Wikiversity-School of Education/Research Administration/Electronic Research Administration/History

What is it? Where did it all begin? What is the status today? Where is it all headed? Can it really come together?

First, let's reflect on the advent of electronic commerce and how electronic research administration (eRA) emerged as an offspring of this technology. Electronic Commerce (EC) is the concept of performing business functions electronically through growth of sophisticated information technology (IT). Electronic commerce incorporates the use of many day to day core tools such as the Web, electronic mail (e-mail), electronic funds transfer (EFT), electronic data interchange (EDI), the Internet and data warehouses.

EC was brought into the limelight in the early 1990's as a result of the Presidential-commissioned National Performance Review (NPR). In March 1993, President Clinton appointed Vice President Gore to lead this initiative.

The ensuing report, delivered in September 1993, "Creating a Government That Works Better and Costs Less," included a section on improving the federal grants process. In that report, four problems were identified:

• too much red tape;
• slow review and approval process,
• inconsistent grant forms and criteria; and
• redundant reporting requirements across federal agencies. At the same time that President Clinton issued directives to implement a number of recommendations cited in the report, Congress adopted a law - the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). This Act required agencies to develop strategic and performance plans, along with measures of performance, and publicly report progress annually.

At the agency level, the Federal Research Managers Group (FRMG) was formed in 1992 by representatives from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Army Research Office (ARO) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The purpose was to determine avenues of sharing information and resources. The group agreed to collaborate in a number of areas, one of which was common business practice implementation. To meet this objective, the Business Practices Working Group (BPWG) was established to focus on streamlining grant administration. One way to accomplish this goal is through the use of electronic commerce. In order to promote and strengthen the existing skills at the various agencies, the federal grant Electronic Commerce Committee (ECC) was formed. (link to printable copy)

Since the delivery of the report in 1993, the National Performance Review (changed to the National Partnership for Reinventing Government in 1998) has developed and implemented initiatives targeted at areas in need of reform. One area identified in the report was utilizing electronic commerce through information technology.

In response to these NPR information technology recommendations, the Government Information Technology Services (GITS) Working Group was created in late 1993. This group coordinated efforts to improve the application of information technology and was given the task of implementing the information technology initiatives outlined in the NPR Report, "Reengineering Through Information Technology". In July 1996, Executive Order 13011 was signed by President Clinton, which codified the accomplishments of the GITS Working Group and established the GITS Board to continue NPR information technology implementation and promote information technology innovation. In addition, the Executive Order established the Chief Information Officers Council (CIO Council) as the principal interagency forum to improve agency practices on matters involving agency information resources.

Access America, the GITS Board's 1997 report identified several automation and reengineering opportunities in the federal government. The report cited federal grants distribution as an area ripe for automation and the application of electronic solutions:

"Automate the federal grants process. In FY 1996, the federal government provided approximately $300 billion in grants to governments, universities, tribal governments, non-profit organizations, and individuals. The grants process can be improved and speeded up using electronic commerce, and 10 federal agencies have joined together to form the U.S. Electronic Grants Project. This will provide a "one-stop shop" for federal grant applications using World Wide Web and EDI technologies; users will be able to choose which safe, secure method they want to use."

The U.S. Electronic Grants Project was initiated by a subgroup of the Grant Management Council within the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). The vision was to develop and implement a comprehensive electronic grants system which would streamline the grants business process, increase effectiveness, and cut costs for federal agencies and grant customers. In late 1996 the GITS Board approved the pilot and a system was developed with a grant from the Information Technology Innovation Fund. In early 1997 the Federal Public Key Infrastructure Steering Committee (FPKI) of the GITS Board approved a pilot to evaluate security issues related to conducting grants business over the Internet. A U.S. Electronic Grants System security module was developed with a grant from the FPKI's Key Recovery Demonstration Project (KRDP). The final report on the U.S. Electronic Grants Project may be found at http://fdp3.org/EGFinal.pdf.

