Reporting and DATA Act Open Dialogue Browse Recent ideas

Government understandably wants to data-mine progress reports. The loss of Fastlane reporting, with its PDF structure, in exchange for plain text/fillable fields in Research.gov, is an example of this. However, the reporting format in Research.gov is ridiculously time-consuming. It has generated an extreme, labor-intensive, administrative burden. Not one Principle Investigator I know wants anything to do with Research.gov, ...more »

I spend more time figuring out what I have to report than actually reporting it. If the process could be streamlined with fillable forms, this would make it much easier!

For each person paid from the grant who worked >160 hours (1 person month) during the grant year, there must be a Commons ID (including the completion of Personal Profile Information). There also needs to be information about the total number of hours each person worked on the grant during grant year so that person months can be calculated. This information is required for undergraduate who may be paid hourly as student ...more »

The requirement to list PubMed Central ID #s is a HUGE time and effort burden for research administrators. That is the #1 requirement I would change. There must be other ways to track compliance with the Public Access Policy.

Right now the federal conflict of interest statements are due at the application and then reconfirmed upon award. Since most grants aren't funded, it would save hours of time to not have this due until the Just in time documents.

Effort Reporting should be incorporated into the progress reports. some sponsors want person months and descriptions of person(s) tasks.

Change UG to Allow 120 Days for all Final Reporting (Financial and Programmatic) for all agencies Currently the Uniform Guidance (UG) requires that all financial & programmatic reports are submitted to the sponsor within 90 days after end date. Several agencies, through coordination with the FDP (Federal Demonstration Partnership) and COGR, are adjusting their deadlines to 120 days after end-date. These agencies, most ...more »

Enactment of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act in May, 2014 provides many opportunities for the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Treasury to improve the public transparency of Federal spending while simultaneously reducing the overall reporting burden on both Principal Investigators and institutional Research Administrators. However, there are also many implementation scenarios that ...more »

A single, central reporting portal for all reporting would help achieve the goals of the DATA Act. A central portal should provide the following functions: 1) One Portal a. The goal is to have one place for recipients to report on research expenditures. b. All the agencies conform from the beginning. i. If exceptions are granted, it should be clearly documented who has been granted an exception and, the length of time ...more »

Limit the public release of federal audit reports until they have been validated through audit resolution. Since universities are reputation-based organizations, great harm can result from premature release of audit reports that are later found to be out of step with agency policy. In addition, and as a result of some universities efforts to be 100% compliant, premature release of audit reports can result in the enactment ...more »

Consider an effort to have PUBLIC LAW 96-511—DEC. 11, 1980 (Paper Reduction Act) updated or encourage a new public law so as to change the focus to reducing administrative burden (i.e. creation of a “Administrative Burden Reduction Act”). The goal would be to (1) engage the research community on an ongoing basis to create efficiencies, (2) encompass a risk analysis for all types of administrative activities to match ...more »

OMB should clarify the parameters for the risk analyses that universities are required to make for their subrecipients under the Uniform Guidance. Such a move would help to curtail the proliferation of individualized standards or action plans established by individual universities seeking to carry out their responsibilities under the as prime recipients with respect to their subrecipients.