[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 18 (Friday, January 28, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4159-4161]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-1643]
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OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
Office of Federal Financial Management; Proposed Policy on
Research and Research-Related Grant Terms and Conditions
AGENCY: Executive Office of the President, Office of Science and
Technology Policy (OSTP) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB),
Office of Federal Financial Management (OFFM).
ACTION: Notice of proposed issuance of policy on terms and conditions
for grants under Federal research and research-related programs.
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SUMMARY: The Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP), a streamlining
initiative of ten Federal awarding offices and 92 academic and
nonprofit research institutions, developed a core set of FDP terms and
conditions that it has been using for several years for the
implementation of OMB Circular A-110, ``Uniform Administrative
Requirements for Grants and Agreements With Institutions of Higher
Education, Hospitals, and Other Non-Profit Organizations,'' (2 CFR part
215). The OSTP and OFFM request comment on making the FDP terms and
conditions a government-wide standard, and broadening their use to all
academic and nonprofit grantees, under Federal research and research-
related programs.
The proposed policy directive also instructs Federal agencies to
minimize the degree to which they supplement the core set with agency-
specific, program-specific, or award-specific terms and conditions. The
directive should therefore result in the near term in the use of more
uniform terms and conditions for Federal research and research-related
grants. In parallel with the establishment of this standard for
research and research-related grants, an interagency group helping to
implement the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act
of 1999 (Public Law 106-107) will continue working toward the longer-
term objective of standard award format and content for all Federal
grants and cooperative agreements, including government-wide standard
terms and conditions.
DATES: Comments must be received by February 28, 2005.
ADDRESSES: Comments should be addressed to Beth Phillips, Office of
Federal Financial Management, 725 17th Street, NW., Washington, DC
20503; telephone (202) 395-3993; FAX (202) 395-3952; e-mail
[email protected]. Due to potential delays in OMB's receipt and
processing of mail sent through the U.S. Postal Service, we encourage
respondents to submit comments electronically to ensure timely receipt.
We cannot guarantee that comments mailed will be received before the
comment closing date.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on OMB Circular A-110
requirements, contact Beth Phillips at the addresses noted above. For
information on the Research Business Models (RBM) Subcommittee see the
RBM Web site at http://rbm.nih.gov, or contact Geoff Grant at the
Office of Science and Technology Policy at 725 17th Street, NW.,
Washington, DC 20503; e-mail [email protected]; telephone (202) 456-
6131; FAX (202) 456-6027.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
I. Background
This proposal is an initiative of the Research Business Models
(RBM) Subcommittee of the Committee on Science (CoS), a committee of
the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). The RBM
Subcommittee's objectives include:
Facilitating a coordinated effort across Federal agencies
to address policy implications arising from the changing nature of
scientific research, and
Examining the effects of these changes on business models
for the conduct of scientific research sponsored by the Federal
government.
The Subcommittee used public comments, agency perspectives, and
input from a series of regional public meetings to identify priority
areas in which it would focus its initial efforts. In each priority
area, the Subcommittee is pursuing initiatives to promote, as
appropriate, either common policy, the streamlining of current
procedures, or the identification of agencies' and institutions'
``effective practices.'' As information about the initiatives becomes
available, it is posted at the Subcommittee's Internet site http://rbm.nih.gov.
The objective of one RBM priority area is greater consistency in
the format and content of Federal agencies' research grant and
cooperative agreement awards. Federal agency awarding offices currently
include different requirements in their awards, use different language
to state the same requirements, and organize the award content
differently. The variation in format and content increases both
administrative effort and costs for recipients of Federal awards. More
uniformity is possible because most requirements flow from common
sources in the OMB circulars and in government-wide statutes and
regulations.
Within the priority area on award uniformity, the Subcommittee
identified two initiatives--one that could be achieved in the near term
and a second that would be a longer-term effort. The proposal in this
Federal Register notice is the result of the near-term initiative,
which is to broaden use of the core set of terms and conditions
developed by the FDP for research and research-related grants. The
longer-term initiative relies on work being carried out by the Pre-
Award Work Group under Public Law 106-107 to develop standard award
format and content for all Federal grants and cooperative agreements.
