A purchase order must be used when purchased services may involve an organizational entity, but does not involve a substantive portion of the work effort of the project. For example, a purchase order would be appropriate for the performance of repetitive tests or activities requiring little or no discretionary judgment on the part of the provider. In these instances, a Consulting Agreement or a Purchase Order may be issued through the normal Cornell Procurement process. If the subcontractor is specified in the proposal and the collaboration is funded, it is not necessary to comply with the procurement requirements for competitive bidding or sole source justification since the sponsor or peer review process already approved the selection. If this is not the case, you must comply with the following procedures for selection.
Competitive bidding is used as the normal method of subcontractor selection.
This method requires OSP, in conjunction with the PI, to solicit proposals from a number of sources and make a final selection of a subcontractor from those responding based on technical merit and cost objectives, normally the lowest price from a technically qualified respondent. When the procurement requires performance from a sole entity because services or expertise are not available from other sources, the PI is required to provide sole source justification, identifying the need for the services and why the selected subcontractor is the only source available for the needed services. Sole source selection is not justified simply by the fact that there has been an ongoing collaboration between the scientists. It must be further justified with reasons for the unavailability of the services or expertise from other sources. Regardless of the method used in selecting a subcontractor, there must be adequate time provided between the receipt of a subcontractor's proposal and the Sponsor's proposal due date, to allow Cornell's PI sufficient time to discuss and negotiate the statement of work.