Open Government: Research Administration Data

The FDP Open Government Subcommittee provides a forum to track, analyze, and streamline the impact of data driven initiatives stemming from various Federal Government directives such as the President’s Management Agenda (PMA), OMB memorandums, mandates, and agency goals on researchers, research administrators, and institutions. It facilitates the adoption of standards and their implementation to ensure transparency goals are met while maximizing positive impact and minimizing workload on all partners in the process. Finally, the committee coordinates with other FDP committees as needed (e.g. eRA, Expanded Clearinghouse) to address data-centric components of mutual interest.

Active Effort: Letter of Credit Workload Effort Survey Current Survey Example and Details

Supplemental Effort (as of Feb '21): In relation to the LoC survey analysis above and the various modernization efforts below, the FDP and Open Government are happy to share proof of concept material for the NSF & Treasury distributed ledger approach to the post-award draw down process.

Zoom Demo via youtube

Presentation PDF

Clickable demo (pwd: fit_gps)

Current Initiative

Open Government: Research Administration Data subcommittee has partnered with OMB to explore data driven initiatives in support of the PMA and CAP goals, specifically CAP goal #8 for Results-Oriented Accountability for Grants, as well as the recent OMB memo M18-24 for Strategies to Reduce Grant Recipient Burden. It involves stakeholder engagement and establishing a feedback mechanism for OMB regarding data standards and their application related to several efficiency initiatives within the Federal Government. Wherever possible, projects will include agency perspective and collaboration in their feedback to OMB.

The partnership currently has following three areas of focus:

Post Award Management Draw-downs: Quantifying the workload associated with post award management, specifically grant drawdowns. In this project grant recipients will quantify the specific workload by FTE of preparing for drawdowns, drawing funds, and reconciling the funds from the existing institution accounting systems with the Federal Government drawdown systems. Attention will also be given to the number of different drawdown systems used by the FDP members.
Federal Systems Interaction: Documenting the number and purpose of federal systems used by awardees in assistance awards across the grant life-cycle to assist OMB in determining further improvements.
Grants Management Federal Integrated Business Framework (FIBF): Analyze and provide feedback to OMB on the federal data element definitions/standards developed under the FIBF.

Documents

Open Government: Research Administration Data – Overview
Drivers Matrix

Meeting Documentation

	Presentations	Meeting Notes
January 2020	Presentation - LoC Presentation - NSF, Treasury and RGM
September 2019	Presentation	Notes
May 2019	Presentation	Notes
January 2019	Presentation HHS RGM	Notes
September 2018	Presentation	Notes

Federal Government Drivers

OMB Memos - Specifically:
- 18-24 – “Strategies to Reduce Grant Recipient Reporting Burden”
- 17-22 – “Comprehensive Plan for Reforming the Federal Government and Reducing the Federal Civilian Workforce”
PMA and CAP Goals
Re-Imagine HHS and Re-Invent Grants
Renew NSF
DATA Act Congressional Report
Requirements for Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act Implementation Interim Final Guidance on reporting FFATA subaward and executive total compensation information, including mandated terms of award.

Contact Us via our listserv: fdp-open-gvmnt-l@lsw.nas.edu

Committee Members

Richard Fenger, rfenger@uw.edu (Co-Chair) University of Washington
Stephanie Endy, stephanie_endy@brown.edu (Co-Chair) Brown University
Avi Tembulkar, atembulk@nsf.gov (Co-Chair) National Science Foundation