Re: Analytical Services Sharon Kuhlenschmidt 11 May 1999 11:40 EST
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 > -------------------------------------------------------- > > > ====================================================================== > Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including > subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available > via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") > ====================================================================== > ====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") ======================================================================