DOT's approach was to persuade all the agencies to join in with the U.S. Electronic Grants Project, based on the recommendation in the Access America report. But by 1997 the NSF, NIH and ONR were developing individual efforts in electronic grants. As early as 1986, NSF was developing the concept for a research project to be tested by universities to explore electronic proposal submission capabilities. This project has evolved to what is currently known as FastLane. For a complete history of FastLane, visit https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/a0/about/fastlane_history.htm.

The NIH Commons was first utilized on a development computer platform in November, 1996. This platform was made accessible to 10 grantee organizations who had been selected to assist in the first pilot deployment. This selection was based on participation in a DOE Cooperative Agreement in which NIH was formally involved. For more information about the NIH Commons, visit NIH ERA Status Update.pdf.

The results of the recommendation to expand the U.S. Electronic Grants Project, and in accordance with the Access America report, was the formation of the Interagency Electronic Grants Committee (IAEGC) in June, 1997. The IAEGC's purpose is to coordinate, promote and facilitate the effective use of electronic commerce throughout the federal grants community. The IAEGC is under the sponsorship of the General Services Administration (GSA) Office of Electronic Government - formerly called the Federal Electronic Commerce Program Office (FECPO) (whose mission is to develop a policy framework to support EC, help government agencies find and use the best tools, and spread the most promising ideas across government).

The federal grant enterprise is conducted via numerous programs in 33 federal agencies. Depending on the mission of the agency and the target recipient community, administrative requirements vary from agency to agency, and even program to program within agencies. Therefore, it was logical for agencies to begin focusing on common solutions built on a commitment to common data standards and business practices, and flexible technological options.

The ECC (as originally formed under the Business Practices Working Group and currently referred to as the Research and Related Subcommittee) was included as the subcommittee for research and related agencies and a state and local subcommitee (now named S&L/NP&O; State & Local Government, Non-Profit and Other) was also formed. The ECC contributed their progress to date which included developing a set of data standards for research grants, which became the EDI Transaction Set "X12 194" (standard approved and released for use in January 1997) as well as a long history of working with the research community, including the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP). In addition, the IAEGC developed the Electronic Grants Data Dictionary Policy and Procedures to document the common language of electronic grants processing. The DOT project, NSF FastLane, NIH Commons and the ONR Payment Systems were the primary efforts in electronic grant initiatives during this time. For meeting agendas and subsequent minutes for the IAEGC and its subcommittee, access http://www.financenet.gov/financenet/fed/iaegc/meeting.htm.

The FDP is a cooperative initiative among federal agencies, grantee institutions, and professional organizations. It was established to increase productivity by streamlining the administrative process and minimizing the administrative burden on principal investigators while maintaining effective stewardship of federal funds. As cited in the 1993 NPR report, the FDP, in cooperation with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was recommended as the organizational model and demonstration focus to look at ways of reducing administrative burden. The FDP was the perfect place for electronic research administration initiatives to flourish. In 1995, the FDP expanded to Phase III and broadened its original scope and focus to include electronic research administration reengineered systems and procedures, with increased productivity and decreased administrative burden.

Since June 1996, five FDP task forces have been formed to study specific facets of eRA which include:

• Electronic Notification of Awards - Design a standard electronic dataset to transmit award information.
• Professional Profiles - Design an electronic dataset for static professional data.
• Institutional Profiles - Design an electronic dataset for static institutional information.
• Electronic Routing and Approval Systems - Investigate, design, test and distribute alternative solutions for routing and approval systems.
• Integrated Performance Standards - Identify opportunities to standardize and simplify business rules and performance standards associated with Federal Research Assistance.

