Best Practices for Agreement Review and Award Processing

A. Read through award document and other pertinent documents, looking for and highlighting or flagging entries and/or individual pages for easy reference

1. Basic Information: Look for reference to: the Sponsor’s name, the principal investigator, the project’s title, period of performance, statement of work and budget. If some of these items are missing and there is no reference to the contrary, rely on the information from the proposal.

Period of Performance (POP)/ Begin and End Dates*:

First option: Look for a specific reference to a start and end date in the agreement

Second option: Look for dates on a sponsor’s cover letter, cover sheet or award form

Third option: Use date of last signature as start date and total time proposed to calculate the end date

Forth option: Contact sponsor for clarification via telephone or email correspondence, send a clarification letter to sponsor, or use the dates given in the PINS proposal.

* If there is conflicting information about the Period of Performance, explain the situation in the Award Notice Comments section.

2. Payment Provisions: What the sponsor states as type of agreement (Cost Reimbursement versus Fixed Price). Keep in mind that C&G may not keep the fixed price status if there is any reference to the following a) financial reporting, b) audit requirements, c) cost reimbursement, d) Federal Cost Principles or Cost Accounting Standards, e) limitations on allowable expenses or prior approval of expenses, or f) return of residual funds. A sponsor may label an agreement as "Fixed Price" and may require fixed price payment terms, however, for internal accounting purposes, C&G will make the final determination on whether NCSU treats the agreement as fixed price and how to handle any unexpended balance after the project is complete.

3. Funded Amount/Final Budget: State whether the agreement is fully funded or incrementally funded. If partially funded, obtain an internal budget for Contracts & Grants to use when setting up the account in Wolf Reports. Note incremental funding in the Award Notice’s “comments” section. Enter amount of total costs anticipated as the “Anticipated Total Funding Amount.” Sometimes sponsors can only fund projects by imposing a programmatic reduction across the board or at a lower level for other reasons. Look through the agreement. The sponsor may incorporate a final budget into the agreement. If not, obtain a revised budget from College Research Office (CRO). Sometimes we may have to use the budget from the proposal (if the total amount on the proposed budgets matches the amount awarded in the agreement). If you are unable to locate a matching budget in either the agreement or the PINS record, then request an internal budget from the CRO. If the difference of said revised agreement is greater than 10% of the total amount proposed, then you must also request a final budget via a “Revised New” PINS record. Flag the internal or revised budget before sending the award and proposal to C&G. (Blue Flag)

4. Prime Source of Funding: Determine the prime source of funding for the project. Provide the Prime Sponsor’s name, how the funding flows down to NCSU, and the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number in the award transaction if the source of funding is a grant/federal assistance award. Request the prime sponsor's agreement number to the prime recipient.


5. Invoicing / Payment Terms: Find or establish Payment Terms for each agreement. NCSU’s standard payment provision is cost reimbursement with either monthly or quarterly invoicing. NCSU needs to issue an invoice using NCSU’s standard automated invoicing system whenever possible. Work hard to negotiate out the use of any other type of invoicing requirements or the requirement to use the sponsor’s invoicing template. The University’s limited resources are strained even further if we agree to non-standard invoicing terms or the use of the sponsor’s forms. Another payment option is for fixed price payment with lump sum invoicing. In either instance, try to insert late payment provisions should the sponsor fail to make payments within 30 days of receipt of the University’s invoice. University’s invoices will serve as a payment reminder and as a means of tracking how late a sponsor’s payment may be. Include C&G’s address for a sponsor to send payment(s) to University. Be certain to include the sponsor’s address that NCSU will send its invoices to. State when the final invoice is due. The University standard is 45 days post termination. Please do not agree to anything less than 30 days post termination.

6. Contact Information: Confirm or obtain from sponsor the correct mailing address, physical address, individual to contact, contact’s email address, and contact’s phone number for the following:

Invoices (see ITEM #5 above)

Administrative matters

Technical matters

7. Facilities & Administrative (F&A): State if the F&A rate is either "fully recovered" or “less than fully recovered”. Be certain to obtain supporting documentation for any under-recovery. Less than fully recovered F&A rates must have either a pre-approved F&A waiver code, documentation from the sponsor restricting the rate, or Matt’s approval. Flag sponsor restricted F&A documentation in the award package. (Orange Flag).

