Jessica C. Fernandez, J.D.
Director of Contracts & Industry Agreements
210.458.8575
Fax: 210.458.5193
Jessica.Fernandez2@utsa.edu
Our Mission and Philosophy
Contracts & Industry Agreements (CIA) staff work within the Office of Commercialization and Innovation (OCI) to facilitate and support UTSA sponsored projects and research enterprise by drafting, negotiating, and executing a variety of contracts and agreements, including the following:
- Sponsored Research Agreements (Fixed Price/Cost Reimbursement)
- Service Agreements (tied to sponsored project accounts)
- Subcontracts / Subawards
- Material Transfer Agreements
- Non-Disclosure Agreements
- Confidential Disclosure Agreements
- Proprietary Information Exchange Agreements
- Limited Use Agreements
- Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs)
- Research Collaboration Agreements
- Teaming Agreements
- Consortium Agreements
- Memorandum of Agreement
- Memorandum of Understanding
- Teaming Agreements
- Testing Agreements
The Contracts & Industry Agreements staff facilitate UTSA’s mission in areas of technology transfer, commercialization, and university-industry partnerships by increasing the depth and success of partnerships with private companies and units of government. The CIA staff works with UTSA Research Service Centers to ensure seamless and high quality administration for faculty and staff. Contracts & Industry Agreements plays an important role in increasing sponsored projects and research funding while executing contracts promptly.
As an important agent of increasing sponsored project and research funding, CIA works in close coordination with faculty, academic units, and other university offices, including the Office of Research Integrity (ORI). The Contracts & Industry Agreements team has a close and important connection to increasing commercialization and technology transfer activities on campus. Agreements brought through and concluded by the Contracts & Industry Agreements team, including sponsored research agreements, nondisclosure agreements and material transfer agreements can enable partnerships and projects to flourish and ultimately create UTSA faculty and staff intellectual property (IP). This can lead to IP being commercialized or transferred to the private sector. For further information on the UTSA technology commercialization ecosystem, see http://research.utsa.edu/research-funding/commercialization/.
The Contracts & Industry Agreements staff does not handle procurement/vendor contracts. Those are handled by the Procurement Contracts Office.