Review and Negotiation of Federal Contract and Grant Terms and Conditions

Negotiation of Agreements

  • When RAS reviews Agreements the main areas of concern are:
    • Publication Restrictions
    • Foreign National Restrictions
    • IP Rights/Ownership
    • Federal Contracting Clauses – “the FAR”
    • Overall Risk to the Institute by accepting awards terms
      • For example cost implications, deliverable requirements
    • Most Grants received by MIT direct from the Federal Government fall under previously negotiated terms that have been agreed to by the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) *
      • There is no negotiation involved with Federal Demonstration Partnership/ Research Terms and Conditions (FDP/RTC)
    • Check the Federal Terms and Conditions 
    • MIT also receives Grants from Sponsors who have been funded by Federal Agencies. Often these grants contain the FDP/RTC terms and no negotiation is required
    • There are instances where Sponsors add their own troublesome terms that need to be negotiated out by RAS

    NOTE: Updates to this section to be provided upon finalization of FDP/RTC terms by the Federal Agencies as they relate to Uniform Guidance. Please see link below on Uniform Guidance.

    • Most Federally-funded cooperative agreements contain terms acceptable to MIT. There is very little negotiation of these terms
    • There are instances where Sponsors add their own troublesome terms that need to be negotiated out by RAS
    • Require a large amount of negotiation
    • Areas of concern are:
      • Publication Restrictions
      • Foreign National Restrictions
      • IP Rights/Ownership
      • Approval of Work Product
      • Security Issues and Access Requirements
      • Federal Contracting Clauses – “the FAR”
      • Overall risk to the Institute by accepting awards terms
        • Examples: cost implications, deliverable requirements, proposed contract type