Award Negotiation & Acceptance
Sponsor issues award notice to OSU
- SPO reviews contract/award terms and conditions and negotiates if needed
- These are some of the most common terms that may require negotiation with the sponsor:
- Publication restrictions - Reviewed to ensure that you will be able to publish the results of your research
- Intellectual property – IP language should be in accordance with university policy- the preference is to retain ownership of IP
- Indemnification/hold harmless – This language is very problematic. When asked to agree to indemnify another party, essentially an unknown future financial liability is being taken on- this is something we are unable to do per state law.
- Limited by state law in the ability to accept Governing law provisions from any entity other than Ohio
- Additionally, we’ll review
- Payment terms to ensure they aren’t too administratively burdensome
- Report/deliverables requirements to ensure sponsor expectations are reasonable
- Termination provisions to ensure that costs/obligations of the university are protected
Business or Industry Sponsor
- Proposal process typically more informal
- Contact your SPO early
- Standard agreement templates available
- Additional time may be needed to work through common industry issues:
- Conflict of interest
- Intellectual property
OSP Office of Grants and Contracts
- Signs/accepts award on behalf of the institution
- PIs are not authorized to sign agreements for the University
- Ensures PI has obtained appropriate research compliance approvals (protocols, COI, RCR, export control)
- Obtains investigator signature acknowledging that s/he has read and understands the agreement
- Preliminary projects can be established if appropriate