1. Government Support
The vast majority of sponsored projects are supported by the Government in the form of grants and contracts. However, there are fundamental distinctions between grants and contracts which are important to understand.
2. Grants
Basically, a grant is an agreement to support research, which entails ideas originated and defined by the applicant. Principal investigators on grants do not conduct research for the agency; rather, they explore ideas of their own choosing. Grant applications are accepted based on considerations of merit and relevance to the granting agency's program objectives. Because grants are designed with the objective of strengthening opportunities for investigators to make significant contributions to research, grant awards are made only to educational and nonprofit institutions, and not commercial organizations.
3. Contracts
A contract is an instrument to procure research and, therefore, contains work requirements specified by the agency. Contracts offer more universal competitive opportunities to all types of scientific sources (commercial and non-commercial) and are used for requirements of more immediate interest to the awarding agency as a means of fulfilling its program objectives. Because the Government defines the area of work to be undertaken, organizations bidding for a contract compete on the standards of performance specified, and contract proposals received are evaluated within the framework of technical criteria clearly enunciated beforehand.
Contracts generally are made in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Quotation (RFQ). If an investigator receives an RFP or RFQ, he or she is advised to contact SPO since much of the information needed to complete the application is readily available in that office. Additionally, the University must accept or request changes in the proposed terms and conditions of any resulting contract at the time the proposal is submitted in response to an RFP or RFQ.
Program information, applications and guidelines for many of the Federal agencies are available in SPO.
4. Private Grant Support
Grants from private individuals, foundations and corporations, in contrast to agreements from Government agencies and contracted corporate research, typically require simpler applications and reporting. Private foundations, in particular, expect applicant organizations to evaluate their own needs and not submit competing proposals. To preserve its credibility and to increase the probability of success, the University assigns its own priority to proposals and gives permission to approach particular prospective private sponsors.
Since most private funding is given to the University as gifts rather than sponsored projects (see Section I.B), the Development Office coordinates the assignment of priority and the granting of permission to approach private sponsors. SPO clears prospective non-government sponsors with the Development Office prior to providing funding information about such sponsors to faculty. In situations where SPO has not obtained prior approval from the Development Office, such approval must be obtained prior to submission of a sponsored project proposal to these sponsors.
5. Contracted Corporate Support
The situation with contracted corporate research is somewhat different from that for grants. Indeed, most contracted corporate research is the result of independent faculty contact with colleagues and former students in industry. Hence, Development Office approval to approach corporate technical contacts is not required. However, SPO informs the Development Office of this activity so that the University may better coordinate its approach to potential corporate donors.
Several aspects of corporate contracting are different from the Government grants program. For instance, there is usually no formal peer review of proposals, and considerably fewer regulations and restrictions are placed upon principal investigators in the pursuit of their research. On the other hand, corporate funded research projects must focus on the research needs of the sponsor. Since no organized program of information dissemination exists concerning corporate research interests, it is more difficult to identify potential corporate sponsors.
