Update on Government
Government-wide
wide Initiatives
NSF Advisory Committee for Business and Operations
Mary F. Santonastasso, Director, Division of Institution and Award Support
Andrea T. Norris, Deputy CIO and Director, Division of Information Systems
Purpose
ƒ Provide an update on the Grants.gov implementation
ƒ Provide an update on Research.gov
ƒ Respond to Committee’s request to provide plans to leverage
university investments
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Government-wide activities: Grants.gov
Grants gov
ƒ Grants.gov started in 2003 as the government-wide solution to
“FIND” and “APPLY” for grants for 26 major grant-making agencies.
– NSF posts 100% of funding opportunities to Grants.gov FIND
– NSF accepts proposals submitted via Grants.gov APPLY as well as
FastLane (~3% of NSF proposals are submitted via Grants.gov)
ƒ In early 2009, Grants.gov experienced sustained performance
degradation and asked OMB for assistance.
ƒ In March 2009
2009, an OMB Memo instructed agencies to identify
alternative methods for accepting applications during Recovery Act
peak period.
– NSF continued to p
post all opportunities
pp
to Grants.gov
g FIND
– NSF required proposal submission through FastLane
ƒ Now that the Recovery Act peak period has passed, OMB has
encouraged
d agencies
i tto reinstate
i t t supportt for
f Grants.gov
G t
APPLY.
APPLY
– NSF will support Grants.gov APPLY option no later than December 1,
2009
3
Research.gov Update
4
Research gov Overview
Research.gov
ƒ Modernizes FastLane (plus more) in partnership with other research
g
agencies.
ƒ Focused on the needs of institutions and researchers:
– Menu of services and information spanning multiple Federal agencies
– Tailored to meeting the unique needs of the research community
– Intuitive, easy-to-use environment to conduct business with the
Federal Government
ƒ Increases transparency of Federal research spending and
outcomes.
ƒ P
Provides
id th
the public,
bli scientific
i tifi community,
it and
dC
Congress with
ith easy
access to information.
ƒ Leverages government-wide solutions,
solutions such as Grants
Grants.gov
gov and
modern technology standards.
5
Research gov Partnerships
Research.gov
ƒ Research.gov simplifies the research community’s access to
information and research services for multiple Federal agencies:
–
–
–
–
National Science Foundation (Lead Agency)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Partner Agency)
Department of Defense Research (Partner Agency)
National Institute of Food and Agriculture (Partner Agency)
Formerly USDA
USDA’s
s Cooperative State Research,
Research Education,
Education and Extension Service
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Government-wide Grants
ƒ “FIND” Grant Opportunities
ƒ “APPLY” for Grants
NSF
Broader Community
ƒ
NSF-oriented services for:
– Institutions and researchers
ƒ
ƒ
Prepare and submit:
– Proposals
– Financial Transactions and
Reports
– Project Reports
– Requests related to awards
ƒ
Partnership of research agencies providing
research focused services for:
research-focused
– Institutions and Researchers
– Key Stakeholders
– NSF Staff/Program Staff
– General Public
Mission Focused Services To:
ƒ Plan programs
ƒ Accept proposals
ƒ Conduct merit review
ƒ Manage awards
ƒ Publish results
ƒ Find policies, news, and events
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Research gov
Research.gov
ƒ Public Facing Services:
–
–
–
–
Research Spending & Results
• Find NSF
S Recovery Act Awards
Policy Library (Government-wide)
Research Headlines and Events
Science and Innovation ((coming
g soon))
ƒ Research Community Services:
–
–
–
–
–
–
View the status of grant applications
• Sponsored Project Office
• Principal Investigator
Submit Federal Financial Reports
Manage institution and user accounts
P j tO
Project
Outcomes
t
Report
R
t for
f the
th generall public
bli ((coming
i soon))
Research Performance Project Report (Focus in FY2010)
Proposal Submission Services (coming soon)
ƒ Research.gov
R
h
D
Desktop
kt ffor NSF St
Staff
ff
–
–
Find Reviewers (coming soon)
Search Proposals (coming soon)
8
Emerging Landscape for Submissions
ƒ Several options to submit applications to Federal Government:
– Web-based
Web based interactive agency system that guides applicant through
process
– Use of Grants.gov Adobe Forms to apply (downloadable fillable forms)
– “System-to-System” proposal data transfer from university system to
G t
Grants.gov
or other
th system
t
Proposals submitted directly through agency system
NSF
Proposals
(Form based)
NIH
DOE
NASA
DOT
Proposals
(Data)
Universityy
System
Proposals
(Data)
Interior Dept
Interior Dept.
Other Agencies 9
Leveraging University Investments
ƒ More and more universities are investing in commercial (and
institution) software products to support administrative and business
requirements related to Federal grant processes.
– Implementation status and business use/value varies by university and
product
– Universities are implementing these systems to save time and resources
and achieve efficiencies
– Universities are at varying levels of maturity in terms of the scale and
scope of their business processes and supporting technology products
ƒ Changing market place for Universities:
– Major commercial providers include: Cayuse, Click Commerce, InfoED,
and ERA Software
– University sponsored commercial products include: Coeus (MIT)
– Institution providers include: Duke University and University of
Washington
10
Leveraging Standards
ƒ Products rely heavily on government and technology standards
to communicate with other applications
pp
or p
products.
– Core data sets and government-wide data standards (e.g., Research &
Related data set)
– Industry technology standards (Web services)
• Platform independent secure messaging service (SSL with mutual
authentication)
• Standard language (XML) and protocols (SOAP)
• Web
W b service
i description
d
i ti (WSDL)
System A
XML via SOAP
WSDL
Web Service
System B
11
True Technology-Enabled
Technology Enabled Services
Proposals
Institution Data
9Proposals
¾Project Reports
¾Project Reports
¾Financial Reports
¾Other
University
System NSF
NIH
DOE
NASA
DOT
p
Interior Dept.
Other Agencies
Proposals
Financial Reports NSF
Project Reports
Other Research
Agencies
Other 12
Research gov Submission Service
Research.gov
ƒ A number of institutions volunteered to test new web services for
transmitting
g data between university
y systems
y
and Research.gov
g
– California Institute of Technology and University of Texas at Austin: Using
Cayuse commercial product
– Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Using Coeus product
– Duke
D k U
University:
i
i U
Using
i custom iinstitution-specific
i i
ifi system
ƒ Multiple vendors are extending their web services to better support their
university customers
ƒ Experience to date has been positive
– Institutions like using their local system as the “common environment” for
supporting end-to-end business needs
– Vendors see significant value from relatively low cost and effort
– Everyone
y
wants capability
p
y to seamlessly
y submit more than jjust p
proposals
p
(e.g., Project Reports)
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Next Steps
ƒ NSF to reinstate Grants.gov as an option for proposal submission
by December 1
1, 2009
2009.
ƒ Research.gov Submission Service (Web Service):
ƒ Collect
C ll t ffeedback,
db k enhance
h
service,
i
and
d th
then expand
d tto
more institutions.
ƒ IIncorporate
t Business
B i
and
d Operations
O
ti
Advisory
Ad i
C
Committee
itt ffeedback
db k
into plans.
ƒ Continue to engage the research community in NSF plans and
services.
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