claims, prospect coordination helps ensure the greatest possible return in support of the Universitys foremost priorities. The full Prospect Coordination and Clearance Policies for Corporations and Foundations can be found at (https://corporaterelations.www.umich.edu) on the CFR intranet web site.
Division of Research Development and Administration Office (DRDA)
The primary mission of the Division of Research Development and Administration (DRDA) is to assist faculty and staff members in all aspects of externally funded research projects and other scholarly activities. The DRDA staff assist research faculty and administrations:
- in the identification of potential sponsors;
- during the preparation of proposals;
- in dealing with various administrative problems (related to budgets, personnel, space, subcontracts, reporting and accountability, patents, negotiations with sponsors) during the course of the sponsored project; and in
- the submission of the documents required to close out the project.
DRDA Project Representatives are responsible for liaison with specific groups of sponsors. In this way, they can keep apprised of sponsor policies and programs in technical, scientific, and scholarly fields and can devote attention to the specific requirements of the sponsoring agencies. University policies and procedures [pre-award and post award] concerning externally-funded sponsored projects are described on-line at the UM Research web site (www.research.umich.edu).
Financial Operations Office of Sponsored Programs
The primary mission of the Sponsored Programs Office (SPO) within Financial Operations is to address all accounting issues related to sponsored projects--funded by government and non-government sources--after the award has been received by the University. The non-government area is divided into two sections: one dealing with non-profit foundations; the other dealing with industrial sponsors. The account coordinators:
- In concert with DRDA review all requests to establish new accounts involving Restricted Expendable Funds to determine if the award should be treated as a contribution or a contract.
- review transactions processed against the various sponsored projects for allowability and appropriateness in accordance with sponsor guidelines;
- submit required financial status reports; and
- process invoices and final billings, as well as any necessary follow-up on the invoices.
SPO coordinates the performance of external audits on the projects and is responsible for responding to audit findings. Follow-up on invoices and responding to audit findings is done in partnership with the academic unit.
In the case of an RFP, a formal proposal is usually prepared and submitted to the potential sponsor, outlining to scope of activities to be undertaken in response to the RFP. Informal discussion may also result in the submission of a written proposal to be evaluated by the external organization before a commitment is made to provide funds to support the program or project envisioned.
The initiative for such contacts may also come from the University. An unsolicited proposal may be submitted to a potential source of external funds, which then would be reviewed and acted upon much in the same manner as a response to an RFP.
Alternatively, the contact with the external organization may be initiated by the University in the form of a gift solicitation. While such solicitations may describe a general area or program to be supported by the requested funds, they usually do not take the form of a grant proposal (that is, gift solicitations generally do not include a budget and description of the scope of activities to be undertaken).
A sponsored project is any externally funded research or other scholarly activity that has a defined scope of work or set of objectives which provides a basis for sponsor expectations. Grant awards often are made for sponsored projects. Multiple sponsored project awards can be coordinated to support a sponsored program.
The Office of the Vice President for Development and the Office of the Vice President for Research agree that every grant proposal, gift solicitation, or contract application (including subcontracts to be issued to the University) for a sponsored project must be submitted for prior approval through DRDA before being sent to the proposed sponsor. Agreement formats and requests for proposals (RFP) or quotations (RFQ) offered by sponsors may contain provisions that are inconsistent with the policies of the University or those of the State of Michigan. It is essential, therefore, that any proposed agreement be reviewed by the Division of Research Development and Administration prior to acceptance or initiation of work thereunder. DRDA will coordinate the review of such agreements with the Office of the General Counsel, the Technology Management Office, and others as necessary. Documents that contractually bind the University can be signed only by a University official authorized to do so by the Board of Regents.
Gift solicitations and proposals to corporations and foundations for other than sponsored projects are processed by the CFR office. Gift agreements are negotiated by the Office of the Vice President for Development, much as sponsored project agreements are negotiated by DRDA.
CFR and DRDA consider communication between the two offices to be of great significance in service to faculty and units seeking extramural support. Coordination and cooperation is necessary because sponsored projects are often funded by a combination of contributions and contractual support. These offices will routinely share proposals and eventually databases to insure proposals are processed rapidly and properly. Academic and research unit development officers are encouraged to work closely with unit research administrators to facilitate these processes.
[signed by:]
G. A. "Jay" Hartford, Jr., Senior Director, Corporate & Foundation Relations
and
Marvin G. Parnes, Director, Division of Research Development and Administration, Assistant Vice President for Research
October 20, 1997
(with slight revisions for the web version on
2/1/99)