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The University receives monetary contributions from a variety of sources including individuals, non-profit foundations, and corporate entities. Such gifts can be for the University's designated use or can be for specific purposes such as the construction of laboratory space, purchase of equipment, fellowships for students, endowed chairs, etc. For additional information on the variety of gift support mechanisms, click here.
A gift of financial support may also be appropriate in instances where a company is interested in supporting an individual researcher but has not identified a specific research project to support or is agreeable for the investigator to designate the use of the funds as he/she desires. If such gifts are restricted to a particular field of research, but generally not a particular project, they are considered "restricted gifts", or if designated for use at the discretion of the researcher, they are "unrestricted gifts". Click here for sample gift letters for both restricted research gifts and unrestricted research gifts.
All gifts are subject to an administrative fee of 4%. This amount will be deducted from the gift and the balance will be provided to the researcher. For questions concerning the gift assessment, please contact the Gift Administration Office.
A gift is a conveyance or transfer of an asset (including cash or negotiable instruments such as stock or real estate) made with charitable intent and without consideration. This generally means that, in order for the University to be able to accept financial support from industry as a "gift", the company must give the funds without the ability to require return of any of the funds (funds are awarded "irrevocably") and also without the ability to receive anything substantive in return (no "quid pro quo").
What can the company receive or not receive in return for a research gift?
A company may give a gift restricted to a researcher's field of research and may receive the following:
If the company requests anything in return other than the above, the Gift Administration Office will need to be consulted regarding whether such a request would meet the gift requirements of the University. For example, a gift would not be acceptable in instances such as the following:
If the company requests the above terms or other terms similar in intent to the above, the transaction would not be a gift, but would generally be handled as a research agreement, clinical trial, etc. and would be subject to University policies for such transactions. For additional information on the above issues, please contact the Office of Contract and Grant Administration.
Under the California Political Reform Act of 1974, a researcher must disclose whether or not there has been any consulting activity with a company when accepting research gifts from that company. Such disclosure must be made to the Conflict of Interest (COI) Office and reviewed by the campus Independent Review Committee (IRC) on Conflict of Interest prior to University acceptance of the gift. If you disclose consulting activity, the COI Office will request a copy of your consulting agreement for review by the IRC. If your consulting agreement has language that requires assignment of patentable discoveries and/or other intellectual property to the company, and most agreements do have this language, the IRC will request that a Standard Clause for UC Employees and a copy of the UC Patent Policy be included in the agreement. For further information on consulting activities, click here.