What Is an NIH Competitive Service Center?
What Is the History of the CSC Concept?
What Is the Process to Establish a Service Center?
Who Coordinates the CSC Program?
What Are the Benefits for Providers?
What Are the Benefits for Users?
How Does the FTE Distribution Work?
Interested in Establishing or Using a Service Center?
What is an NIH Competitive Service Center?
Competitive Service Centers (CSCs) provide a formal vehicle for Institutes, Centers, and Divisions (ICDs) to obtain services from other ICDs in a variety of administrative areas. A Provider is an ICD that successfully develops and performs a specific service internally and decides to provide the service to other interested User ICDs. The Program emphasizes flexibility and the ability of ICDs to negotiate arrangements that best meet their individual needs. The benefit to the Provider and Users, and the NIH community as a whole, is that through Competitive Service Centers, the range and quality of services available is increased, and often with fewer staff and at lower overall cost to NIH.
What is the History of the CSC Concept?
The idea for developing Competitive Service Centers grew out of NIH's need to facilitate FTE savings while maintaining quality administrative services. By making use of the specialized expertise existing within ICDs as well as economies of scale, it allows ICDs to enhance both the quality and cost of their research support activities.To support the Service Centers and encourage their use, NIH Director Dr. Harold Varmus established a Reserve Pool of FTEs which was available for this purpose, among others. Both Provider and User ICDs are able to take advantage of these FTEs. The CSC program was officially implemented in November 1995 with 13 Centers and 22 ICDs participating in the Program. A subsequent evaluation of the Program found that during the first year of operation, the NIH experienced a net savings in activity costs of 13 FTEs and $3 million, with very high levels of service satisfaction among both Providers and Users of services. Since the initial startup, the number of Service Centers has grown by 25% and the number of Users by 50%. This success has led to a renewed commitment by NIH to continue to expand the Competitive Service Centers Program.
What is the Process to Establish a Service Center?
- Each potential Provider submits a proposal to the CSC Committee describing:
- service area and the proposed Users
- benefits expected
- FTE needs vs. workload
- projected savings
- personnel implications
- the Center's evaluation process during the year and the final review at year's end.
- Each proposal is then reviewed by a Proposal Evaluation Group, comprised of subject matter experts, and by the Competitive Service Centers Committee, whose recommendation is sent to the NIH Director for his decision.
Who Coordinates the CSC Program?
The Competitive Service Centers Program is administered by a committee established at the request of the NIH Director.NIH Competitive Service Centers Committee
- Laura Rosenthal, Chair, Executive Officer, NIDA
- Colleen Barros, Executive Officer, NIA
- Mary Ann Guerra, Deputy Director for Management, NCI
- Janis Mullaney,Intramurl Management Liason Director, OIR/OD and Acting Associate Director for Administrative Operations, NCI
What are the Benefits for Providers?
Service Providers benefit in several ways. For instance, providers gain:- increased recognition of strong performance and developed expertise in a service area
- more efficient utilization of their staff
- the provision of increased resources that can be used to enhance services within their own ICD
- the receipt of more FTE's from the NIH Director's Reserve Pool
- potential to increase staff through ICD transfer from User to Provider
- creative opportunities and career benefits for staff affected by the new CSCs.
These benefits are built into the CSC concept to allow for enhanced ICD flexibility and increased performance in these service areas.
What are the Benefits for Users?
- User ICDs are able to maintain current levels of service in a particular area or to expand services, but at a reduced cost. For example, for intermittent use of Technology Transfer services, using a Service Center would cost much less than allocating ICD FTEs to hire a full-time expert or create a new office.
- Using Service Centers in other ICDs enables a User to obtain services on a flexible, as needed basis. Users can renew or change providers on an annual basis which allows for greater competition and an increased variety of services available to the ICDs.
- As a User, an ICD can fill gaps in expertise or staffing to obtain services not currently available in their own institute.
How Does the FTE Distribution Work?
The Competitive Service Centers Program provides additional FTEs both for staff to support the Service Centers, as well as an incentive for ICDs to participate in the program.Service Center Support: FTEs to suppport the increased workload being taken on by the Service Center can come from two sources. One source of FTEs is from a User ICD that wants to reduce its staff in this service area. These FTEs, and staff, can then be transferred to the Provider ICD.
Another source is the Reserve Pool of FTEs. Requests for these FTEs are included in the proposal to establish a new Center or expand an exisiting one. Several NIH experts in the proposed service area review the request and make a recommendation to the Committee. The Committee's recommendation is then forwarded to the NIH Director for decision.
For any new Service Centers being created, the NIH Director will consider requests for exemptions for command/control positions toward their control ceilings at the same time he reviews requests for FTEs to support the Service Center.
Incentive FTEs: Incentive FTEs are also available from the Reserve Pool. These FTEs are meant both to encourage ICDs to run Centers and provide services to other ICDs, as well as to encourage Users to give up some or all of their existing staff to receive those services from other ICDs. Requests for these FTEs are included in the Service Center proposal and follow the same review procedures.
Incentive FTEs are allocated as vacant FTEs, and the ICD can use them for any purpose that the ICD Director thinks is appropriate.
Providers: ICDs which will be running CSCs may receive Incentive FTEs equivalent to 25-50% of the number of staff that the ICD is contributing to the Center from its own current staff. For example, an ICD that is contributing four staff members to work in the Service Center is eligible to receive one or two Incentive FTEs.
Users: User ICDs which are giving up some or all of their staff to a Service Center are eligible to receive a rebate of 50% of the FTEs being given up. In other words, their FTE ceiling will be reduced by only 50% of the number of staff being transferred to the Service Center, rather than by 100%, and they will be replacing occupied FTEs with vacant ones.
Once allocated from the Reserve Pool, Center and Incentive FTEs remain with the ICD as long as the ICD continues to run the Service Center, and do not require annual renewal.
To begin the process for becoming a CSC, refer to the Sample Proposal portion of this web site. It will give you an approach for providing the necessary information to be used in consideration of your request.
Last updated 1/30/98
Interested in Establishing or Using A Service Center?
Establishing new Centers and Users should be an ongoing process that facilitates collaborations among ICDs. This program intentionally remains flexible, so that as needs/desires change, ICDs are able to change arrangements. ICDs have an opportunity during the fiscal year to become Centers and/or Users and to request necessary FTE support. Commitments between ICDs are annual agreements with a September anniversary date, with an annual process for evaluation and assessment of established arrangements.
Introduction | Service Center Overview | Sample Proposal |
Proposal Review Process | Current Participants
Questions? Comments? Feel free to contact the Competitive Service Centers Committee.
