The central idea I use is the distinction the feds draw between
"procurement" and assistance", which is essentially the same as your
distinction about who benefits.  Is the sponsor buying something from
youu for its own purposes (even something vague like research) or is the
sponsor seeking to assist the good things you are doing for the world?

However, don't kill yourself trying; getting that elusive distinction
completely right is not worth the effort.

For internal tracking purposes, we are looking for clear-cut criteria
for
classing new sponsored projects as either grants or contracts.  In many
cases this distinction is obvious; however, it is not always obvious in
the
mix of large and small, basic and applied sponsored projects that we
perform.
Our starting points are:
1. What does the award document say?
2. Who is the primary beneficiary?
If the primary beneficiary is the sponsor, we consider the award a
contract;
if the primary beneficiary is more the public, we consider the award a
grant.

We would appreciate any input regarding solutions to this problem used
at
other institutions, or resource documents.

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