Strawman/Papers

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU)
AMONG THE
NORTHEASTERN STATE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS
FOR THE
MANAGEMENT OF MULTI-INSTITUTIONAL COMPETITIVE GRANT FUNDS

INTRODUCTION

The Northeastern Regional Association of State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors[1] (NERA) is made up of the administrators of the State Agricultural Experiment Stations (SAES) of the Northeast (NE) region. These NE SAES (hereinafter referred to as the "Stations") make up a significant portion of the region's network of agricultural research providers, and they are constantly seeking to broaden collaborative research and education[2] activities.

The NERA directors recognize that oftentimes multi-institutional collaborations are the best or the only way to successfully complete certain types of research and education activities. Furthermore, the directors appreciate that achieving success in a collaborative research and education activity is a matter of planning activities on topics of agreed mutual interest, with all participants working toward common goals. The Stations also recognize that successful collaboration occurs only through the efficient management of any agreed activities.

BACKGROUND

New funding authorities have become available to support multi-institutional and functionally integrated research and education activities, especially through the federal Agricultural Research, Extension and Education Reform Act (AREERA) of 1998. Sections 401 and 406 of AREERA provide substantial amounts of annual funding through competitive grants that are specifically programmed for multi-functional, multi-institutional activities. These new funding authorities represent a new set of challenges for multi-institutional management of the awarded funds, for the following reason.

Prior to AREERA Stations participated in collaborative efforts through several management mechanisms, including Regional Research. In most cases the transfer of funds among participant institutions was not a consideration. Most researchers came to a planned Regional Research activity with the expectation that each participant would provide his or her funding from sources found at their home institution. The individual participant institutions in the various activities provided accountability (both fiscal and programmatic).

It is expected that Multistate Research Projects will continue to be developed among the various Stations of the region, much as they have been initiated and managed in the past. Oftentimes this will be done with collaborators that are not employed by a Station. And, such research or research and education projects will continue to be supported through, inter alia, the federal base funding (a.k.a. the Multistate Fund) for those participants that are sponsored by their employing Stations. This MOU does not apply to that set of on-going activities.

This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) states the agreements upon which the participating Stations and their collaborators will manage multi-institutional collaborative activities that are funded through competitively awarded federal grants operated through subcontracts to the participating institutions.

DEFINITIONS AND TERMS

Director:
A State Agricultural Experiment Station administrator holding the rank of either assistant director, associate director, or director, or the equivalent as agreed by the parties.

Lead Station:
The State Agricultural Experiment Station to which the awarded grant will be made by the granting agency. For purposes of eligibility to receive such funding, all Stations are included in the definition of “colleges and universities”, including the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station at New Haven.
Memorandum of Understanding:
A formal agreement made among parties to formalize policies and procedures of operation, and set out goals and objectives.
Multistate Project:
Two or more states participating in an activity.
Project:
An activity described in documentation that addresses specific objectives in research, or research and education. For purposes of this understanding the terms “project”, “activity’ and “program” shall be considered synonymous.
Project Manager:
The principle investigator or primary extension specialists or agent responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of a funded project.

ARTICLE I - PURPOSE

The purpose of this Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is to provide a framework to foster multi-institutional activities. This is done by specifying the contributions expected of the participant institutions and by setting out the standards for the multi-institutional management of competitively awarded grants. This MOU also states the expectations for support that is to be given for sponsored collaborative activities to be hosted by the Stations of the Northeast (NE) region. To this end, the signatory Stations agree to the following management procedures, all to be done in conformity with the regulations and policies of the participating institutions and the granting agency or agencies. Others may adopt these procedures by reference as long as they are in force.

ARTICLE II – REGIONAL PRIORITIES

The signatory Stations of this MOU recognize the mutual benefits to be achieved through careful and thoughtful planning and execution of research or research and education activities focused on regional priorities (see http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/NERA/workshop/NEPriorities.htm). The Stations are being encouraged to give attention to these jointly identified regional priorities when designing activities to address regional needs. However, nothing in this MOU shall inhibit the development of multistate research, or research and education grant proposals that address additional priorities or stakeholder needs.

ARTICLE III – ASSURANCES

Nothing in this broad understanding is to be construed as interfering in any way with the basic responsibilities and authority for independent action by any Station.

Any SAES may enter into this understanding by signing this MOU at anytime that it is in force. Any Station may withdraw from the agreement at anytime without the need to state a reason, provided this MOU is not serving as the framework for the management of the activities of one or more current multi-institutional competitive grant(s).