This near-term initiative will broaden use of the core set of terms
and conditions developed by the FDP:
From Federal agencies that participate in the FDP to all
Federal agencies that make research and research-related awards (each
Federal agency must determine which of its programs are ``research-
related'' for purposes of using the terms and conditions).
From the ten awarding offices in agencies that currently
participate in the FDP to all awarding offices in those agencies.
From research and research-related awards received by
universities and nonprofit organizations that participate in the FDP to
research and related awards received by all such institutions.
II. Terms and Conditions--General Approaches
While Federal agencies organize their grant and cooperative
agreement awards differently, there are three elements that they
include in some form. One element is what some agencies call the award
notice, which includes basic information such as the name of the
recipient organization, the amount of Federal funding under the award,
any required cost sharing, the beginning and end dates for Federal
support, and the title of the project. Because this information is
specific to a particular award, an awarding agency transmits it to the
recipient each time an award is made.
The other two elements of the award are the administrative
requirements and the national policy requirements with which recipients
must comply, which together comprise the award terms and conditions.
Examples of administrative
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requirements are: Standards that a recipient's financial management,
property management, and procurement systems must meet; performance
reporting requirements; and rules for use and disposition of supplies
and equipment. OMB Circular A-110 (2 CFR part 215) is the government-
wide source of administrative requirements for an academic or other
nonprofit research institution. An award's administrative terms and
conditions therefore must implement that circular. In some cases,
awards under a particular program may impose additional administrative
requirements due to the nature of the program or its authorizing
statute. In a relatively few instances, there also may be award-
specific administrative requirements due to the nature of a particular
project.
National policy requirements arise from Federal statutes,
Presidential executive orders, or regulations with government-wide
effect, such as prohibitions against discrimination. Most apply broadly
to many or all Federal programs, though some apply only to specific
agencies or programs. National policy requirements are included in
award terms and conditions to help ensure post-award compliance,
notwithstanding any pre-award assurances of compliance an agency
requires applicants to submit.
Usually, an awarding office has a set of general terms and
conditions that apply to a broad class of awards, which may be all of
the awards that office makes or, in some cases, all of the awards the
office makes under a particular program. An awarding office's general
terms and conditions include the government-wide, as well as agency-
specific, administrative requirements and national policy requirements
described above, and also may include program-specific requirements.
Agencies often do not transmit the general terms and conditions with
each award, instead incorporating them by reference in the award notice
(e.g., by reference to an Internet site where the agency or office
maintains its general terms and conditions). In that case, the agency
only needs to transmit with the award notice any award-specific terms
and conditions that are required to supplement the general terms and
conditions.
III. The Proposed Core Set of Terms and Conditions--The FDP Approach
The core terms and conditions developed by the FDP work differently
from the general approach described in the previous section, in that
there is a core set that all of the FDP participating agencies use
along with a separate set of agency-specific terms and conditions for
each agency. The core set includes both uniform administrative
requirements and national policy requirements.
The administrative requirements are designed as a model
implementation of OMB Circular A-110 (2 CFR part 215), and they:
Provide a standard organization of the administrative
requirements that parallels the order of presentation in the circular.
Provide standard language for administrative requirements
for which the circular sets a single government-wide approach, rather
than alternative approaches among which an agency may select.
Include default provisions, with standard language, for
administrative requirements for which there are agency options. For
example, OMB Circular A-110 (2 CFR part 215) provides multiple options
for disposition of program income a recipient might earn--an agency can
specify that a recipient is to use: (1) An additive method, using the
income to increase the total funding for the project supported by the
award; (2) a deductive method, keeping the amount of support the same
and reducing the amount of Federal funding to be used; or (3) a method
that uses the income to help meet the recipient's cost sharing
requirement. The administrative requirements in the FDP core terms and
conditions include language in the program income article to specify
use of the additive method. An agency that needs to override that
default can do so by specifying a different option in its agency-
specific or award-specific terms and conditions.
