Hi Mike,

I am very interested in seeing a copy of your "Confirming Order" and the
T&Cs you use for testing services for profit making entities.  We do a
fair amount of testing as part of lab experiences for our undergraduate
engineering and agriculture students. Some of our faculty have developed
industrial contacts who provide materials, etc., and a small amount of
funds for student wages and supplies (awards of 3 to 6 thousand
dollars).  This student support is great, BUT on many occasions I have
spent MONTHS negotiating T&Cs that are acceptable to our Sponsored
Programs Office and the sponsor.

I would like to offer a workable alternative for these small projects.
Since we are an hands-on university with the philosophy of offering our
students "real world" challenges and opportunities, I see the potential
for increasing these small awards if we can make the T&Cs palatable to
everyone.

Sharon Kuhlenschmidt
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407

> I agree with Kathy as we handle these pretty much the same way as she
> described.  We do a little of these types of services in the academic
> departments but we also have research institutes within the university
that
> do a lot of "testing" or "analytical" work.  Internally we require the
same
> paperwork as any other sponsored program.  The projects are quoted as
a firm
> fixed price agreement and usually quoted as per test or service, but
we
> require an internal budget that details how funds will actually be
expended
> within the account such as salaries, supplies, equipment use, etc.  We
have
> developed a special contractual document that we use called a
Confirming
> Order that looks pretty much like a purchase order, we describe the
service
> to be performed and the rate and is signed by a university official as
a
> legal offer (a quote), the sponsor signs an acceptance line and
returns it.
> We have a bare minimum of terms and conditions on the reverse side as
opposed
> to a purchase order in which we need a magnifying glass to read. It is
> clearly only used on project that we can consider pure testing with no
> concerns involving "development" that would require us to address
> intellectual property issues.
>
> Mike
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
> Mike Gilles <xxxxxx@mtu.edu>
> Sponsored Programs Administrator
> Research Services
> Michigan Technological University
> Houghton, MI 49931
> Phone (906) 487-2225 Fx. (906) 487-2245
> Date: 05/11/99  Time: 10:05:40
> --------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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