ARTICLE IV – IDENTIFICATION AND REPORTING

All activities managed under this MOU shall be listed as an approved Northeastern Multistate Research Project or a Northeastern Regional Coordinating Committee. All such projects or coordinating committees shall be uniquely identified and tracked in the USDA’s Current Research Information System (CRIS). This will require of the activity an initial filing of forms (AD-416, AD-417) and annual reports on expenditures (AD-419) progress (AD-421) and outcomes (SAES-422). This approach to documentation will ensure necessary reporting and will facilitate the identification of a specific multistate activity for management purposes.

ARTICLE V - STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION

The details of all future collaborative undertakings seeking to obtain competitively awarded funding shall be planned and executed as separate grant proposals under the auspices of the participating individual Stations. Plans covering goals and objectives, research or educational methodologies, and project procedures shall be jointly prepared, on a case-by-case basis. These proposals shall serve as the project outline for an activity seeking to be listed as a NE Multistate Research Project or NE Research Coordinating Committee.

All activities managed under this MOU shall have a single lead Station as its primary management entity, which shall in turn interact with the subcontracting partner institutions. The lead Station shall be responsible for managing all subcontracts to the participant institutions. The lead Station shall also be responsible for initiating the activity’s governance procedures and for providing support to the activity’s Board (see below).

The membership in any activity covered by this MOU shall be defined as those institutions participating in a multi-institutional activity, as described in a grant proposal. Additional members may join an activity at anytime with the agreement of the funding agency or agencies.

Any State Agricultural Experiment Station (SAES) or any other institution may join a specific activity by declaring to the project’s organizers its interest in joining at the time of preparing the project proposal. Individuals acting in their own capacity may not become a member of an activity. They must join an activity through an employing institution.

After a project proposal’s completion and a grant has been awarded, additional members may be added to the activity with the concurrence of a simple majority of the Board (see below). NE Stations who join a project while it is in progress are eligible to appoint a member to the Board. Such appointments shall have full voting rights.

The project’s grant proposal shall serve as the document of agreement for task sharing among the collaborating participants.

Day-to-day management of any individual activity shall be the responsibility of a single Project Manager (PM). The PM shall have scientific discipline and/or technical competence in the field of activity. The PM shall receive management support from the lead Station. The PM shall be responsible for making decisions consistent with the policy and guidance of the project’s governance Board (see below). Usually the PM will be employed by the lead Station, but this is not a requirement.

ARTICLE VI – GOVERNANCE

For each project covered under this MOU there shall be formed a Board of Directors, hereinafter called the Board). Each Board shall be made up of one representative from each participating NE Station. A Board member must be of SAES director rank (assistant, associate, or Director, or the equivalent). The Board shall be responsible for an activity’s oversight, including policy and program issues. In addition, the Board shall be responsible for:

The Board shall elect its own Chair, who will be empowered to call and conduct meetings and issue the decisions made by the Board. The Board shall also serve as the vehicle for appeals when made by an activity’s participants on decisions made by the Project’s Manager.

A simple majority shall determine all decisions made by the Board, with each participating NE Station having one vote. Extra-regional Stations and non-Station participants in an activity shall have neither membership nor voting rights on the Board. The Board shall be singularly responsible for removing from the project a participant institution or a participant individual for just cause. Should the vote be tied the Chair shall cast an additional deciding vote.

The Board shall be responsible for resolving all disputes.

All appointments to a Board are for the life of the project. The represented Station shall refill any Board vacancies that occur.

The Board shall appoint all other project positions, which shall continue subject to the Board’s pleasure.

Requests for protection of confidential or proprietary information shall be made directly to the Board Chair, who shall be empowered, by virtue of the position, to grant such requests, and will seek to provide safeguards for such information.

The participants of an activity covered by this MOU are to be encouraged by the Board to partner with other activities of a similar nature, should such partnerships have some foreseen mutual benefits. This would apply to activities of a similar nature being conducted in another region, or grants awarded to other partnership that are of a similar nature. The intention of this provision is to foster communications and to minimize needless redundancy.

The Board shall encourage the PM to appoint a Technical Advisory Committee, if the Board deems such an advisory committee will work to strengthen the project’s activities and improve project outputs.

ARTICLE VII - FINANCES

This MOU does not constitute a financial obligation, and shall not serve as a basis for any expenditure.

Each institution participating in a collaborative project under the provisions of this MOU will handle and expend its own funds. All expenditures of grant funds must be in accordance with the participant institution’s rules and regulations, and in each instance expenditures must be based on appropriate fiscal documents such as a lease, contract, extramural agreement, purchase order, letter of authorization, etc. All expenditures made by a participating institution will be according to that institution’s own governing rules and regulations.

