Subawards, Hybrid Agreements and Purchase Orders

Subaward, Subrecipients, Hybrid Purchase Order, or Purchase Order?

Before you work with a subrecipient, be sure that the services and agreement match those of a subrecipient. For questions regarding whether the collaboration involves a subrecipient, contractor, or hybrid agreement, please contact the Office of Contract Administration (OCA) at subcontracts@umich.edu.

WHY UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE?

To avoid budget shortfalls and non-compliance with sponsor requirements.

At-a-Glance

Characteristics of a Subrecipient

• Collaborator/Key Personnel
• Co-principal investigator at the subrecipient institution;
• Share or be responsible for programmatic decision making;
• Co-authors or writes the study protocol;
• Independently responsible for ensuring a portion of the SOW is completed;
• May determine who is eligible to participate in the federal program;
• Has performance measured against objectives of a Federal program.

Instrument used: Subaward

Characteristics of a Contractor

(formerly called Vendor prior to the Uniform Guidance and called a Supplier in M-Pathways) 

• U-M works with Contractors* in a Vendor/Supplier relationship;
• “Work for Hire”
• Intellectual property belongs to purchaser
• Warranties on deliverables;
• Offers products or services commercially to all;
• Provides goods and services within normal business operations;
• Operate in a competitive environment;

Instrument used: PO or Hybrid PO

Characteristics of a Hybrid 

• Does not offer services commercially;
• Provides services necessary to conducting the study; however, they could be done by others: the services are substitutable.
• Investigator provides support to the study, but in role as adviser;
• The Federal government considers these relationships procurement transactions.

Instrument used: Hybrid PO

Video Summary

• In this set of three videos, Dennis Poszywak, Procurement Subcontract Administrator of U-M, helps unpack the definitions, budget implications and scenarios. 
• Download Handout for Subaward / Hybrid / PO Video

Procedure to Obtain a Subaward or Hybrid Agreements

The procedure to obtain a subaward/subcontract or a hybrid PO from Office of Contract Administration begins in eResearch Proposal Management (eRPM). For full system instructions:

  Enter a Subcontract Procedure in eRPM

Note: If an existing PAF (in a non-Active state) that includes a subcontract requires editing you will also need to follow the Subcontract process outlined above to complete the Subcontract worksheet and re-route the PAF for unit or ORSP approval

To add a NEW subcontract to an awarded project, start the process from the Subcontracts tab in eRPM.

To change an active subcontract (e.g., extend funding, update investigators, initiate an early close):

  Request a Subcontract Amendment procedure