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3-Minute Read | Beyond Traditional Research Agreements: Choosing the Right Framework for Collaboration

Oct. 6, 2026—Research collaborations do not always fit neatly into traditional federally funded assistance awards and sponsored research agreements. Some funding mechanisms, including gifts, cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs), and other transactions (OTs), can be tailored to support unique research and innovation goals. However, each model creates different expectations around funding, participation, intellectual property, deliverables, and oversight.

UIDP has long emphasized that the agreement structure should reflect the research activity. The Contract Accords address the major issues that arise in industry-sponsored research agreements, while UIDP Academy programming has examined alternatives in use by UIDP members. Choosing the right framework to align the research agreement with the intended statement of work and the parties’ responsibilities can reduce friction and expedite negotiations. Consider these options:

Gifts: Flexibility Requires Clear Expectations

A gift is generally an irrevocable contribution of money or property without an expectation of direct benefit or specific deliverables to the donor in return. Gifts may support a general research area, students, facilities, or other institutional priorities, but do not require the performance of a specific project or describe specific deliverables. Gifts generally involve fewer formal institutional processing requirements than sponsored projects.

The distinction between a gift and a research contract/agreement can become blurred when donors attach specific conditions. UIDP has examined corporate research awards described as “gift agreements” that are somewhat of an oxymoron in that they attempt to combine the benefits of a research agreement with the advantages of a gift. University and industry policies vary on what terms and conditions move an agreement from the gift to the research contract category.

The lesson: How the funding vehicle is titled by the parties matters less than the actual terms and expectations as described in a statement of work or similar research description. Contract Accord 11: Gifts recommends that company researchers first explain what they want accomplished with their support and what, if anything, they expect in return. UIDP’s Funding Frameworks: Understanding Grants, Gifts, and Contracts in Cross-Sector Collaborations provides additional guidance on making this distinction.

Grants: Funding a Defined Purpose

Grants provide financial assistance for a defined purpose and are a familiar mechanism for funding university research. The distinction between grants and contracts is not well established, but many universities assume grantors have donative intent while still allowing a more detailed description of the supported research than would be permissible under a gift. Some companies issue solicitations or requests for proposals and award grants on a competitive basis.

Grants may give investigators more discretion in carrying out approved work while also requiring compliance with budget, allowable costs, and required reports. Generally, grants do not include intellectual property terms granting rights to the grantor since the research projects are not defined with the specificity that would enable consideration of the likelihood of IP results.

UIDP’s Funding Frameworks 3-Minute Read highlights the tradeoff. Grants can provide substantial support for work aligned with a grantor’s priorities and a university’s interests and capabilities, but application, evaluation, and post-award requirements expected by the grantor can make them less suitable, particularly when the outcomes of a project are needed quickly, or the grantor has specific requirements regarding the conduct of the research or access to the results.

The Researcher Guidebook provides a broader framework for researchers from industry and universities navigating cross-sector projects, including issues such as expectations, budgeting, intellectual property, and institutional requirements.

Cooperative Agreements: Greater Federal Involvement

A cooperative agreement is a type of federal financial assistance instrument, but unlike a grant, it anticipates substantial federal involvement and oversight during the conduct of the research.

That involvement may include collaboration with agency staff, coordination of activities, review of project stages, and participation in programmatic decisions. It is a financial assistance mechanism that should not be confused with a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA), which requires government participation in the conduct of research at government expense and provides no funding to the cooperating entities.

For universities involved in large federal or multi-sector initiatives, the type of federal assistance mechanism can be significant if the agency expects an active role in carrying out the work. As with other collaboration structures, understanding the parties’ expectations early can help to anticipate and define the reporting, decision-making, and administrative requirements associated with the award.

CRADAs: Working Directly with Federal Laboratories

A Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, or CRADA, is designed specifically to enable federal agencies, often federal laboratories, to collaborate with nonfederal organizations, including universities and companies.

Under a CRADA, a federal agency may contribute personnel, facilities, equipment, expertise, or other resources. The non-federal parties provide defined support that may include funding and various in-kind contributions such as personnel, equipment, or other resources. As previously mentioned, the federal agency generally cannot use the CRADA to provide funds directly to the non-federal parties.

CRADAs contain terms that may create useful pathways for intellectual property and commercialization. UIDP’s Researcher Guidebook specifically identifies CRADAs, along with sponsored research agreements and other sponsored project agreements, such as service agreements and routine testing, as collaboration structures researchers may encounter.

For organizations considering working with federal agencies, the underlying principles are the same as for other cross-sector agreements: identify the research project and parties’ needs, expectations, capabilities, and available resources, then tailor terms addressing existing IP, expected research results, and other terms needed to achieve the desired outcomes before work begins. Note that federal regulations and policies must be incorporated when required.

Other Transactions: Greater Flexibility for Federal R&D

Other Transactions (OTs), often informally referred to as Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs), are legally binding agreements entered into under the specific statutory authority granted to some federal agencies. They are neither conventional procurement contracts, grants, nor cooperative agreements. Agencies with OT authority have greater latitude to negotiate project-specific terms, and the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) generally do not apply, though the agency may include required policies and special terms and conditions in the OTA.

The flexibility of an OTA can be especially useful for cutting-edge research, prototypes, and projects involving commercial or nontraditional partners. Use of OTs has expanded rapidly, particularly in support of defense projects. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Department of Defense obligations for prototype and production OTs grew from $1.8 billion in fiscal year 2016 to more than $18 billion in fiscal year 2024.

Intellectual property is one area where OTs can offer greater flexibility than other traditional types of federal support. DARPA notes that OTs are generally not subject to the Bayh-Dole Act, and the Intellectual Property Guidebook for DoD Acquisition (Department of Defense, April 2025) explains that standard FAR and DFARS IP clauses do not govern OTs. This gives the parties more room to negotiate patent, data, and other IP rights to meet the project’s needs. That does not mean OTs eliminate government interests in IP. Rather, the agreement itself establishes the applicable rights, rather than automatically relying on the standard Bayh-Dole or FAR framework.

This distinction is particularly important for the discussion of issues in the UIDP Contract Accords sections dealing with background and foreground intellectual property, software, and data.

Start with the Activity, Not the Agreement

UIDP’s broader contracting resources reinforce the principle that one size rarely fits all. The New Contracting Models webinars, available in the UIDP Academy section of UIDP.org, specifically examine alternatives to traditional sponsored research and licensing, including pre-negotiated agreements and alternative IP approaches.

Similarly, the Streamlining Contracting: Pros and Cons of Template Agreements 3-Minute Read cautions that model agreements can accelerate contracting but may create problems when they do not account for the unique circumstances of a collaboration.

The first question to consider when evaluating alternative research agreements is: What are the parties trying to accomplish and which framework and terms best support that work?

Answering that question early helps clarify expectations, suggests the appropriate type of agreement, reduces unnecessary negotiation, and facilitates the creation of an agreement that enables the research to move forward.

We want to hear from you. What alternative research agreements has your organization used to facilitate successful partnerships? Share your experience on LinkedIn.

Thank you to UIDP Senior Fellows Elaine Brock and Jilda Garton for contributing this 3-Minute Read.

Go Deeper

The 3-Minute Read is a UIDP member information piece and does not represent the opinions of our members or representatives. We welcome your comments on our LinkedIn profile.