Sub-award Guide

What is a Sub-award?

A sub-award is an award provided by a pass-through entity (PTE) to a subrecipient for the subrecipient to carry out part of a Federal award received by the pass-through entity. It does not include payments to a contractor or payments to an individual that is a beneficiary of a Federal program. A sub-award may be provided through any form of legal agreement, including an agreement that the pass-through entity considers a contract.

Subrecipient: A non-Federal entity that receives a sub-award from a pass-through entity to carry out part of a Federal program, but does not include an individual that is a beneficiary of such program.

Sub-award: Cannot be used for the procurement of routine goods and services.

It is determined by the nature of the relationship and not the name of the agreement.

More information

Policy Statement

Sponsored research often involves collaborations with external entities who are asked to perform a substantive portion of the project in concert with the overarching aims of the award. MSU Denver is responsible for monitoring the programmatic and financial activities of its subrecipients in order to ensure proper stewardship of sponsor funds.

Reason for Policy

OMB Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (2 CFR §200, “Uniform Guidance”), specifically sections §200.330 and §200.331, requires prime recipients of federal funds to monitor sub-awards, to ensure subrecipients meet the audit requirements in Subpart F and use funds in accordance with applicable laws, regulations and terms of the award.