Office of Contracts Management

Contracts

OCM's Contracts section finalizes hundreds of contracts annually, including Clinical Trial Agreements, Federal Subcontracts , Confidentiality Agreements, Data Use Agreements and a vast array of professional and medical services agreements with state and local governments as well as private industry.

OCM Contracts is organized into two teams. Each team consists of a Team Manager, approximately five Contract Analysts (CAs) and two Contracts Coordinators. The Team Managers report to the Assistant Director for Contracts, who in turn reports to the OCM Director.

When a new project arrives it is checked for completeness. If complete, the file is assigned to a CA within 24 hours and an email message is sent notifying the department (Administrative Officer and Principal Investigator) of the assignment. The CA will review the agreement and send the required revisions to the sponsor or contracting party within 10 business days. Our goal is to promote the interests of Vanderbilt and our faculty, as well as to safeguard against unacceptable risk.

Evaluation of CA performance includes regular assessment of three timelines during the negotiation process: (1) days to initial review of a new contract; (2) days to turn around revisions received from the other party; and, (3) days to the finalization of the contract.