Core Support for the Federal Demonstration Partnership

National Academy Of Sciences, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) is a cooperative initiative involving 10 federal agencies and 217 recipient institutions (up from 154 institutions in the prior phase) managing federally sponsored research funds. The goal is to increase research productivity by streamlining the administrative process for research while maintaining effective stewardship of and full accountability for federal funds. More specifically, FDP strives to maximize research performance per federal dollar by minimizing the monetary and time burdens associated with the administrative aspects of federally-sponsored research. Since its inception, the FDP has successfully worked to reduce administrative burden while accommodating continuous changes to the policies and regulations most significant to research administration. Through the unique forum provided by the FDP, federal agency officials work collaboratively with administrative, faculty, and technical representatives from a broad range of academic research institutions to identify and assess unnecessary burden resulting from policies and processes that can be addressed only through cooperation. Targeted projects, pilots, surveys, and demonstrations are an important and defining component of the FDP. Once a new approach is successfully beta tested by a few willing institutions and agencies within the FDP, it is generally accepted by the FDP’s members and often by most research funding agencies and recipients. Member agencies can, and routinely do, use the FDP as a sounding board for potential changes that they are considering and/or will soon be required to implement. Grants officers from research funding agencies report out to the FDP membership during the annual meetings held three times per year focused on impending changes in policies, timelines, and practices and openly solicit community feedback and reaction, both positive and negative. The opportunity for an open and free exchange of information and ideas is invaluable. The entire grants community benefits, as agencies are able to understand and address the impacts of proposed changes on grantees before implementation. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.