Lynette Arias, AVP for Research/Director, Office of Sponsored ProgramsJason Myers, Associate Director, Office of Research Information Services

Federal Demonstration Partnership & NIH Commons Working Group Update

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About The Federal Demonstration Partnership• “The FDP is an association of federal agencies, academic research institutions

with administrative, faculty and technical representation, and research policy organizations that work to streamline the administration of federally sponsored research.”

• 3 meetings a year in Washington DC• 120+ research organizations, 12 federal agencies• Activities organized into 3 “tracks” / 3 reps • Faculty (we are looking for a new faculty rep for UW)• Administrative (Lynette)• Technical / eRA (Jim Kresl) (other ORIS attendees, Jason Myers, Rick Fenger and Aron

Knapp)

http://sites.nationalacademies.org/pga/fdp/index.htm

FDP Website: 2

The FDP History

• Phase VI: 2014 – TBD (beginning planning)• Phase V: 2008-2014 Current Phase – Includes the STAR metrics

pilot, A-133 subrecipient monitoring, effort reporting pilot, Grants.gov, JAD team, second faculty burden survey, and administrative burden reduction

• Phase IV: 2002-2008• Phase III: 1996-2002• Phase II: 1988 Federal Demonstration Partnership• Phase I: 1986 Florida Demonstration Project• Pre Phase: 1985 - Hearings convened by the Government-

University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR) on “Reducing Bureaucratic Accretion” in government and university sponsored research systems. 3

• Federal Agency updates• Faculty workload survey activities (FDP and NSB)• Administrative Committee highlights• COFAR & Omni-Circular (Uniform Guidance)• (Council on Financial Assistant Reform)

FDP Highlights – Admin perspective

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• Agencies providing highlights: NSF, NIH, NASA, USDA, Air Force, ONR, and Grants.gov

• Most agencies updated Proposal and Award Guides in last few months – policy clarifications made throughout the year

• All will update their guides next fall for changes in Uniform Guidance• Interesting notes:• NIH ASSIST for multi-project applications continues to expand use• NIH – Public Access continues to cause issues with awards• USDA is now assessing possible use of NIH system• Air Force – can’t issue awards now if expenditure reports are not

submitted• Many agencies going through financial system changes, having

affects on things like PI/PD transfers at USDA and transmitting award notices at ONR

FDP Highlights – Agency Updates

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• 2 FDP faculty burden/workload surveys now – both showed 42% time spent on admin burden

• Enough focus on and concern with this that the National Science Board (NSB) has taken up the cause

• NSB governs NSF, develops Science and Engineering Indicators, and advises the President and Congress on S&E policy, research and education issues.

FDP Highlights – Faculty Workload Survey Activities (FDP and NSB)

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• Started Dec 2012. Report est March/April 2014• Info collection: RFI (3/13), roundtables (4&5/13), analysis of findings

(8/13)• Top reported burdens• Financial management• Grant proposal and submission• Project and other reporting• Human subjects• Effort reporting• Animal research

• Cross cutting themes• Legislative and regulatory burden• Need for greater harmonization• Burden due to audit and oversight• Variable institution support

FDP Highlights – Faculty Burden Survey Activities (NSB)

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• Subawards Committee• Subcontract template available (OSP is starting to use similar

template for Federal Contracts and non Fed)• FDP clearinghouse – collecting pertinent institution information

(audit, inst profile, F&A rate, etc.)• NIH Subaccounts matter• Initial implementation was to be 10/13, now 10/14• NIH going back to DHHS asking for extension• NIH considering policy exception to assist with reporting

• Open Government• Potential continuation of transparency report• Involvement with federal agencies as potential new requirements

get implemented

FDP Highlights – Admin Committees

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• Joins 8 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circulars into 1 • Actually “2 CFR Part 200” – “Uniform Guidance”• Final guidance issued 12/26/2013• Effective 1 year later, 12/26/2014• Federal agency plans due in 6 months• Dec release was expected to be interim final guidance• COGR & others working on analysis and comments• UW Working group forming – 1st meeting in Jan• Sponsored by Mary Lidstrom and Sue Camber

FDP Highlights – Omni-circular

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• UW Task Force working on identifying the changes and challenges posed by the new Federal guidance

• focused on compliance with this updated guidance, not a process improvement group

• Initial review and assessment of overall guidance, Jan-May• After July, will also be reviewing and assessing federal agency

implementation plans• Webpage being developed to collect pertinent information

and serve as communication tool

UW Omni Guidance Working Group

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• Ted Mordhorst (Financial Management) – Facilitator• Tami Sadusky (Financial Management)• Mike Anthony (Financial Management)• Carla Helm (Purchasing Services)• Lynette Arias (Office of Research)• Carol Rhodes (Office of Research)• Joe Giffels (Office of Research)• Linda Gamman (Office of Research)• Zenaida Shattuck (Internal Audit)• Jenn Dickey (UW Medicine)• Kathy Bracy (UW Medicine)• Susan Carpenter-Brandt (Psychology)

