Michelle,

One thing that has worked for us is trying to get a clause in whereby
the prime grantee has to pay for return shipment of the equipment
(a real expense to be considered if the equipment has to be returned)--
sometimes they will concede and allow title to remain with the sub.

You may also want to point out  CFR Title 45 74.136 "Rights to require
transfer of equipment"  Under this section the feds can compell a
recipient to transfer title BACK TO THE FEDS OR to another
recipient , but will "normally be exercised by HHS only if the project
or program for which the equipment was acquired is transferred from
one grantee to another"  Section b of this part allows parties
awarding subgrants to retain for themselves a similar right, but without
the approval of the awarding agency, the right can only be exercised
when the project is being transferred from one subrecipient to another.

My reading of this (and the main basis of my argument that in many
cases, we should NOT retain title as the prime) is that the feds are assuming
that grantees ARE passing title through to subrecipients and that
this assumption should color the interpretation of their somewhat unclear
statement in 74.133 that: "title to real property, equipment, and supplies
acquired under a grant or subgrant shall vest, upon acquisition, in
the grantee OR subgrantee respectively."  (If the OR were an AND --it
would be MUCH clearer, in my view.)

I would love to hear other's interpretations of these regs.

* Elizabeth (Liz) Mazzella             xxxxxx@ALBNYDH2.BITNET  *
* Asst. Dir. Technology Transfer & Sponsored Pgms.            *
* Health Research, Inc. (A Non-Profit Corp.) Albany NY 12209  *
* Voice: (518) 431-1200                    Fax: (518)431-1234 *