Master and Alliance Agreements With Non-Standard Proposal Processes

Please visit the Office of Strategic Alliances and Technology Transfer [website] for the most recent contract information.

MIT has a limited number of Master or Alliance Agreements with industrial research sponsors who frequently support research at MIT. These agreements may require the use of a Research Project Proposal (RPP) form or other short form to accompany proposals and may have a non-standard proposal review and routing process.

RAS keeps a list of current master and alliance agreements for review by the Contract Administrators on its internal website: Award Process / Sponsor Specific Tools / Industrial.

For proposals to organizations with such agreements, the sponsor or DLCI administrator should confirm whether the proposal should be submitted under the Master Agreement, and if so, the RPP attached to that agreement should be used for the proposal and the routing and submittal process should follow the guidance of the DLCI that is responsible for administering the relationship governed by that agreement, if any. If there is no DLCI responsible, consult with RAS’s Industrial Liaison for instructions.

For proposals under Master or Alliance Agreements:

  1. When a master research agreement is identified, the proposal should normally be prepared in the form of a research project plan (RPP or similar form) amendment to the master research agreement, in the format specified by an attachment of the agreement. Consult with RAS's Industry Liaison or the Contract Specialist who negotiated the master agreement for guidance on the RPP preparation, if the proposal has not been prepared in that format.
  2. When a sponsor or PI asks that a prior research agreement be adapted for a future agreement, or a company is identified as requiring a specially-drafted research agreement, RAS's Contract Administrator should consult with the Industry Liaison and Contract Specialist most knowledgeable about recent negotiations with that sponsor for assistance in preparing the draft agreement to send with the proposal to the sponsor.
  3. When a proposal is to be funded under an existing consortium agreement or other existing multi-project agreement, RAS's Contract Administrator should confirm the governing agreement with the DLCI administrator. The proposal may then be sent with a cover letter identifying the existing agreement that will govern it, and/or with a pdf copy of the signed existing agreement.

Note that if a new, unique agreement must be drafted to govern a new proposal to an industrial sponsor, RAS will need 1-2 weeks (typically) to prepare the draft agreement to send to the sponsor for review by its attorney, and possible further negotiation of terms. In this situation, the proposal should be sent to the sponsor by the deadline for submittal or the end of the proposal review period, accompanied by an e-mail or letter stating that MIT will supply a proposed agreement for this proposal within 1 - 2 weeks.