In March 1998, the idea of a Federal eRA Commons was proposed jointly to the FDP and the ECC, building on the desires expressed through the FDP and customers for a common face for research grants. As the research agencies discussed this concept within the IAEGC, GSA in particular requested that it be enlarged to include all grants under the concept of the Federal Commons. This meant broadening the project to include not only research grant requirements, but also state and local requirements. Given their electronic grant pilot efforts, the first step was to involve DOT in the discussions. This has resulted in expanding the DOT architecture developed as part of the U.S. Electronic Grants Project, and enabling a Federal grant management portal. The Federal Commons, as this portal, will enable grantee organizations to communicate with the Federal government using various technologies, including Web forms, desktop forms, and data streams (e.g., EDI, HTML, and XML). Regardless of the technology option selected by the grantee, the Federal Commons will ensure that the transaction is communicated to the target agency. For example, a customer could submit an EDI grant application through the Federal Commons to an agency that does not support EDI transactions.

The Federal Commons will provide the focus for agencies to develop common face for electronic grants systems. A common face will facilitate use of these systems by the extramural grants community, as well as allow for more effective use and sharing of resources among agencies. The Federal Commons will clarify agency commitment to common data definitions. It will also clarify which technologies will be supported. It is hoped that this will provide the confidence in the commitment of agencies to introduce a choice of defined technologies acceptable to recipients, and to convey understanding of the technologies required to build complementary electronic grant management systems at their organizations.

The Federal Commons is envisioned as a coordinated network of disparate federal grant administration systems and databases. One way to access the Federal Commons will be a Web-based interface. The Federal Commons Web site will enable grantee organizations (universities, research institutions, small businesses, state and local governments) to become more familiar with grant activities in the participating agencies. In addition, the Federal Commons Web site will include interfaces designed to support secure transmission of administrative information of pre-award and post-award business processes. Each business process user will be provided with options as to how information can be formatted, transmitted and/or received. In response to the burden that would be placed on agencies to support every technology option, the Federal Commons will broker transactions between the grantee community and federal agencies. Agencies participating in the Federal Commons have on a standard format (based on eXtensible Markup Language - XML) to exchange data between the Federal Commons and agency systems. Transactions submitted by grantee organizations to the Federal Commons will be converted to XML documents and communicated to the target agency for processing.

A special domain called http://fedcommons.gov has been established. Initially, this site will provide a demonstration version of the approach to commons business processes. Also, a Federal Commons link the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance will provide links to agency Web sites. Pilot projects have been completed that cover infrastructure aspects as follows: organizational registration, user registration, application status query, organizational profile and professional profile. Following the initial deployment, an assessment report will be written. The report will address the following topics: key technology accomplishments, results of testing with customers, recommendations regarding architecture and software tools, and future tasks. It is fully expected to be a blueprint for the future of electronic grants administration. With your continued help and input we will build a true common face approach to grants.

In October of 1998, the Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA) was signed into law. GPEA seeks to "preclude agencies or courts from systematically treating electronic documents and signatures less favorably than their paper counterparts" so that citizens can interact with the Federal government electronically. By October 21, 2003 agencies are required to provide the option of submitting information electronically.

The Act requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget:

• in providing direction and overseeing the acquisition and use of information technology, to include alternative information technologies that provide for electronic submission, maintenance, or disclosure of information as a substitute for paper and for the use and acceptance of electronic signatures;

• to develop procedures for the use and acceptance of electronic signatures by executive agencies;

• to ensure that, within five years, executive agencies provide for the option of electronic maintenance, submission or disclosure of information as a substitute for paper and for the use and acceptance of electronic signatures, when practicable;

• to develop procedures to permit private employers to store and file electronically with executive agencies forms containing information pertaining to employees; and

• in cooperation with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, to conduct and report to Congress on an ongoing study of the use of electronic signatures on paperwork reduction and electronic commerce, individual privacy, and the security and authenticity of transactions.

On April 25, 2000, OMB issued a memorandum providing guidance on implementing the GPEA. This memorandum stated that agencies must submit a copy of their plan to implement the requirements of the Act to OMB by October 2000. On July 25, 2000 a memorandum for Chief Information Officers was released that provided guidance on what was to be included in each plan. The plan's contents should include the following:

• a brief cover letter on agency's overall strategy and efforts to comply with the Act;
• agency's plan for Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) collections;
• agency's plan for interagency reporting, information dissemination activities, and other agency identified transactions; and
• agency's plan for identifying any high risk transactions.