UW Omni Guidance Core Team

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• Eliminating duplicative and conflicting guidance• Focusing on performance over compliance for accountability• Encouraging efficient use of information technology and shared

services• Providing for consistent and transparent treatment of costs• Limiting allowable costs to make best use of federal resources• Setting standard business processes using data definitions• Encouraging non-federal entities to have family-friendly policies• Strengthening oversight• Targeting audit requirements on risk of waste, fraud and abuse

FDP Highlights – Omni-circular

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ORIS at The FDP

eRA JAD Team• The Joint Application Design (JAD) Team is a group of individuals with different roles in the grants

application process that work with Grants.gov to address issues in the system and streamline the process of using Grants.gov to submit grant applications. They look at both the PDF forms submission process and the system-to-system submission process

SciENcv• In collaboration with NIH & NSF, the FDP is exploring how a central repository of researcher

profiles might be implemented in the United States. They are looking at systems that have been implemented on other countries as well as gathering input from stakeholders in the community.

STAR METRICS Project• Working with federal agencies, research organizations submit data to a central depository where

it is aggregated and information about the effect of the federal investment in the American research enterprise is extracted. The data is extracted and submitted automatically requiring very little effort once it is in place. This is being put forward as the best model for the federal government to collect this type of data.

ORIS participates in the FDP and has representation in the following eRA initiatives:

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Government and FDP initiatives result in ORIS work efforts

• Faculty Workload Survey• Information on most troublesome areas of research admin burden

• Open Government • Reporting standards and data needs

• Ongoing S2S efforts• Applications, multi-project (ASSIST), and RPPR S2S opportunities

• Research.gov• Federated login, S2S, etc.

• Grants.gov• S2S changes, User Interface Updates

• NIH Commons Working Group (CWG)• xTRACT is the latest NIH system initiative

In Addition to the official FDP Committee Initiatives, Other information and working groups help drive ORIS work efforts:

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The Faculty Workload Survey

• In response to FDP’s National Faculty Workload Survey results:• We are using the data as a baseline to help understand the specific needs of the

UW research community,• and analyzing the results data to help determine areas that we can implement

system solutions

ORIS’ mission is to implement solutions that reduce the researcher’s administration burden; allowing the researcher to do more research

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Open Government• The Open Government is an initiative, launched by the White

House, to be more transparent and accountable to the public• Most impactful to UW is a higher demand from the federal

government in regard to research funding and spending… think ARRA

• Expanding on what was done for ARRA, ORIS is working on a “Federal” Reporting Engine to support the ever increasing data and reporting needs

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Grants.gov, Research.gov, and Other S2S Efforts• There is a need for more and more data at the federal sponsor

level and a greater need to improve the mechanisms for data submission

• Expanding on ORIS’ Grant Runner system, an improved technology base will position us for meeting the increased demands

• Currently the Grant Runner system is being re-architected so that we can• Support more application form sets• More quickly and easily create anticipated data transfer needs

• RPPR, multi-project, etc.

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• XTRACT: Making training tables electronic• ERA Commons updates• RPPR Pilot• July – new home page being released• Working on new image generation process

• ASSIST updates• Working on calculation issues on subs F&A

• Application retention • How long should an application with errors stay in system?

• Cover letters• Want to speed up assignment process. Looking at requiring structured data in these

cover letters• Closeout• Focus on closeout throughout federal agencies currently • Change in Final FFR date to 6 months• Looking at possibly sending additional reminders to PI’s via email

NIH Commons Working Group

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Latest NIH CWG Initiatives• NIH is a very strong partner in relation to system needs and solutions• Partnering efforts are continuous with S2S and other system solutions• One of the latest efforts coming out of the NIH CWG is xTRACT• Goals of xTRACT

• Simple and comprehensive management of training data • Make the data formatted so it can be stored in a database• Provide the ability to easily identify and track people supported by NIH funds• Development in parallel with SciENcv and ORCID• Better understanding of results to students and post-docs after funding ends• Reduced burden on applicant organizations• Leverage information from existing sources

• Commons Personal Profile• xTrain• SciENcv• ORCID

• ORIS and others from OSP, OR, Grad School and some campus departments will be participating by providing input and assisting with user testing to help inform and help drive a useful solution

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• All FDP presentations:• http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/fdp/PGA_086497

• NIH Commons Working Group• http://era.nih.gov/commons/about_CWG.cfm

• COFAR webpage with new Omni-circular and more:• https://cfo.gov/cofar/

Links to more info

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Questions?

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