Office of Research Outgoing Subawards - Office of Research

Outgoing Subawards

Guidance and Forms

Checklist and Guidance

Forms

Each section below includes the form(s) necessary to complete each task.

Submit a Proposal with Subawards

Instructions

  • Before budgeting for a subrecipient, first determine if the collaborator you propose to work with is truly a subrecipient. For help in determining if your collaborator is a true subrecipient, consult the Subrecipient, Contractor/Vendor, Consultant? table for reference. Failure to categorize subrecipients and vendors/suppliers properly can have an adverse effect to the proposed budget and lead to delays in providing funds to these entities.
  • Use the PI/Department Checklist for Principal Investigators and Department Administrators as a useful guide.
  • Sponsored Programs requires that the following elements be uploaded as one PDF attachment per subrecipient in Cayuse SP as Proposal Attachments in order for each named subrecipient to be included as part of a PI’s proposal to the sponsor.
    • Commitment Form
    • Subrecipient’s statement of work (SOW), including a clear and detailed description of the work to be performed, the proposed timelines, and deliverables.
    • Subrecipient’s Budget and Budget Justification, including the subrecipient’s direct and indirect costs, calculated in accordance with sponsor guidelines using the subrecipient’s approved F&A and fringe benefit rates, and verifying any committed cost sharing.
    • If the subrecipient does not have a current federally negotiated F&A rate in place they have the following options:
      • Use a de minimis F&A rate of 10% MTDC;
      • Negotiate a F&A rate with their Cognizant Federal Agency;
      • Elect not to charge F&A.
    • If the proposal is for a Federal contract (not a grant or cooperative agreement):
      • Sole Source Justification -Completion of this form is mandatory when proposing subcontract(s) under a federal contract for sponsored activity and the subcontract is being issued without seeking multiple bids OR if subaward was not included in the original proposal submitted to sponsor under a grant or cooperative agreement. See Uniform Guidance Section 200.324 or the Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1 for additional guidance.
      • Any additional elements that may be required by UCD’s sponsor for inclusion in the proposal.

Subrecipient proposal elements are expected to conform to the sponsor requirements for UCD’s prime proposal and should be in the format required by the sponsor.

In rare instances, a PI may recognize the need for outside involvement on a project but is either unable to identify the best subrecipient by the time of proposal submission, or is unable to acquire all of the required paperwork from that subrecipient. In these instances, proposals may be submitted with a subrecipient “To Be Named.” In these situations, PI is required to provide documentation of the basis for their subaward cost estimate for the work being performed. PIs will also be responsible for managing any budgetary shortfalls that may result from their inability to accurately predict a subrecipient’s costs. Subrecipients should not be asked to reduce their F&A recovery or to otherwise cost-share because of UCD’s failure to include appropriate costs in our proposal.

Tools/User Guides

Forms

Send a Subaward Request to SPO

Instructions

  1. After receiving notification from Sponsored Programs that the Prime Award has been awarded/fully-executed, complete a Subaward Request Form and gather the below applicable required documents (See Instructions for Completing the Subaward Request Form for more information). The required documents are:
    • For new subaward requests, the following documents must accompany the Subaward Request Form:
      • Subrecipient Commitment Form: You must provide a Subrecipient Commitment Form, Multiple Campus (MCA) Commitment Form or FDP Subrecipient Pilot – Subrecipient Supplemental Project Information Form, completed and signed by the Subrecipient’s Authorized Official within the past 12 months.
      • Mini-Audit Questionnaire: If Subrecipient has indicated “No” in Section D – Audit Status of the Subrecipient Commitment Form, you must provide a Mini-Audit Questionnaire completed and signed by the Subrecipient’s Authorized Official within the past 12 months.
      • Statement of Work: You must provide the Subrecipient’s Statement of Work, which includes a clear description of the work to be performed and, if applicable, any proposed timelines and deliverables.
      • Budget and Justification: You must provide the Subrecipient’s Budget and Justification. At minimum, a Budget for the initial budget period (e.g. Year 1) is required. A Budget that includes the entire performance period (e.g. Years 1-5) may be provided; if this is done, the entire performance period budget will be included in the Subaward, unless the UCD PI requests otherwise. If the Budget for the entire performance period is included in the initial Subaward agreement, the UCD PI will not need to provide Budgets for future year amendments, unless there are changes to the Budgets for those years.
      • Sole Source Justification Form: If the selection or the subawardee/subrecipient was not selected via a competitive bid, a Sole Source Justification Form must be completed if the request is for a “subcontract” under a prime award Contract OR Subrecipient was not included in the original proposal submitted to sponsor.
      • Subrecipeint COI : The UCD Subrecipient Commitment Form (Section C) helps identify whether the subrecipient has a compliant conflict of interest policy. For subrecipients that have certified compliance through the FDP Clearinghouse, the signed Subrecipient Commitment Form will confirm the compliance. For subrecipients that do not have a PHS  or NSF compliant conflict of interest policy, the subrecipient must either implement a compliant conflict of interest policy or agree to abide to follow UCD policies and complete the required Financial Disclosure forms before a subaward can be issued:
    • For subaward amendment requests, the following documents must accompany the Subaward Request Form:
      • Statement of Work: Provide a revised Statement of Work only if there has been a change to the Subrecipient’s Statement of Work that was previously included in the Subaward agreement.
      • Budget Justification: Provide a revised Budget and Justification only if:
        • The Subaward is being funded incrementally, you are adding the next year’s funds, and the Budget for these funds was not previously included in the Subaward agreement; or
        • There has been a change to the Subrecipient’s Budget (i.e. a change from the Budget that was included in the initial agreement, or in most recent previous amendment); or
        • The Subaward funding amount is being decreased, or unspent carry-forward is being removed from the Subaward Budget.
      • Mini-Audit Questionnaire: If a Mini-Audit Questionnaire was required as part of the initial subaward request package and more than 12 months has passed since it was originally signed, you must provide an updated Mini-Audit Questionnaire which has been completed and signed by the Subrecipient’s Authorized Official.
  2. Email the completed and signed Subaward Request Form and all required documents to the Subaward Team at [email protected]. The attached documents should be current or applicable to the period of performance for which you are subcontracting.