The allocation of funds from any awards will be made as subcontracts to the participating institutions, according to the agreed budget, from the lead Station. Any adjustments to the agreed budget shall be made with the agreement of all participant Station directors, and under the allowable provisions of the granting agency.

Budget allocations to the sub-contracting participants shall follow exactly the amounts specified in the grant proposal’s final budget, as determined by pre-award negotiations and adjustments, unless the budget is subsequently amended and approved by the Board. Monitoring institutional adherence to the final budget is the responsibility of the PM. Conflicts over the budget’s administration shall be referred by the PM to the Board for their resolution.

For any single participating institution, employees of another participating institution shall not expend that institution’s funds. When a participating Station has no representative in the locality where collaborative research, or research and education is undertaken, an institutional representative may handle the accounts but shall forward the vouchers to the authorized agent at the responsible institution for payment. In no case should checks be payable to employees or send to them as checks payable to "Cash" or "Bearer" for payment of local expenses.

The lead Station shall be responsible for all financial reports, which will be facilitated by the PM and supported by all project participants. Tardy financial reporting by project participants shall be referred to the Board Chair for resolution.

Completion of agreed activities that are assumed by each of the cooperating institutions is contingent upon funds being made available in a timely manner from which expenditures may be made, or which are being reimbursed. Financial disbursements to any sub-contracting participant shall be made in a timely manner by the lead Station. Concerns for delays in disbursements are to be brought to the attention of the Board through the PM.

The choice of allocating either advances or reimbursements by the lead Station to its subcontractors will be determined by the procedures of the granting agency. In most cases payments will be made by reimbursable agreements. Subcontractors shall not insist on advances from the lead Station when the granting agency is offering reimbursable expenses.

Unless otherwise mutually agreed, the lead Station shall distribute advances or reimbursements to the participant institutions within 30 days of receiving their quarterly invoices.

Financial reports are to be provided by participating institutions to the lead Station, reporting all expenditures by category directly expended against the agreed budget. This report shall be filed with the lead Station within 90 days of the termination date of the grant. The final invoice from a participating institution may serve as their final financial report if it is clearly marked as “Final”.

The lead Station shall file the final financial report with the granting agency or agencies within 120 days of the termination date of the grant. This will always be the case unless the agency or agencies establish an earlier reporting date. In this exception an expedited financial report will be made available to the granting agency or agencies.

The lead Station shall be the primary point of contact for any programmatic or fiscal audits. All participating institutions shall cooperate fully with any audits. The PM shall facilitate such audits. The direct costs for audits shall be borne by the agency calling for the audit.

ARTICLE VIII – REAL AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

REAL PROPERTY

No funds managed under this MOU shall be used for building construction or renovations. The only exception to this provision would be in the case of an award recipient or subcontractor being previously approved by the granting agency or agencies for such expenditures. In these cases the recipient institution shall retain the title to the improvements, subject to the requirements of the granting agency or agencies.

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT

Any participant shall be free to purchase and use any equipment needed to achieve the objectives of the project. This allowance is made only provided that equipment expenditure is either:

All equipment shall remain the property of the purchasing institution, subject to any requirements for inventory imposed by the granting agency.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

All intellectual property, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets shall be claimed and protected by the lead Station. The Board shall negotiate all licenses for intellectual property, and all project participants shall share equally in any royalties, after deducting the direct expenses for claiming and licensing that intellectual property.

The lead Station shall retain rights for any copyrightable materials resulting from activities supported by an activity managed under this MOU. Any royalties and fees obtained from such copyright protection shall be shared equally among the participating institutions, after deducting any direct costs borne by the lead Station for registering and licensing the protected materials.

It is understood that no participant will publish any results from joint research without prior consultation with the other participants. This is not to be construed as applying to the popular publication of previously published technical data. Publication may be joint or independent, by prior agreement, always giving due credit to the contributions of all parties involved in the joint effort. In the case of a failure to agree on the manner of publication or on the interpretation of results, any participant in a collaborative project may publish data after 90 days notice of intent to publish and the submission of the proposed manuscripts to the other participants. In such instances the institution publishing the data will give due credit to the collaboration, but will assume full responsibility for publishing, and for the interpretation of the results therein.

The collection and exchange of any genetic material will be carried out using standard material transfer agreements. Intellectual property rights associated with such genetic materials shall be protected in accordance with mutually acceptable terms, as a responsibility of the lead Station. In the case of any conflict of terms, the lead Station shall be deemed to have the controlling property interest.

