A contractor (vendor) is issued a purchase order based on a request sent by an administering unit to the university’s Procurement Office. The purchase of goods and services, including “consulting services,” are obtained from a commercial contractor. A contractor provides a good or service that is narrowly constrained or defined, normally a one-time procurement.
A contractor (vendor):
- Provides similar goods and services to multiple customers as part of their routine business operations.
- Competes for customers with other like providers.
- Provices services that are ancillary to the scope of work.
- Does not retain intellectual property or copyright to the deliverables.
- Does not require cost sharing
- Does not seek joint authorship of publications
- Does not receive the general terms of the Prime Contract.
Note: If the individual or company in question provides a service for which a flat fee is charged for the work to be done and they are not involved in the research effort but simply provide a service at a fixed fee, this transaction of services is classified as a standard procurement rather than a subaward.