As the recipient of an award for a sponsored research project, the University may award financial assistance to a subrecipient to facilitate performance of, and payment for, specific work to be conducted for the sponsored project. A subaward may be made by the University as the recipient of a primary award or as the subrecipient of another institution’s primary award.
Subawards are governed by the University’s Policy on Sponsored Project Subawards (the Subaward Policy).
Subaward Definitions
The following definitions will help you become familiar with subaward terminology and the issuance and acceptance of agreements.
Pass-through Entity (PTE) - also referred to as the Prime Recipient, Awardee, "the Prime", Grantee or Prime Grantee, or Lead Institution. A pass-through entity provides a subaward to a subrecipient to carry out part of a sponsored program.
Subrecipient - also referred to as the Subawardee, Collaborating Institution, Collaborator, or Subgrantee. A subrecipient receives a subaward from a pass-through entity (PTE) to carry out part of a sponsored program.
Subaward - an award provided by a pass-through entity (PTE) to a subrecipient for the subrecipient to carry out part of an award received by the PTE. It does not include payments to a contractor/vendor. A subaward may be provided through any form of legal agreement. While the general term subaward is used interchangeably for both subawards and subcontracts, an actual subaward agreement is meant to carry out part of a prime grant award or cooperative agreement (as opposed to prime contracts).
Subcontract - an award provided by a pass-through entity (PTE) to a subrecipient for the subrecipient to carry out part of a contract award received by the PTE. It does not include payments to a contractor/vendor. A subcontract may be provided through any form of legal agreement. While the general term subcontract is used interchangeably for both subawards and subcontracts, an actual subcontract agreement is meant to carry out part of a prime contract award (as opposed to prime grants or cooperative agreements, also known as financial assistance awards).
Outbound subawards - are issued by the SPA Subawards Team when Columbia University is the prime awardee/pass-through entity (PTE) and another entity is the subrecipient.
Inbound subawards - are received by Columbia University when Columbia will be the subrecipient, another entity is the PTE. Inbound subawards are reviewed by the assigned SPA Project Officer (not the Subawards Team). Inbound subawards follow the same process as when proposals are reviewed by SPA Project Officers.