Subawards at Proposal Stage

How to include a Subaward in a Proposal submission

Helpful resource for determining Subrecipient vs. Contractor

The University of Florida Principal Investigator (PI) will typically determine if a Subaward will be part of a proposal and select a Subrecipient. To include a Subaward in a proposal, PIs must obtain the following documentation from each Subrecipient and submit in UFIRST along with the rest of the UF proposal package. The documents MUST be administratively approved by the Subrecipient’s Authorized Official. All approved Subaward documents are required for the proposal to be considered “submit-ready”.

At a minimum, a subrecipient’s documentation must include:

• Endorsement from the Subrecipient’s Authorized Official. This endorsement may be provided as signed budget pages, a letter of intent which outlines the Subaward details, or a signed cover sheet or face page.
• A clear description of work to be performed by the Subrecipient, separate from the overall scope of work of the entire application.
• A budget and budget justification for the Subrecipient’s portion of the project. The budget and budget justification should provide sufficient detail regarding the proposed expenses for the Subaward. Some sponsors require the Subaward budget and justification on the Sponsor’s forms.

When required by the Sponsor, Subrecipients may need to provide additional documentation. These documents should be submitted in UFIRST along with the rest of the UF proposal package and may incldue:

• Biographical Sketches of Key Personnel
• Current and Pending Support for Key Personnel
• Representations and Certifications
• Negotiated Facilities and Administrative Cost Rate Agreement

When proposing a multi-site program where all sites have not been determined prior to submission of the proposal, the UF budget justification should clearly identify this situation and all required Sponsor approvals for issuing subawards will be sought when the parties are identified.

Budgeting Subaward Costs

When preparing the overall project budget, include the total costs of each subaward (Direct Costs + Facilities & Administrative Costs =  Total costs) as one line item in the UF direct cost budget. If using the MTDC F&A base, only the first $25,000 of each subaward’s total cost is included in the calculation of UF F&A. If using the TDC F&A base, UF F&A will be calculated on the entire amount of the subaward.

Budgeting for Fixed Amount Subawards (Uniform Guidance Sections 200.201, 200.333)

Prior approval from the federal sponsor is required if UF wants to issue a fixed amount subaward. Under a fixed amount agreement, milestones and/or deliverables are established along with a corresponding price for each. Once a milestone is met, the Subrecipient will invoice for the corresponding amount due. Invoices do not need to include expense detail. By federal regulation, the total cost of each fixed amount subaward may not exceed $250,000.

Principal Investigators who are contemplating a fixed amount subaward should contact DSP during development of the proposal, prior to submission. DSP will assist with determining if a fixed amount subaward is appropriate. If deemed appropriate, the PI should include the following or similar statement in the budget justification:

“The budgeted Subaward for (Insert Subrecipient name) will be issued as a fixed amount subaward. The University of Florida will consider this fixed amount subaward approved if the award is made and no contrary guidance has been provided by the Sponsor to the University in the award notice.”

Subaward Indirect (F&A) Costs 

Under Uniform Guidance sections 200.332 and 200.414, F&A costs should be budgeted for subrecipients as follows: If the subrecipient has a federally negotiated F&A rate and the sponsor/program does not limit F&A recovery, the negotiated rate must be included in all proposed subawards. If the subrecipient does not have a federally negotiated F&A rate, the subrecipient “may elect to charge a de minimis rate of 10% of modified total direct costs (MTDC) which may be used indefinitely.” Foreign subawards under NIH are limited to 8% recovery.

Last updated 7/24/24