WHAT IS A SPONSORED RESEARCH AGREEMENT?

A sponsored research agreement is a legal agreement between a private industry organization and the Regents of the University of California on behalf of UCSF for a research project that is directed by a UCSF Principal Investigator. Such an agreement is negotiated by the Industry Contracts Unit (ICD).

The pre-clinical or basic science research project is involved in investigation and discovery in the health sciences field. The industry sponsor funds a specific project for a definite time period and in return gets certain deliverables such as research data, reports and certain rights to intellectual and tangible property. If an invention is made during the course of the research project, the PI must formally disclose the invention to the Office of Technology Management (OTM). The OTM will work with the industry sponsor and researcher to develop the appropriate steps for intellectual property protection and appropriate licensing.

A sponsored research agreement may be funded by the sponsor under the sole direction of the UCSF scientists or it may be a collaborative research agreement whereby a sponsor's scientist collaborates on a research project with a UCSF scientist and also funds the project. There are also unfunded collaborative agreements where there is collaboration between the scientists but no funding is involved.

A sponsored research agreement may be fixed-price, where a specified amount of funding is given for the program, or cost-reimbursement, where any monies not used are returned to the sponsor.

The ICU also processes the Industry / University Cooperative Research program proposals which include BioSTAR, LSI, DiMi and CORE and the Small Business Programs which include SBIR and STTR.

Federal, State and non-profit contracts and grants are handled by the Contract and Grants Office.

Submittal Process for UCSF Faculty to ICD.