Funding Transition Updates: Please see Federal Transition Updates 2025 for the latest federal executive orders and research activities.
Contracts and Award Acceptance
The OSP Contracting Officers (COs) on the Contracts and Award Acceptance Team review, negotiate, and accept agreements (also referred to interchangeably as “contracts”) and grants for research or related to a research project with external sponsors and collaborators. External sponsors may be federal agencies, other government entities, foundations, non-profit, for-profit entities, and foreign entities.
Such agreements and grants may be financial in nature, meaning that they are funded research projects, or they may be non-financial, meaning that they are collaborative in nature or ancillary to a research project.
Financial agreements and grants may be considered either of the following types of contracts or grants:
Nonfinancial agreements that are collaborative in nature or ancillary to the research may be considered any of the following types of contracts:
- Material Transfer Agreement
- Non-Disclosure Agreement (also known as a Confidentiality Agreement)
- Teaming Agreement
- Collaborative Agreement
Or, if none of the above non-financial agreement fit your research project, it may fall under the following category:
Process
- Please determine whether your contract or grant is financial or non-financial. If you are not sure, please click on each link to read about the different agreements.
- Once you have determined the type of agreement or grant you have, please follow the requisite process for that agreement or grant as provided for that agreement or grant.
- Once the agreement or grant is initiated using the requisite process as provided in Step 2 above, please feel free to use myResearch to check the status of your contract or grant, as the CO reviews, negotiates, and accepts your contract or grant.
- The CO uses myResearch to manage the review, negotiation, and acceptance of agreements and grants.
- Each type of agreement or grant above will become a file in myResearch with an identifying “Agreement Number.” This Agreement Number can be used to check the status of the review, negotiation, and acceptance of your contract or grant. For more information on what the Agreement Number will look like, please click on the links to each type of agreement or grant.
- The CO will update the myResearch file as the review, negotiation, and acceptance progresses. If you reach out to a CO, please be sure to include the appropriate Agreement Number to ensure that the CO is able to quickly review and respond to your email.
Resources
- Guide for Initiating Nonfinancial Agreements in myResearch (GW Login required,PDF)
- myResearch
Frequently Asked Questions
- If I am not faculty, how do I submit an agreement?
If you are not a faculty member, please have your faculty advisor submit the request on your behalf
- Do I need an approved Funding Proposal in myResearch before the Contracts and Award Acceptance Team to review?
- If the contract or grant is for a Sponsored Project Agreement or a Master Research Agreement, yes.
- If the contract or grant is for a Material Transfer Agreement, Non-Disclosure Agreement, Teaming Agreements, Collaborative Agreements, or an Other Agreement, no. Please use the following guide to initiate the agreement in myResarch: Guide for Initiating Nonfinancial Agreements in myResearch (GW Login required, PDF)
- I cannot find my agreement or grant in myResearch, what do I do?
- Please login to myResearch and check your “Dashboard” to see if it appears on the Dashboard.
- If it does not, please contact Award Intake.
- If I do not have an agreement template, can I still submit my agreement?
OSP has approved templates that we prefer to use.
Support
- For questions regarding the process, the assigned Contract Officer is identified in the agreement record in myResearch.
- For additional questions, you may also send an email to the osp_contracts
gwu [dot] edu (osp_contracts[at]gwu[dot]edu).