Any participant in an activity covered by this MOU shall be free to use any of the results in its official correspondence or publications provided due credit is given to the other participants for their contribution(s) to the activity.

ARTICLE IX – ACCOUNTABILITY

The Board shall require an external peer review of the progress being made by the project during the mid-term of the project (e.g., end of the second year of a four-year project). The external peer review panel shall have a minimum of three members technically competent to judge the merits of the project’s activities. They may choose to conduct their business remotely, via conference calls or by e-mail messages. External peer reviews shall be deemed completed with the panel’s submission of a written report to the Board Chair, who will in turn share the report with the Board members and the granting agency or agencies. Any costs associated with the external peer review shall be borne by the project’s budget, and shall not be the responsibility of the Board or the lead Station.

As noted above, all funded activities managed under this MOU shall make application to become an NE Multistate Research Project or Multistate Coordinating Committee, with the documentation to be supplied to the USDA’s Current Research Information System (CRIS). This will include the filing of forms AD-416, AD-417 initially, and AD-419 and AD-421 annually. The Board shall also require the project to annually report the project’s outcomes (results) and impacts (achievements) by filing a SAES-422. The intention of this requirement is to provide a public record for accountability.

ARTICLE X – STATION COMMITTMENTS

To facilitate the purposes of this MOU, as described in Article I, the signatory Stations are committed to use best efforts to:

ARTICLE XI – COMMUNICATIONS

Each activity covered under this MOU shall give consideration to maintaining open communication via contemporary information technologies, provided in ways to foster transparency and consensus building for all project participants.

ARTICLE XII – TERM, TERMINATION & NOTICE

This MOU will come into effect on the date of the first two signatures of directors from participating NE Stations, and will be valid initially for 10 years after that date. Additional NE Stations may join the terms and conditions of this understanding at anytime during its period of applicability by having their director add his/her signature.

This MOU may be modified only by mutual agreement between the signatory Stations, and then only in writing. Requests for any major change shall be submitted to the other participating Stations not less than 90 calendar days prior to the proposed effective date.

Any participating Station may opt out of the agreement at any time, without notice or reason, provided this MOU is not serving as the framework for the management of the activities of one or more current multi-institutional competitive grant(s). Opting out must be done in writing to the remaining participant Stations’ directors.

The participating Stations may terminate this MOU by simple notification of all participants not less than 90 calendar days prior to the desired effective date of termination.

ARTICLE XIII – ENTIRE AGREEMENT

This document is executed with the intent to be bound hereby. This agreement represents the entire agreement of the parties on this matter.

ARTICLE XIV – DISPUTE RESOLUTION

Any controversy or dispute arising under this agreement shall be referred to and finally settled in accordance with the standard rules of practice of the American Arbitration Association. The costs of any such arbitration shall be equally divided among the parties.

Copies of all correspondence concerning this MOU may be sent to the following addresses:

David R. MacKenzie
Executive Director, NERA
Suite 120 Hartwick Building
4321 Hartwick Road, Suite 120
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20740-3210
301-403-4242
NERA@umail.umd.edu

SIGNATURE SHEET

Signed and dated this _________16th day of __________ March 2001.

Name: Cameron Hackney
Title: Dean and Director
Station: West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station

Name: J. Scott Angle
Title: Associate Director
Station: Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station

D.Decker Signature
Name: Daniel J. Decker
Title: Director
Station: Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station

Signature: ___________________________________
Name:______________________________________
Title:_______________________________________
Signature: ___________________________________

Signature: ___________________________________
Name:______________________________________
Title:_______________________________________
Signature: ___________________________________

Signature: ___________________________________
Name:______________________________________
Title:_______________________________________
Signature: ___________________________________

Signature: ___________________________________
Name:______________________________________
Title:_______________________________________
Signature: ___________________________________

Signature: ___________________________________
Name:______________________________________
Title:_______________________________________
Signature: ___________________________________

Signature: ___________________________________
Name:______________________________________
Title:_______________________________________
Signature: ___________________________________

Signature: ___________________________________
Name:______________________________________
Title:_______________________________________
Signature: ___________________________________

Signature: ___________________________________
Name:______________________________________
Title:_______________________________________
Signature: ___________________________________

Signature: ___________________________________
Name:______________________________________
Title:_______________________________________
Signature: ___________________________________

Signature: ___________________________________
Name:______________________________________
Title:_______________________________________
Signature: ___________________________________

[1] NERA members are the State Agricultural Experiment Station directors for the following states: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia.

[2] Education herein is broadly defined to include formal and informal activities that may be in the classroom, may involve extension-type activities, or involve adult-type education for non-degree credit.