The administrative requirements may be viewed in one of two ways on
the Internet at http://rbm.nih.gov. One of the posted documents shows
the core set's administrative terms and conditions. The other document
shows each article of the administrative requirements in a side-by-side
presentation with the section of OMB Circular A-110 (2 CFR part 215)
that is the basis for that article. The second document is designed to
assist users who are not familiar with the language of the circular.
The national policy requirements in the core set of terms and
conditions also may be viewed at http://rbm.nih.gov. They are presented
within a table that includes information on the types of awards, types
of recipient organizations, and specific situations to which each
requirement applies. Each award term, in the left-hand column of the
table, includes citations for the agencies' regulations pertinent to
the particular national policy requirement.
In the future, OMB in conjunction with OSTP plans to maintain--or
designate a Federal agency or interagency group to maintain--the core
set of administrative and national policy requirements in an RBM Tool
Kit at http://rbm.nih.gov, perhaps with links to additional sites such
as OMB, OSTP, and the NSTC. When the terms and conditions are amended,
previous versions would be maintained in the archives at the RBM site
for access by recipients with awards pre-dating the amendment. Each
version would bear a version date for clarity.
At the same Internet site, OSTP plans to maintain a list of the
research or research-related programs that obtained approval, under
Section 5.b of the proposed policy directive, for an exception from the
requirement to use the government-wide core set of terms and
conditions. With a centrally maintained list, an academic or nonprofit
research institution can verify whether an award that does not include
the standard terms and conditions falls within an approved exception.
To enable OMB to maintain the list, Section 5.c of the proposed policy
directive would require agencies to notify OMB when they approve
exceptions.
As we expand the use of the core set of terms and conditions to
more agencies, awarding offices, and programs, it is possible that some
offices may need to augment the core set with program-specific or
award-specific terms and conditions, in addition to any agency-wide
supplement. A particular program, for example, may not need the article
in the terms and conditions that specifies procedures a recipient must
follow when research results unexpectedly raise questions about a need
to classify the results for national security reasons. A program office
that did not need that article could include an agency-specific or
program-specific term to override the requirement. The proposed policy
directive would allow that flexibility, which is essential to some
programs; however, to maintain maximum uniformity Section 4.b of the
proposed directive includes language that would instruct agencies to
minimize supplementation of the core set.
IV. Invitation To Comment
We welcome your input on any aspect of the proposed policy provided
below, and the core set of terms and conditions posted on the Internet
at http://rbm.nih.gov. (Please note the final policy will include the
core set of terms and conditions as an attachment, as stated in the
``Background'' section. However, those are not included in this
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notice, but rather are available at the Web site noted above.)
Questions that you may wish to address include:
Are the terms and conditions easy to use and understand?
With the general terms and conditions posted on the
Internet, would you be able to readily determine which terms and
conditions apply to a specific award?
Where OMB Circular A-110 (2 CFR part 215) gives agencies
options for addressing particular administrative requirements, does the
core set of terms and conditions include default provisions appropriate
for research and research-related grants?
Are there other national policy requirements that should
be included in the core set of terms and conditions?
Is the proposed policy directive clear and unambiguous, or
does it need further detail?
Dated: January 25, 2005.
Linda M. Springer,
Controller, Office of Management and Budget.
Kathie L. Olsen,
Associate Director for Science, Office of Science and Technology
Policy.
To the Heads of Executive Departments and Establishments
Subject: Interim Standard Terms and Conditions for Research Grants.
1. Purpose. This policy letter establishes a core set of terms and
conditions as the government-wide standard for research grants. The
standard is for use by Executive Branch departments and agencies on an
interim basis, pending completion of an ongoing effort to develop a
standard for all Federal grant and cooperative agreement awards.
2. Authority. This policy letter is a result of the regular review
of the Government-university research partnership under Executive Order
13185. It also is a part of the implementation of the Federal Financial
Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999 (Public Law 106-107).
