Grants Blog

Archive for May, 2010

The federal government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is circulating a proposed job classification series that would specify and standardize the use of the job title “Grants Management Specialist.”

Federal law requires OPM to establish official position titles to include a basic title (e.g., Grants Management Specialist) and optional titles such as “lead” or “supervisor”. Agencies must use the official position titles for human resources management, budget, and fiscal purposes.

According to the draft, the so-called Grants Management Series 1109 would include positions which “manage, supervise, lead, or perform administrative business and analytical work involving: (1) the management, award, and obligation of funds for federal assistance such as grants, cooperative agreements, and other related assistance and services using financial, administrative, business, and negotiation procedures; (2) the competitive or non-competitive evaluation of grants proposals; and (3) the administration or termination, and closeout of grants.”

The draft then goes on to list nearly 20 typical job duties of a grants management specialist.

You can read the full draft job classification here.

Comments may be submitted until June 25 to fedclass@opm.gov.

The Department of Health and Human Services is planning to overhaul its researcher financial conflict of interest regulations and is inviting public comment on the proposed changes.

Among other things, the changes would expand the scope and coverage of the regulations, amend the definition of “significant financial interest”, expand research institutions’ responsibilities for identifying and managing conflicts of interest, and strengthen the federal government’s oversight roles and responsibilities.

The conflict of interest regulations are intended to help ensure that there is no bias in the design, conduct, or reporting of government-funded research due to financial relationships between researchers and the private sector. But with the growing inter-relationship between academia, government, researchers, and the private sector, HHS said there is a need to revamp the regulations. According to HHS, financial support of biomedical research increased from $37.1 billion in 1994 to $94.3 billion in 2003, and more than half of the funding in 2003 came from industry sources. At the same time, relationships between academic researchers and industry have also increased from 28% in a 1996 survey to 53% in 2007.

You can view the full Federal Register notice by clicking here. The notice includes information on how to submit comments, which are due July 20.

The Office of Management and Budget has issued yet even more guidance aimed at stepping up recipient reporting under the Recovery Act. And this time, the memo directs federal agencies to take very specific steps to enforce compliance.

Memo 10-17, issued May 4, details five specific steps awarding agencies must take and sets specific deadlines for doing so. Nothing in the memo is especially new, but the fact that OMB included deadlines for agency actions is noteworthy. In summary, federal agencies must notify their recipients of the reporting requirements, contact and report on those entities that don’t comply, enhance oversight for persistently noncompliant grantees, and enforce compliance through all means available to them.

If you want to read the details of the memo, click here.