Return Agreement

You are now prepared to accept the conditions of the award. Your grant officer, in collaboration with the PI and the accounting office (if necessary), will negotiate the final contract and agree upon the conditions and changes if any. Private funders (foundations and many corporations or corporate foundations) do not typically exercise contracts as part of their award notification and acceptance, so negotiating the "contract" is not an issue.

When all steps in the coordination process are completed, the award agreement is presented to the Authorized Institutional Officer (grant officer) for signing. This is either the Vice Provost for Research or the Director of Corporate & Foundation Relations. In some cases, the agreement may also need to be signed by the president or another University official.

If the document has previously been signed by the funder, the award is then fully executed and the grant officer distributes copies to all offices that require notification on campus, and returns a copy to the funder. The process is not complete, however, until the funder has signed the award document and sent a copy back to the University.