Same here. We also try to get a payment in advance of signing a contract, but are lucky if we can get a letter-of-intent. Our standard commercial agreement has a milestone for contract signing (20%), and we have similar termination language. There's some tricky business for accounting if R&D investments overlap with actual work on a winning bid.
Never tried an escrow account. Interesting idea and, of course, there's an app for that.
-----Original Message-----
From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org] On Behalf Of JOANNA FLOYD
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2018 9:50 AM
To: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org
Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] High Risk Industry Sponsors
Barb,
We looked into a Dun & Bradstreet subscription to order credit reports for high risk industry sponsors as part of our vetting process at the proposal stage. The subscription costs were reasonable but given our limited volume of high risk cases, we determined that the subscription costs were not justified and decided to order reports as needed.
We do typically require a percentage of the total budget at the time the agreement is executed from all of our industry sponsors but require a higher percentage upfront from risky or unproven sponsors (sponsors from which we may have had difficulty receiving timely payments in the past, sponsors that we know are financially risky, or sponsors that have not sponsored research with us before). We also include clear termination language that we can terminate immediately in the event that payment is not made by the due date.
We have not had to use escrow accounts to date.
Thanks,
JoAnna L. Floyd
Director, Office of Industry Contracts
Clemson University, Division of Research xxxxxx@clemson.edu
This email and any attachments may contain confidential information or information intended only for use by the addressee. If you receive this message in error, please notify the sender immediately. Anyone other than addressee is strictly prohibited from duplicating, disseminating, or distributing this message or its contents.
-----Original Message-----
From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org] On Behalf Of Barb Gardner
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2018 12:18 PM
To: xxxxxx@lists.healthresearch.org
Subject: [RESADM-L] High Risk Industry Sponsors
Hello:
We are wondering if any institutions regularly assess industry sponsors and if so, what additional terms you require for medium or high risk entities? For example: do you require advanced payments? If the Sponsor will not agree to advanced payments, have any of you successfully used escrow accounts?
Please feel free to respond offline if you want.
Regards,
Barb Gardner
Associate Director, Research Administration Tufts University
xxxxxx@tufts.edu
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"RESADM-L" link under "Sponsored Programs").
A link directly to helpful tips: http://tinyurl.com/resadm-l-help
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