Responsibility: KE Contracting Services
Prepared by: Subawards Functional Group
Work Instruction Number: WI-MS-100
Updated: April 24, 2025
PI approval and negotiation of modification
Execute and distribute modification
Types of modifications
Subaward modifications can be issued as either bilateral or unilateral modifications (see Types of Subaward Agreements and Amendments for more information).
There are three main types of subaward modifications:
Changes in Time: Subrecipient’s effort on the project necessitates an extension or reduction of time (period of performance). An extension of time without additional funds or other changes is referred to as a “no cost extension.”
Changes in Compensation: Subrecipient’s effort on the project necessitates an increase or decrease in compensation or their “obligated” amount.
Administrative Changes: Modifications to the subaward that don’t include changes to the period of performance dates or obligated funds. These might include:
- Changes to Scope of Work: Subrecipient’s effort on the project has been modified and necessitates a revised scope of work.
- Changes in Key Personnel: Subrecipient or ASU’s Principal Investigator requires a replacement.
- Addition of Terms and Conditions: Additional terms and conditions have been issued by the prime award and need to be flowed down to the subrecipient.
- Rebudget: Subrecipient’s current obligated funds are no longer being used for their original purpose due to technical changes in the project and the line-item budget needs to be updated to reflect how the funds are currently being used.
For an overview of subawards and specific information about basic considerations, roles/responsibilities, as well as activities related to pre- and post-award activities, visit the Subawards Sitelet.
Issuance of modification
[email protected] will receive an email notification when AMT completes an Award Change Request that involves changes in a related subaward. The email notification will include a summary of subrecipient information including a link to the Award, FP, and ASUB # as well as the requested change. The requested change can also be seen in the Subawards tab of the AWD under History.
The Team Lead (or Subawards GCO) will then assign the task in ERA. Once assigned, the task will state will change to “Verification”. The task will remain in this state while the Subawards GCO requests and reviews subaward documentation, registrations, and other required items in the Subawards Checklist.
The Subawards GCO will review any attachments provided by AMT within the subaward modification task. If no documents are found, the Subawards GCO will review the Attachments tab of the related AWD Modifications for any subaward documents. In the event that no documents are found or there are missing documents, the GCO will reach out to the Research Administrator (RA) to collect them.
Subaward tasks automatically include the FP’s RA as the “RA Contact”. As this is often different than the post-award RA contact, the Subawards GCOs will update the subawards task to reflect the “RA Owner” of the AWD Modification that created the subaward task. This is who the Subaward GCO will reach out to collect any missing, incomplete, or incorrect subaward documents and registrations.
Documents and registrations are reviewed against the criteria within the Subawards Checklist. Previous subaward budgets, cost price analysis, and other documents received at initial subaward obligation will be reviewed before requesting updated copies, as needed. Additional information and guidance on required documents can be found on the Subrecipient Information page.
When all subrecipient documentation is received, they will be saved in their respective fields on the “Negotiation Information” page of the task. The Subawards GCO can now begin drafting and negotiating the subaward modification.
PI approval and negotiation of modification
The Subawards GCO will determine the subaward modification type to be used based on the modification request, the initial subagreement terms, and the Types of Subaward Agreements and Amendments guide.
Once the agreement type has been determined, the Subawards GCO will draft the subaward modification and send it to the Principal Investigator (PI) or PI fiscal delegate for approval (cc the RA) using the email function in ERA or via Outlook. The Subawards GCO will then change the task state to “With Internal Parties.”
Once PI approval is received, the approval will be noted in the Subawards Task under the Brief Task Status of the “Negotiation Information” page. The PI approval email will be uploaded to the “Finalize Subaward Task Request” page.
The Subawards GCO will send the subaward modification to the Subrecipient for review and signature using the email function in ERA or via Outlook if the modification file size is too large. The task status will be updated to “With External Parties.” If necessary, the Subawards GCO will negotiate any clauses the Subrecipient takes exception to (for modifications that flow down additional prime award terms and conditions).
Execute and distribute modification
See Manage Subawards – Execute & Distribute work instructions for general guidance with the following exceptions.
Notes to AMT are typically not used for modifications, unless there are changes to the invoicing requirements in the initial subagreement or additional terms added that they would otherwise be unaware of.
The 6. Final brief comments on transactions for reporting notes should use the format “[Task completion date] [Subaward GCO Initials]: [Brief summary of completed modification actions]”.
The Supplier Contract (SCON) created during the initial subagreement should be amended using the Subaward Work Instructions for Workday guide. The Workday PDF documenting the SCON amendment should be uploaded to smartform Negotiation Information 10. Financial Summary Report.