What Is a Subagreement?
According to Georgia Tech Policy 5.1, a subaward is "an award provided by the Institute to a Subrecipient for the Subrecipient to carry out part of the Institute’s Sponsored Award".
Pre-Award Stage
By making a proper determination at the proposal stage, the appropriate relationship can be established from the start. Relationships that are incorrectly identified at the proposal stage could have post-award financial impacts (i.e. indirect costs charged on the first $25k of the subaward vs. the full amount of vendor costs).
Subrecipients vs. Vendors vs. Consultants
The Determination Tool provides guidance in determining the appropriate type of relationship: subrecipient, vendor, or consultant.
Preparing the Statement of Work (SOW)
The SOW is a document that lists and describes all essential and technical requirements for the effort to be performed, including standards to be used to determine whether the requirements have been met. This document may include the following items where appropriate:
- Objective or purpose
- Period of performance
- A list of detailed work requirements
- Workload requirements
- Personnel requirements
- Resources (if any) to be furnished to the subcontractor
- Reporting requirement and/or other deliverables
Sole Source Justification
It is necessary to include documentation that you have obtained quotes from alternative vendors or completed a Sole Source Justification form. The PI is required to provide information of the technical competence of the sole source selection.
Budgeting Issues
Budget subrecipient and independent contractor relationships appropriately by applying Facilities & Administration (F&A) subrecipient costs to the first $25K of the award. Contractors are fully burdened. Consultants are burdened like materials and supplies, unlike subcontractors/subrecipients. The budget justification statement may serve as official documentation to clarify for sponsors any budget calculations for items such as staff salaries, special equipment, and subawards. See OSP's direct costs guidelines for additional budgeting details. Note: this only applies to Resident Instruction (RI) projects since GTRI calculates subawards differently.
Regarding the post-award stage, in addition to the budgeting guidelines above, researchers should obtain sponsor approval to proceed. Guidelines for sponsor consent are found in the research award.
Risk Assessment
PI/PDs and Unit Financial Officers share in the responsibility for monitoring subrecipients. Please refer to Policy 5.3 for the delegation of duties.
Next Steps
It is important that you read the terms of the award to determine the level of authorization needed prior to engaging subcontractors, even if they were originally proposed. Upon award, a request for a subaward should be made by the PD/PI or their designated team members. For more information, visit our Requesting a Subaward page.
Questions
If you have any questions about subrecipient determinations or the subaward process, please contact OSP.