3. Background. Begun as the Florida Demonstration Project in the
1980's, the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) is a cooperative
initiative among ten Federal awarding offices and 92 academic and
nonprofit institutions that receive Federal research awards. The FDP's
purpose is to streamline administrative procedures associated with the
award and administration of research funding. In the late 1990's, the
FDP developed terms and conditions that are a model implementation,
specifically for research grants, of the 1993 issuance of OMB Circular
A-110, ``Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements
With Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals, and Other Non-Profit
Organizations.'' (OMB Circular A-110 is now located in Title 2 Code of
Federal Regulations, Part 215.) The ten Federal awarding offices have
been using the FDP terms and conditions for research grants to the non-
Federal institutions participating in the FDP.
Another effort to develop standard terms and conditions began after
the enactment of Pub. L. 106-107. That Act requires the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) to direct, coordinate, and assist Executive
Branch departments and agencies in establishing an interagency process
to streamline and simplify Federal financial assistance procedures for
non-Federal entities. Twenty-six Executive Branch agencies currently
participate in interagency initiatives to implement Pub. L. 106-107.
One of the initiatives is to develop standard terms and conditions, to
the extent practicable, for all Federal awards of grants and
cooperative agreements to governmental and nonprofit organizations,
including research awards.
Pending the completion of the Pub. L. 106-107 initiative, which is
a long-term endeavor, some near-term benefits can be obtained on an
interim basis by expanding the use of the FDP's grant terms and
conditions to more Federal awarding offices and more research
recipients. To enable that expanded use, the Research Business Models
(RBM) Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council's
Committee on Science made minor modifications to the terms and
conditions developed originally for FDP participants. The result--the
terms and conditions attached to this policy letter--are appropriate
for all Federal agencies' research grants to academic and nonprofit
institutions.
4. Policy. a. The standard terms and conditions maintained by OMB
and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) under paragraph
5.b.i of this directive are the government-wide core set to be used by
agencies for grants awarded to institutions of higher education,
hospitals, and other non-profit organizations under basic and applied
research and research-related programs.
b. Agencies may supplement the core set of terms and conditions
with agency-specific, program-specific, or award-specific terms and
conditions. Agencies are to minimize supplements, limiting these to
terms and conditions that are required by a statute or:
i. Consistent with OMB Circular A-110; and
ii. Necessary for programmatic purposes or good stewardship of
Federal funds.
c. Agencies are encouraged to extend the use of the attached grant
terms and conditions to cooperative agreements and other forms of
financial assistance, to the extent practicable.
5. Responsibilities. a. Each Executive Branch department and agency
must:
i. Issue any needed direction to offices that award research
grants, in order to establish the attached terms and conditions as the
core set for those offices' awards.
ii. Designate policy level officials, (1) authorized to grant
exceptions from the requirement to use the attached core set if a
departmental or agency office, or program, can demonstrate the need for
an exception; and (2) responsible for notifying the OMB in writing
about the scope of exceptions approved by the department or agency and
the reasons for them.
b. OMB and OSTP will maintain--or designate a Federal agency or
interagency group to maintain--at a government-wide Internet site
(either the RBM Web site, currently at http://rbm.nih.gov, or a site to
be named) and with additional links to OMB, OSTP, and the National
Science and Technology Council:
i. The core set of terms and conditions, including uniform
administrative requirements and national policy requirements.
ii. A list of agency programs and offices that have been granted
exceptions, under paragraph 5.a.ii of this directive, from the
requirement to use the core set of terms and conditions.
6. Information Contact. Direct any questions regarding this policy
letter to Elizabeth Phillips, Office of Federal Financial Management,
(202) 395-3993.
7. Effective Date. The policy letter is effective 30 days after
issuance. All implementing actions other than regulatory revisions must
be completed by the Executive departments and agencies within 6 months
of the effective date; any regulatory revisions must be completed
within 18 months.
[FR Doc. 05-1643 Filed 1-27-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3110-01-P