December 19, 2013

OMB to Issue “Super Circular” Grant Reform Guidance

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Council on Financial Assistance Reform (COFAR) have announced that the reform to OMB Guidance, “Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards,” is available for public inspection on the Federal Register on December 19, 2013. The guidance will be published in the December 26, 2013 edition of the Federal Register. The guidance, known as the Super Circular, combines requirements from OMB Circulars A-21, A-110, and A-133, as well as A-50, A-87, A-89, A-102, and A-122.

COFAR will host a webinar on December 20 at 8:45 a.m. Pacific time to discuss the new guidance. See the COFAR web site to register.

COFAR has recommended that federal agencies coordinate under OMB’s guidance to issue regulations or OMB-reviewed guidance in unison, effective one year from the publication of the final guidance on December 26.

Resources

December 13, 2013

NSF FastLane Changing Checks for Preliminary Proposals and Supplementary Funding Requests

On December 21, 2013, the National Science Foundation FastLane system will no longer provide “Required Item” or “Warning” messages if the following sections are not included in a preliminary proposal or supplemental funding request:
  • project description
  • references cited
  • biographical sketches
  • budget
  • budget justification
  • current and pending support
  • facilities, equipment and other resources
NSF is strongly encouraging proposers are strongly encouraged to perform an administrative review before submitting a preliminary proposal or supplemental funding request, to ensure that the submission complies with applicable instructions. The NSF announcement of this change is published as a FastLane Advisory.

NSF FastLane will continue to provide automated compliance checking and enforcement for other proposal types. See Automated Compliance Checking of NSF Proposals for more information.

December 12, 2013

AHRQ Implements RPPR for Fellowships

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has announced that AHRQ Fellowship grantees will be required to use the eRA Commons Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) module in 2014. AHRQ plans to transition most other AHRQ awards to the RPPR later in 2014.

The eRA release scheduled for January 31, 2014, will provide AHRQ Fellowship grantees with the ability to use the RPPR in place of the PHS 416-9 Noncompeting – Individual Fellowship Progress Report for Continuation Support. AHRQ will require all Fellowship progress reports with start dates on or after August 1, 2014 to be submitted using the RPPR module.  The PHS 416-9 will no longer be available after August 1, 2014.

AHRQ use of the RPPR format will not differ from NIH; AHRQ grantees are encouraged to use the resources posted on the NIH RPPR page.

See AHRQ Implements the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) for AHRQ Fellowship Grantees (NOT-HS-14-003) for more information.