Incomplete request forms will be returned to the sender and will delay processing of subaward(s).

Forms

Work with SPO during Subaward Review

  1. Check your email for correspondence from SPO regarding the proposal. Emails may come directly from your assigned SPO analyst, [email protected] or [email protected] (do not reply to this email address).
  2. View the Subaward in Cayuse SP to determine the status, the assigned SPO analyst and any outstanding items.

Monitor a Subaward

PI Responsibilities

The Principal Investigator is responsible for monitoring subrecipients so there is reasonable assurance that the subrecipient uses the award for authorized purposes, complies with laws, regulation, and the provisions of the agreement, invoices UCD for allowable expenses in accordance with the agreement, and achieves its performance goals.

Instructions

  1. Review the subrecipient’s invoices and indicates approval by personally signing each invoice for payment, after full review and concluding that all charges are appropriately made/invoiced. As part of invoice review, the PI (typically with assistance from the departmental administrators, although PI is fully responsible for the entire process) is responsible to verify that the invoice was prepared in accordance with the subaward requirements and that invoiced costs are:
    • Submitted in accordance with the required invoice frequency
    • Are submitted using any required invoice template
    • In accordance with the approved budget or permissible rebudgeting and reflects the appropriate F&A rate
    • Incurred within the approved period of performance and overall cost limitations
    • Aligned in terms of cost and type of expense with the scientific progress reported to date
    • Allowable, allocable, and reasonable
  2. Clarify invoiced charges, requesting additional documentation as may be necessary, if the level of detail included on an invoice is not sufficient to fully understand the costs, or if it appears that some costs may be excessive or understated. Such inquiries must be done in a timely manner (e.g., within thirty days after receipt of an invoice) so that the subrecipient can be promptly paid for approved costs. Examples of detailed justifications that may be requested from subrecipients include: payroll records, copies of paid invoices showing the cost of items purchased, descriptions of services rendered by consultants, including hourly rates and time reports; details of incurred travel charges stating the purpose, airfare, meals, ground transportation, unallowable costs, etc.  Copies of all such documentation and the ultimate outcome of the investigation should be retained in the project file.
  3. Review all progress, technical, and financial reports to ensure they are complete and comply with all requirements stipulated in the subaward, including frequency/timeframe requirements stipulated in the subaward. Discuss technical progress, financial matters, and compliance with the subrecipient. The PI is obligated to be in contact with the subrecipient regularly to discuss progress and receive and review required reports or deliverables.
  4. Monitor regulations and assurances. The federal regulations that describe subrecipient monitoring are general, but contain the following core elements of compliance:
    • Advising subrecipients of all applicable federal laws and regulations, and all appropriate flow-down provisions from the prime agreement
    • The routine receipt and review of technical performance reports
    • The routine review of expenses-to-budget
    • The periodic performance of on-site visits, or regular contact, if necessary
    • The option to perform “audits” if necessary, review of audit reports filed by subrecipients, and any audit findings review of corrective actions cited by subrecipients in response to their audit findings
    • Consideration of sanctions on subrecipients in cases of continued inability or unwillingness to have required audits or to correct non-compliant actions
    • In addition to the general elements of compliance noted above, there may be additional sponsor- or program-specific requirements that mandate collecting and documenting other assurances (e.g., on lab animals, human subjects, biohazards, etc.) during the course of a project.
  5. Keep detailed documentation of unsatisfactory performance by the subrecipient.
  6. Retain all invoices and reports in the department’s files for audit purposes.
  7. For International Subrecipients to an NIH Grant and Where UC Davis is the Primary Funding Recipient Only:
    Effective January 1, 2024, PI ensures subrecipient access (electronic access permissible) to copies of all lab notebooks, all data, and all documentation associated with the research as described in the progress report to the primary funding recipient and in alignment with progress report submission requirements, but on no less than an annual basis per NIH GPS 15.2.1.

    • PI should verify access and document the location of materials provided by the subrecipient, retaining documentation and access location for a period of three (3) years from the date of submission of the grant’s final financial report.

Receive and Submit a Subrecpient's Final Invoice

Subrecipients must submit a final invoice, clearly marked “Final”, to UC Davis by the date that is required in the subaward agreement, typically no later than 60 days after the end of the Subrecipient’s period of performance.

Closeout a Subaward

A subaward is closed out when its period of performance comes to an end, regardless of whether UC Davis’ research project is ending or continuing.

  1. Remind subrecipients of needed reports well in advance of the deadline for such reports.
  2. Obtain final technical reports from the subrecipients and retain a copy in the Principal Investigator’s project file.
  3. Obtain other final reports from the subrecipients as required and retain a copy in the Principal Investigator’s project file. Other final reports might include property reports, patent reports, small disadvantaged business reports and Assignment and Release documents.