Quick: Think of the many documents that make up a research agreement portfolio.  Now rank them in order of importance.  Was the Statement of Work (SOW) first or second on the list?  If not, perhaps you should rethink your perceptions.

Often overlooked with respect to its impact on a particular project, the SOW serves as the backbone for many of the legal terms stated in the research agreement.  Additionally, we frequently encounter situations where a given legal obligation is specifically contradicted by what is written in the SOW, and the parties needlessly expend resources sorting out the differences.

Consequently, it is imperative that the SOW be an accurate description of not only the work to be performed by your PI, but also any materials used during or activities anticipated following the period of performance.  For example:

Will the PI require any IP owned by the Sponsor to perform his/her research?

Don’t forget to include the necessary license and address the issue of ownership of improvements.

Will the PI be using any University-owned Intellectual Property during the course of his/her research?

Make doubly sure you include a Background Intellectual Property clause that protects the rights of the institution, and clearly spell out the Background IP that will be used.

Will the PI be creating any Intellectual Property during his/her research?

Who will own?  With respect to any patentable inventions, who will bear the responsibility of filing applications and paying the associated costs?

Will the PI need to access any confidential information of the sponsor?

Your institution’s standard CI terms may need to be tweaked to allow the PI and his/her personnel to adequately perform the requested duties.

Will the PI be publishing the results of the research, or any additional information?

Who will be the authors?  Will the sponsor be afforded the opportunity to review any proposed publication prior to submission?

Will the PI be providing a tangible product (or Deliverable)?

Check the payment schedule to make sure that any milestone payments correspond to what actually is being delivered.

In general, the SOW should be more than simply a recitation of the applicable science.  Instead, it should provide the foundation for the terms of the research contract itself – A clear, substantive description of what the PI will be doing, the activities being considered and the various moving parts involved.  Many research administrators are loathe to devote significant time to the SOW, given that there are generally more than enough issues that require negotiation as it is.  However, any troublesome issues in the Statement of Work will naturally affect their accompanying clauses, and thus the ORA representative, the research analyst and the PI should all endeavor to ensure that the SOW is as complete as possible.

It’s been a banner day for your research group.  Globex Corporation has agreed to fund a project undertaken by your boss, Dr. Frink, to the tune of three million dollars.  All that stands in the way of that money is a five-page contract to be signed by both parties.  So, as you’ve been instructed, you forward the draft agreement to your designated department analyst so that they can process and send down to your friendly Office of Research Administration for review and execution.

If you’re in a department, or Dr. Frink himself, your next words are typically “And then we don’t hear anything!”  While we do our best, given the number of awards that are processed by our office each day, let alone each year, it simply isn’t possible to provide email or telephonic comments to all interested parties every step of the negotiation process.  However, JHU recognized the importance of communicating with our PIs, and thus MyRAP was born.

MyRAP (short for “My Research Agreement and Application Place”) operates as an outlet by which PIs and their personnel can check on the status of their pending agreements without the need to contact our office.  An individual record is created by ORA when any of the supported agreements is received, which will designate the lead PI, the sponsor, and other important related information.   As the agreement moves toward execution, the MyRAP record will be updated as applicable showing the progress of negotiations, as well as any information that is required for ORA to continue its efforts.  Consequently, anyone viewing the log for a given MyRAP record will be able to quickly see where things stand, and what has transpired up to that point.  Most of the time, the information on the page is sufficient to answer any questions that ordinarily would have been contained in an ORA-addressed email.

Accessing MyRAP is done simply by going to http://myrap.jhu.edu and signing in with your JHED ID.  Once you’ve logged in, you should be presented with a list of agreements.  If you’ve logged in as a PI, you will see only those records for which you are the primary investigator.  If, however, you are departmental personnel, you should see a list of all MyRAP records for your department.  You will then be able to learn the status of a given agreement by clicking on its related record.

Since MyRAP is web-based, interested parties can log in from anywhere in the world and access a listing of their agreements.  This is especially helpful during these summer months when offices are lightly staffed and PIs are taking a much-deserved break, so we encourage people to log in and take advantage of all that it has to offer.  And if you have any questions or experience any issues, please feel free to email us at admin@bloggingora.com and we’ll help sort them out.