Grants, Contracts and Cooperative Agreements

There are three basic vehicles through which universities receive sponsored project support:

Grants:

A grant is an award made to assist research. It is normally the result of a competitive process in which investigator-initiated proposals are submitted and reviewed. The conditions that govern the administration of grants are general and applied universally to all grants in a given sponsored program. Some sponsors may have different grant conditions for different types of programs -- e.g., research, training, etc. The acceptance of a grant by a grantee binds the grantee to the particular program conditions. The Federal Demonstration Partnership strives to develop a set of general grant conditions that will be used across all Federal Agencies. A number of agencies accept these grant conditions, but some continue to add some sponsor specific requirements on top of the general grant conditions. Federal agencies and non-profit organizations often use the grant mechanism for the support of research.

Contracts:

Contracts are a vehicle through which a sponsor "procures" research or other services. While proposals for contract support may still be based on competitive review of investigator-initiated proposals, the contractor generally reserves the right to exercise control over the proposed work. The contract instrument is often subject to negotiation of a variety of its provisions to satisfy the mutual needs of the contractor and the contractee. Unlike grants, different contract provisions may apply to different organizations or to different projects within an organization. Federal mission agencies and most of private industry use the contract as the vehicle for support of research.

Cooperative Agreements:

Some federal agencies use a hybrid between a grant and a contract. The Cooperative Agreement is often used when the work will be performed jointly between a federal agency personnel and a university. It specifies which activities of the sponsored project are the responsibility of each participant.