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Develop consistent award notices format and terms and conditions Working Group on Common Practices Among Agencies Description: Federal agencies’ awarding offices include different requirements in grant and cooperative agreement awards, use different language to state the same requirements, and organize the award content differently. This variation in format and content increases administrative effort and costs for research institutions and other recipients of Federal awards. Much more uniformity is possible because most requirements flow from common sources in government wide statutes, regulations, and OMB circulars. The Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) took a step toward addressing this issue in the 1990s, by developing a common format and standard set of award terms that the 10 Federal offices participating in the FDP currently use, with some agency specific supplementation, for most research awards to the FDP’s 90 nonprofit research institutions. In response to a grants streamlining mandate in Public Law 106 107, the interagency Pre Award Work Group began in 2000 to develop a format and core set of terms for all Federal grants and cooperative agreements. Scope and Key Results: We will consider the feasibility of expanding the use of the FDP terms and conditions to make research awards more uniform in the near term. If working level interagency discussions verify that it is feasible, the near term result could be a recommendation for OSTP and OMB to issue a policy directive to Federal agencies to broaden use of the FDP award format and content: (1) from Federal agencies that participate in the FDP to all Federal agencies that make research awards; (2) from 10 awarding offices in FDP agencies to all awarding offices in those agencies; and (3) from research awards to universities and nonprofit organizations that participate in the FDP to research awards to all such institutions. We will work with the Pre Award Work Group on a longer term solution for all Federal awards. Subject to OMB approval of a prototype this year, the long term objective is OMB guidance to establish a standard format and content for Federal agencies’ awards, including standard language for a core set of administrative and national policy requirements that apply across agencies and programs. OMB would issue the guidance in the new Title 2, “Grants and Agreements,” that it established in the Code of Federal Regulations, as recommended by the Pre Award Work Group.
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National Institutes of Health (NIH) 9000 Rockville Pike Bethesda, Maryland 20892 |
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Department of Health and Human Services |
The Subcommittee has established the following email address for receiving comments and questions related to its activities: nstc_rbm@od.nih.gov. |
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