Avril Liu is the Associate Director of Contracts in the Office of Sponsored Programs at the University of Illinois Chicago. She holds a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from DePaul University College of Law and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Avril has extensive experience negotiating a broad range of sponsored research agreements with academic institutions, industry partners, international collaborators, nonprofit organizations, and federal and local government agencies.

Avril serves as a subject matter expert for both funded and unfunded research agreements, including clinical trial agreements. She previously managed a $1 billion research portfolio at a leading R01 research university. Her responsibilities include the drafting, negotiation, and execution of agreements related to clinical trials, research collaborations, material transfer, intellectual property, data privacy, and confidentiality.

In her current role, Avril leads pre-award contract negotiations, oversees the daily operations of the contracts unit, develops and implements policies and procedures, and provides training for contracts negotiators and institutional stakeholders.