8. Intellectual Property: Check for appropriate intellectual property provisions. Ensure that the terms of the agreement do not deviate from the University’s standard unless approved otherwise. See the Sponsored Project Agreement (SPA) for standard terms. Coordinate any deviations with John/Matt and OTT (when necessary).

9. Termination: Ensure that the University has rights terminate without cause for circumstances beyond our control. If possible, include language that the sponsor will reimburse the University for all costs and noncancelable commitments incurred prior to the date of termination.

10. Legal Issues: No Indemnification: defend or hold harmless, Governing Law, Binding Arbitration. (see Attorney General's Letter: [K/1Nego/Resources/Attorny Gen Ltr Indem Liblty Arbtrn]). Ensure that the University only accepts liability for the negligent acts of its employees and agents to the extent permitted and in the manner prescribed under the North Carolina Tort Claims Act, GS § 143-291, et seq.

11. If a prime agreement exists, ensure that there are no problematic terms in the prime agreement that would flow down to the University. If there are any conflicts between the agreement and the prime agreement, ensure that there is an order of precedence stated or that the problematic terms have been negotiated/altered.

12. Purchase Orders: Establish terms that any required purchase order issued shall be for payment purposes only and any associated terms to the purchase order will be null and void.

13. ARRA Funding: Search for any indication of Federal American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) funding. If ARRA funding is present, be certain to state and highlight reporting requirements for the University as either a direct recipient or a subrecipient. If no reporting requirements are listed for NCSU as a subrecipient (at any tier), then seek written confirmation from the sponsor that no reporting requirements will be delegated to the University. Please note that this will be an extremely rare occurrence. Ensure that you have checked the “ARRA funding” box in the Award transaction before sending to C&G. Notify at the time of the award. Provide the necessary information needed to complete Debbie Hunt’s ARRA Monthly Report Spreadsheet. See Debbie Hunt for more information.

14. Uploading documents: Upload the RADAR Notice of Award and a complete package of all documents received with the agreement. Be certain to include the final budget. Mark the budget as either “internal” or “revised” in the document’s file name when applicable.

Use the following naming convention when uploading documents.

RADAR-# - Subaward # - Mod #; PI last name; Document type

Optional:, author's initials, version/date

Some Document Type abbreviations Awd, Ltr, email, Bgt, Agrmt, Excp, Aprvl, Bgt Just, Sub, Cert, F&A, Rvsd, Deob, Supl, Corr, Drft. RedLn.

15. Ensure that the “Classification” (A.K.A. program type ) under RADAR’s Project Information (i.e. Research, Instruction, Public Service, etc.) is appropriate given the nature of the project.

16. Ensure that the program “Status” in the award transaction screen is accurate (New, Supplement, Continuation, etc.) given the nature of the agreement.

C. Pre-award Account Practices

1. Proper Documentation: Please ensure that there is proper documentation included in the pre-award account request demonstrating that the department and/or college involved has accepted the risk of incurring costs on the pre-award account should parties fail to reach an agreement.

2. Agreement’s status: Investigate whether an agreement is forthcoming. Advise the department and college involved if SPARCS has any indication that the risk is high. This will enable the parties involved to assess the risk effectively. Allow the department and college the opportunity to decide whether or not to proceed with the pre-award request given the agreement’s status.

3. Entering the request in RADAR: Be certain to select “preaward” from the “Status” menu. Leave project start and end dates blank. Retain the dollar amount that the college has entered in the “award” line. You may enter an “estimated total amount awarded” if one has been indentified by the sponsor.

4. Documents to print: Please print the award notice & pre-award back up documentation with a copy of the entire proposal packet for C&G.

D. Quality Control (QC) Check

1. Project title: Check to see if the project title in the agreement matches the award notice/RADAR.

2. Sponsors: Ensure that the direct and prime sponsors on the agreement match the award notice/RADAR.

3 Project Dates: Check to see that the project dates in the agreement match the award notice/RADAR.

4. Type/ Program Status: Ensure that the Program Status on the Notice of Award is correct and matches the RADAR record. Examples: new, continuation, supplement, de-obligation, etc.

5. Name of Investigator(s): Ensure that the investigators in the agreement match the award notice/RADAR.

6. Agreement number: Ensure that the sponsor’s Contract Grant or Agreement Number. matches the RADAR Contract Number and the Agency Reference number on the Notice of Award Modification/Amendment No is recorded in the Comments.

7. Amount funded: Ensure that the amount funded in the agreement matches the award notice/RADAR.

Best Practices Awards Long MK accpt 6-27-11.docx 1