Guidelines for Gifts, Grants, and Contracts From Industry (The Funding Matrix)

Purpose

The purpose of these guidelines is to clarify the nature of gifts, grants and contracts from industry, and to provide guidance to our prospective Industry Partners, so as to facilitate research partnerships. Recognizing not all forms of industrial research are the same, the university has developed a Funding Matrix which allows industrial sponsors to choose the type of research partnership that best serves their needs.

Background

Gifts

Gifts to the university from individuals, corporations, or foundations are typically made to the Louisiana State University Foundation; however, there may be instances where donors direct their gifts to the university. The university will accept unrestricted gifts and gifts for specific programs and purposes, provided that such gifts are consistent with the mission of the university. Gifts received by the university must not inhibit the university from seeking similar or different gifts from other donors. No gift can be received which limits, beyond a general definition of subject area, the research that a faculty member or student can perform. The university reserves the right not to accept gifts that are counter to or beyond its mission.

Misrepresenting the true nature of funding can create serious financial and legal liabilities for the Sponsor, the university and individual faculty and staff. Thus, it is necessary to verify the appropriate classification of income. For gifts directed to the university, see Finance and Administrative Services Operating Procedure 05 (FASOP-05). The Sponsored Program Accounting Office serves as the central receiving, acknowledging, recording, and reporting unit for all gifts directed to the university. For gifts to the LSU Foundation, refer to guidance on the LSU Foundation website.

Grants and Contracts

The "Express Research Agreement" provides companies a simple way to fund a university project in a manner similar to federal grants. This one page document covers the terms of the agreement. Industry sponsors are given an option to negotiate a license for technology, faculty and students are free to publish their results, and the industry sponsors receive a technical report.  This one-page agreement will simplify the funding process for any company that wants to support research at the university.

The "Sponsored Research Agreement," which has been used by the university for many years was modeled after the "Simplified and Standard Model Agreements for Industry-University-Cooperative Research" that was a joint effort of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable of the National Academy of Sciences and the Industrial Research Institute.

The "Academic Research Services Agreement" is used when measuring, testing or fabricating sponsor-owned proprietary materials. Ownership of all inventions which involve the use of, composition of, or improvement to Sponsor-provided materials or information, or a derivative, analogue thereof will be owned by the Sponsor while protecting the university’s rights to publish. The "Clinical Study Agreement" is similar to the Academic Research Services Agreement, but used when Sponsor requests university conduct a clinical trial. In order to assure these agreements are used to fund only projects for which intended, the Principal Investigator must complete a questionnaire to address potential intellectual property issues, conflicts of interest, etc.

With these templates now available, custom contracts with industrial sponsors, which often require extensive negotiations, should be minimized.

These templates are not used for projects supported by federal funds. If Industry is using federal funds to support the project, the terms and conditions of the prime funding source will need to be incorporated.

The Spectrum of Private and Industry Funding – Louisiana State University

The Funding Matrix