Due to the sharp increase of eRA activities, FDP formed the eRA Standing Committee in December 1998. The committee's mission is to:

• Serve as umbrella entity to eRA related task groups
• Furnish guidelines for eRA development
• Provide faculty perspective regarding eRA initiatives
• Establish and maintain relationships with other organizations’ eRA initiatives
• Establish and maintain relationships with the IAEGC and its subcommittees (R&R, Federal Commons); and
• Coordinate presentations.

While:

• Maximizing standards of input by maintaining the notion of objectivity through an honest broker role (stepping outside university/federal position and using a holistic viewpoint).
• Providing a bridging role to all other stakeholders (speak all languages to help eliminate communication gaps).

In November 1999, the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999, more commonly known as Public Law 106-107, was signed into law and in 11 short sections seeks to:

• improve the effectiveness and performance of Federal financial assistance programs;
• simplify Federal financial assistance application and reporting requirements;
• improve the delivery of services to the public; and
• facilitate greater coordination among those responsible for delivering such services.

Congress has established an 18 months time frame to carry out these actions (May 20, 2001). While the President signed this bill into law and so shares the responsibility, it should be noted that he did so reluctantly, citing the short time frame for implementation and the lack of funding.

According to the law, the use of a "common application and reporting system" is mandated. As previously noted, one of the objectives of the Federal Commons is to provide the common face to Federal research-related grant making, thus becoming an umbrella system for submission technology alternatives available to the research community. Hence, the Federal Commons is the logical system of choice for the 106-107 mandate.

The law further mandates that the Director of OMB "coordinate, and assist Federal agencies" while also permitting the Director to "designate a lead agency to assist." OMB chose to designate an organization to lead the Public Law 106-107 process. That organization is the General and Policy Oversight arm of the Grants Management Committee (George Strader (HHS) is the chair) of the Chief Financial Officer's Council. The General and Policy Oversight group is co-chaired by Joe Kull (OMB) and Charlie Gale (HHS).

The General and Policy Oversight group is divided into four subgroups. The groups and their attendant areas of focus are:

1. Pre-award - Chaired by Mark Herbst (DoD)
   • Streamlining application forms
   • Terms and conditions
   • Debarment and suspension
2. Post-award - Chaired by Rick Noll (NSF)
   • Streamline reporting requirements and procedures
   • Joint Financial Management Improvement Program (JFMIP) document
   • Cost principles
   • Pooled payments
   • Use of Payment Management System (PMS) and Automated Standard Application for Payments (ASAP)
3. Audit Oversight - Chaired by Robert Taylor (DOT)
   • Study of Federal Audit Clearinghouse (FAC)
   • Compliance supplement/guidelines
   • Revise A-133 Data Collection Form for Reporting on Audits of States, local Governments, and Non-Profit Organizations (SF-SAC)
   • FAC Web site
   • Delinquent single audits
4. Electronic - Co-Chaired by Beth Phillips (HHS/IAEGC) and Brad Stanford (DoD/IAEGC)
   • Common application, administrative and reporting system - the Federal Commons
   • Grantee information collection and sharing

With respect to implementation it is also essential to note that OMB has notified Congress that the 18 month deadline specified in the law will be interpreted to be the deadline for the submission of agency plans, not the deadline for the implementation of those plans. You can track the progress of these groups at: http://www.financenet.gov/financenet/fed/cfo/grants/grants.htm.

On December 17, 1999, the President released "Electronic Government," a memorandum for the heads of executive departments and agencies. The directive of the memorandum was for executive departments and agencies, in conjunction with the private sector as appropriate, to help citizens gain one-stop access to existing government information and services, and to provide better, more efficient, government services and increased government accountability.