Contracts

Submitting Contracts for Review

AURA Agreements is a contract management system offered in the same software suite as AURA Grants, IRB, and COI, and it is the system of record for all research-related contracts. Open the menu below for reference documents pertaining to navigating the system:

AURA Agreements User Resources

Agreements Manual
Agreement Status Meaning
AURA Agreements Decision Matrix
Creating an Agreement from AURA Grants
Creating an Amendment
Full Submission Instructions
Responding to Clarifications Requested
Selecting the Contracting Party
Submitting CTA Amendments
Submission Quick Reference
System Emails Guide

Signature Authority

Please note that investigators, faculty, staff, and students do not have the authority to sign contracts for work conducted as part of their University employment or studies. All such agreements must be routed to URA for review and institutional endorsement. Further information about the authorized signatory can be found at https://ura.uchicago.edu/page/authorized-signature.

What is a Research Contract?

The URA Contracts team handles a number of different agreement types, each of which is used to facilitate research at the University. Some contracts are routed directly to the Contracts team via AURA Agreements by the faculty or support staff in need of the agreement. The Contracts team also negotiates award agreements with particularly complex or problematic terms, which are identified and routed to Contracts by the relevant Pre- or Post-Award staff.  All agreements require faculty or support staff to initiate the review; URA cannot review contracts sent directly via email by sponsors.

For further information related to specific agreement types, please consult the subpages on the left-hand sidebar. If you do not see your agreement type listed, feel free to reach out directly to the URA Contracts Team for assistance.