Cooperative agreement
An award like a grant except that the agency expects to be substantially involved in carrying the work out — approving protocols, sitting on a steering group, collaborating directly. It is competed like a grant and run like a partnership.
Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.
Also called Coop agreement
In detail
Substantial involvement is the legal test and it is not a formality. A named federal project officer with approval rights over decisions is normal, and a recipient who expected the arm’s-length relationship of a grant finds the reporting rhythm very different.
Agencies vary enormously in how they use the instrument. The notice states which instrument is on offer, usually in its opening paragraphs.
Against a grant
The money and the competition are the same shape. The difference is who runs the work afterwards. We store no instrument-type field, because most of the notices we read state it in prose rather than in a structured field, and a column populated on a minority of records would present the rest as ordinary grants without anyone having checked.
How GrantTrove stores it
- The notice is linked on every record through `source_url`, and `last_verified_at` says when we last confirmed that link resolved and matched.
- `elig_entity_types`, the amount columns and the deadline columns behave identically whether the instrument is a grant or a cooperative agreement, because those facts do not change with the instrument.
Common questions
Is a cooperative agreement worse than a grant?
Different, not worse. More federal involvement, and often more access to the agency’s own expertise.
Do you filter by instrument type?
No. It is stated in prose on most notices and a partially populated flag would mislead about the rest.
How do I tell before applying?
The notice says so, usually in the first section. Every record links it.