Managing a Subagreement

A subagreement is an enforceable agreement, issued under a prime sponsored project, between a pass-through entity and a subrecipient for the performance of a substantive portion of the program; these terms do NOT apply to the procurement of goods or services from a contractor (vendor). (See Subrecipient vs. Contractor Guidance)

A subrecipient (also called a subcontractor or subawardee) is an organization eligible to receive a financial award. A subrecipient’s performance is measured against whether the objective of the sponsored program are met; subrecipients have responsibility for programmatic decision-making and for adherence to applicable program compliance responsibilities. Subrecipients are responsible for performing a substantive portion of the program, as opposed to providing goods and services.

Proposal Development Stage

Please see additional information on adding subaward agreements during the proposal stage.

Just in Time (JIT) Stage

The department/school is responsible for collecting any relevant documentation required by both OSP and the sponsor from a subrecipient for a JIT submission. If a revised budget is needed, a signed revised Statement of Intent (SOI) should be obtained by the department/school and provided to the OSP Central Reviewer.

The OSP Central Reviewer will review the revised documents and will include the subrecipient documents with the JIT package when submitting to the prime sponsor.

Award and Mid-Lifecycle Stage

Requesting a Subagreement

If subrecipient involvement is identified during award set up or during the lifecycle of the award, there are two different ways a draft subagreement can be initiated in GMAS:

Subrecipient Involvement Was Included in the Initial Proposal

When there is subrecipient involvement in the awarded project and such involvement was included in the initial proposal:

• After an award is set up and is in active status in GMAS, the Subagreement Draft Requester (typically a Department Administrator or Grants Manager) initiates the subagreement drafting process by creating a GMAS subagreement draft request, assigns the appropriate Grants and Contracts Specialist (GCS) as the Central Reviewer, and routes the request for “Central Review”
• The Draft Requester ensures that current subagreement documents are uploaded to GMAS and categorized.
• The OSP Central Office Reviewer (GCS) reviews the subagreement draft request. If all requirements have been met, the Central Office Reviewer updates the status of the request in GMAS to move it on to the Subcontract team for drafting. If any questions arise or additional information is required during the review process the Central Office Reviewer uses GMAS functionality to follow up with the Draft Requester.
  • The Central Office may rollback the draft request to “Under Development” and back to the Draft Requester if:
    • Missing, incomplete or inaccurate support documents
    • Edits to dates, dollars and/or statement of work
    • Prior approval is needed but not in place
• The Subagreement Drafter (Subcontract Specialist), in consultation with the Grants & Contracts Officer (GCO), drafts the subagreement based on information in the GMAS draft request. The Drafter will upload the draft subagreement in the GMAS subagreement document repository with appropriate categories assigned. The Central Office Reviewer is notified via the system when the draft is ready for review and approval.
• A Negotiator (GCO) works with the Subrecipient to reach an agreement on terms and identify updates to the draft as appropriate. When agreeable terms have been reached, the Negotiator will fully execute the subagreement document and will notify the OSP Awards Management and Operations team to complete a revision in GMAS to capture the awarded information.
• The Draft Requester can track the progress of the subagreement request via the “Subagreement Dashboard”.

Subagreement Involvement Was Not Included in the Initial Proposal

When there is subrecipient involvement in the awarded project, but such involvement was not included in the proposal (subrecipient was not identified at the proposal or is added mid-lifecycle of an award):

• The Subagreement Draft Requester enters a “Subrecipient Addition at No Additional Cost” request (under Changes to Existing Segment) in GMAS and routes the request to OSP for review. The OSP Awards Management Team reviews the “Subrecipient Addition at No Additional Cost” request and submits the request to the sponsor if prior approval is needed once the GMAS request has all required signatures.
• Once prior approval has been obtained and the notice has been processed, the Subagreement Draft Requester follows the same workflow for the initial subagreement (see Subrecipient Involvement Was Included in Initial Proposal above).

Requesting an Amendment to an Existing Subaward

When a subagreement needs to be changed/amended, the Draft Requester follows the same workflow for the initial subagreement, and selects the subrecipient to be amended and enters the relevant information.

A GCS will initiate a subamendment in the following limited circumstances:

• To flow down new/amended terms and conditions from the prime agreement
• To incorporate corrections and/or administrative changes to a subamendment that would not affect dates, dollars, or the statement of work.

Additional Information

For more details and step-by-step instructions, please see additional information in the “University Wide Subagreement Workflow Business Process” and the GMAS subagreement Job aids.

Please note: Subagreements are issued with a one-year period of performance to ensure adequate monitoring of technical progress and compliance with University and sponsor requirements.

Subrecipient Monitoring

The following entities share subrecipient monitoring responsibilities:

• PI & Department/Local Level Managing Unit
• School/Local Unit
• OSP
• University Subrecipient Monitoring Committee (USMC)
• Office of the Provost

For more information, please refer to the Subrecipient Monitoring Policy.