California Model Agreement

Terms for Research, Training and Services Activities conducted at UC and CSU campuses

The California Model Agreement (CMA) provides model contract terms for use by State of California agencies that fund research, training or service activities performed by campuses of the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems. The purpose of the CMA is to reduce the administrative resources used by both State and University offices in establishing the thousands of contracts and grants for important public work performed by and for California.

The California State Legislature found that the drafting and negotiation of many of these contracts and grants would previously take up to a year, and in many cases, state taxpayers were funding both sides of the agreement negotiations. The Legislature declared that it would be more cost effective and efficient if the state and the UC and CSU systems would establish standardized “boilerplate” provisions that would apply to all contracts and grants between them, allowing for variations only in unusual situations.

The CMA is codified in California Education Code Section 67325 et seq.

An MOU between UC, CSU and the Department of General Services (DGS) on behalf of the State of California (pdf) implemented the CMA on January 1, 2016.

UC, CSU, and DGS coordinate regularly to assist in the implementation of the CMA and seek further streamlining to contracting practices.