A subcontract issued when Tufts is the prime recipient is an agreement with another institution (“subrecipient”) to provide part of the research required in an original contract or grant.
If you have a subcontractor where Tufts is the prime, you should allocate more time than usual for internal proposal review as the subrecipient will have to move their proposal through their organization’s internal process and then get it to you to include in your proposal in time to meet Tufts time constraints.
Please note the following, depending upon your situation:
A. When you are proposing to be the prime recipient of a contract or grant and Tufts is the primary (home) institution, your subrecipient(s) must send the following to you for your proposal:
- A budget that meets the sponsor’s requirements (e.g., an itemized budget (direct and indirect costs), NIH modular budget, etc.)
- An official letter of commitment to the project co-signed by the person responsible for the administration of the subcontract and by the authorizing official in the grants office
- Certification that any necessary review process is complete or pending (human or animal subjects, recombinant DNA or pathogens)
Please note: Subrecipients are not required to use Tufts internal forms for these items.
As Principal Investigator you must then:
- Submit the full proposal (including items 1-3 above from the subrecipient institution) to the Office of Research Administration (ORA) for internal review at Tufts as you would for any other proposal, along with the Tufts Internal Sponsored Coordination Form and Tufts Financial Interest Disclosure Form.
B. When you are the subrecipient, that is, you will receive funding via a subcontract from another institution (which is the prime recipient), for your work, you must provide items 1-3 above (i.e., budget, letter of commitment, and certification that any necessary review process is complete or pending for human or animal subjects, recombinant DNA or pathogens) to ORA for internal review at Tufts, along with the Internal Sponsored Coordination Form and Financial Interest Disclosure Form.
Once the Tufts internal review is complete, you then submit items 1-3 above (budget, letter of commitment, certification) to the principal investigator at the primary institution. You should also submit a letter of intent to collaborate to your colleague/PI at the primary institution.
For contracts and subcontracts, negotiations are conducted by the Office of Research Administration which is the signing authority. Principal investigators do not have the authority to sign for Tufts.