A Service Agreement is a formal contract between Stanford and an outside party establishing the terms and conditions for using Stanford resources to provide assistance to the other party. Sometimes referred to as “fee for services” arrangements, Stanford receives a fixed fee or reimbursement of costs for providing the services to the outside party. Providing such services must support Stanford’s mission of excellence in research, teaching and medical care and should not be undertaken solely for financial gain.
Service agreements do not meet the definition of a sponsored project and are governed by a specific policy. Types of Service Agreements may include Technical Services, Training Services, Community Outreach, or Research Support Services.
Examples of Service Agreement Types (click image to enlarge).
Senior Contracts Officer
If you need an agreement for a formally-recognized Stanford Service Center:
Please reach out to the Industrial Contracts Office for guidance. More information about Stanford Service Centers can be found on the DoResearch website.
If Stanford is paying an outside party to provide services to Stanford:
Please reach out to the Procurement Office for guidance. (More information here).
Service agreements for the School of Medicine are processed by the Research Management Group's Service Agreements team (Nico Mendoza and Glennia Campbell). Other schools are handled by their respective school representatives and not by central administration (OSR or ICO).
(IMPORTANT) Please note that there is no way to initiate an early PTA for service agreements so please factor this in to the timeline and management of the activities.
Step 1: Submit a Request
Simplified: How to Initiate a Service Agreement (click on image to enlarge).
For School of Medicine requests, send an e-mail to Nico Mendoza and Glennia Campbell with the following information and documents:
1. Statement of Work: A brief description of the work being performed and the Stanford team’s roles and responsibilities. List any deliverables expected by the other party, including reports, training materials, workshops, etc.
2. Party Details: Name, address, and primary contact information for the other party, and the source of funding they will be using. If they are using funding from a grant or contract, please let us know who the primary sponsor is. Also include the type of organization (non-profit, government or corporate), where the services/activities will be taking place, and if we are providing support services or Stanford technology.
3. Internal Budget: Internal budget that includes personnel costs, supplies, materials, travel and other expenses that might be incurred. Do not submit the budget to the other party without having it reviewed by the RMG Service Agreements team first.
4. Timeline: When you expect the services to begin and end (start and end dates). Documents: Any documents provided to you by the other party, including a draft agreement, proposed budget/costs, and their proposed scope of work.
Important Additional Considerations to inform us about:
Step 2: Review and Negotiation
The RMG Service Agreements Team, consisting of Deputy Director Nico Mendoza and Senior Contract Officer Glennia Campbell, will review your request and determine whether your request qualifies as a service agreement. It is important that you notify us early, since many projects do not squarely align with either the Research or Service agreement policy.
We will carefully review your request and may need to gather additional information and consult with other offices to make a final determination. Depending on the complexity of the project, this might take 1-2 weeks to decide.
After determining that an agreement should be handled by the RMG Services Agreements Team, we will set up a Research-Related Agreement (RRA) Record in the SeRA system. We will provide you with the RRA Record Number so that you can track progress on the agreement during the negotiation process. Typically, Glennia Campbell handles the contract revisions and negotiations and Nico Mendoza handles the budget and other inquiries.
The SeRA system will route a Conflict of Interest check to the primary faculty contact and any other key personnel staff and faculty investigators involved. The agreement cannot be signed until these disclosures are completed.
Note: For departments and administrators who have not done service agreements before, please review the Award and Post-Award section to preview the post-award financial management of these types of contracts which are much more involved from the department's side compared to sponsored projects.
