Subaward
A contract or legal agreement between the prime recipient of a grant, cooperative agreement or contract and another organization (the subrecipient) that will engage in a portion of the research or perform other programmatic activities that constitute substantive work under the prime award. The agreement is written under the authority of the prime award and specifies the terms and conditions under which the subrecipient will engage in the work. A subaward includes the administrative requirements of the funding agency to which the subrecipient must adhere. The performance of substantive work is the key feature which distinguishes subawards from purchase orders and other third party agreements. A subaward is not an agreement for the procurement or purchase of goods or services. Subaward are referred to by a variety of terms – leading in part to the confusions surrounding these agreements and their administration. Subaward, subgrant, subcontract, consortium agreement and subrecipient agreement are all terms that are used. Some of these terms come from specific regulation and have more precise definitions. (Source: NCURA Online Subaward Tutorial, 2006)