The Federal Demonstration Partnership is a cooperative initiative among 10 federal agencies and 155 institutional recipients of federal funds for Phase VI. Our Chair and Vice-Chair are Cynthia Hope from the University of Alabama and Dr. Sandra Schneider from the University of South Florida. The FDP is a program convened by the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable of the National Academies. Its purpose is to reduce the administrative burdens associated with research grants and contracts. The interaction between FDP’s 450 or so university and federal representatives takes place in FDP’s 3 annual meetings and, more extensively, in the many collaborative working groups and task forces that meet often by conference calls in order to develop specific work products.

The FDP is a unique forum for individuals from universities and nonprofits to work collaboratively with federal agency officials to improve the national research enterprise.Learn more...
                                                                                            

The Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR) provides a platform for leaders in science and technology from government, academia, and business to discuss and take action on scientific matters of national importance. These include issues facing partnerships between government, universities, and industry, the academic research enterprise, training of the scientific workforce, the effects of globalization on U.S. research, and others. More about GUIRR...

Evolution of the FDP

1985—Pre-FDP
Hearings convened by the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR) on “Reducing Bureaucratic Accretion” in government and university sponsored research systems.

1986—FDP
Creation of the Florida Demonstration Project to develop and test new grants management procedures.  Founding members are five major federal research and development agencies (DOE, NSF, NIH, ONR, USDA), the Florida State University System, and the University of Miami.

1988—FDP II
Expansion through a competitive process to include 45 institutions in 14 states and 10 federal agencies; renamed the Federal Demonstration Project, Phase II.

1996—FDP III
Designated the Federal Demonstration Partnership, Phase III, membership broadens to include an additional 20 institutions, one federal agency, and seven professional associations. Increased faculty participation is realized, bringing an exciting new dimension to the partnership.

2002—FDP IV
Federal Demonstration Partnership, Phase IV, target efforts are being undertaken to increase the participation of minority serving institutions and emerging research institutions. On the institutional side, the activities of the faculty representatives have become more focused and more closely interwoven into the fabric of the FDP. On the federal side, more federal auditors and costing officials are involved in task forces and committees working to reduce administrative burden.

2008—FDP V
Federal Demonstration Partnership, Phase V, current projects include the STAR metrics pilot, A-133 subrecipient monitoring, effort reporting pilot, Grants.gov, JAD team, second faculty burden survey, and administrative burden reduction.

2014—FDP VI
Federal Demonstration Partnership, Phase VI continues to pursue initiatives to streamline and reduce administrative burden.  Please see our Current Initiatives and Committees pages for the most up-to-date information on current projects.