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Office of Sponsored Programs

Proposal Process

Award

All award documents must be received by or forwarded to your Pre Award Administrator.

PI Responsibilities	Pre Award Responsibilities
Forward award documents to Pre Award Forward research subject care approval letters to Pre Award Work with Export and Secure Research  if necessary Complete IP questionnaire at request of Pre Award	Review award document Negotiate contract as necessary Ensure all compliance forms have been received for file (work on wording)

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Negotiations and Award Acceptance

Let' s assume that all goes well, and you find that your project will be funded. You will be deservedly pleased. But you will not necessarily have completed the Proposal Review and Negotiation process yet. Most awards require a certain amount of negotiation, and must be signed by university officials and the sponsoring organization before work may begin. Questions that are technical in nature will be referred to you to work out with your sponsor. Most often, however, negotiations concern fiscal and administrative matters. Please refer all questions of this type from your sponsor to us. OSP is responsible for negotiating these details with the sponsor. University policy and state and federal regulations must all be complied with in the terms and conditions of an award. It's our job to make sure that this is done. We don't set the policies-we simply assure that all our accepted awards comply with them.

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Common Contract Terms and Conditions Unacceptable to the University

Sponsors may include in their award documents certain terms and conditions that Virginia Tech cannot accept. Usually, such terms conflict with state law, our position as a non-profit educational institution, or university policies. The Office of Sponsored Programs is responsible for identifying such terms and conditions, and will work with your prospective sponsor to reach an agreement that will be acceptable for all parties. For your information, however, here is a short list of such terms that often require resolution.

• Our agreements cannot be subject to the laws of another state.
• By law, we cannot indemnify (hold harmless) our sponsors.
• By law, we cannot give up title to intellectual properties that result from research if the effort involved any substantial expenditure of state funds. (This normally involves faculty time and indirect costs not paid for by the sponsor.)
• As a university , we must preserve the right to publish the results of research done by faculty and students, so terms to the contrary must be carefully examined.

Once the award, with its terms and conditions, is considered acceptable (negotiations may take days or even weeks), and both the sponsor and the University have signed the award, the proposal is assigned a fund number and entered into the University accounting system.

The P.I. may not initiate work on a project without a firm commitment that this work will be supported. Such a commitment would be a signed, approved award from the sponsor or a written commitment from the department or college that they will assume any costs not covered by the award. (Letter of Guarantee)