Review of Disability and Rehabilitation Research NIDRR Grantmaking Processes and Products (2012) / Chapter Skim
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5 Grant Management
5 Grant Management
Pages 128-157
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manages grants through its agency structure and processes, the planning and budgetary processes used by grantees in managing their grants to promote high-quality outputs, and how NIDRR's grant monitoring efforts facilitate grantees' planning and budgetary processes. Corresponding to Key Question #5, the second section summarizes information from grantees concerning how their research and development outputs have been used to inform new projects and collaborations, as well as how NIDRR 128
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GRANT MANAGEMENT PROCESSES To address the planning and budgetary processes used by grantees, it is necessary to examine these grantee-level processes and associated requirements in the larger context of the structure and processes that support grant management at NIDRR and to obtain the perspectives of both NIDRR grantees and NIDRR staff. To these ends, the committee reviewed existing documentation on NIDRR's grant management and monitoring processes, interviewed NIDRR management to gather additional information about the processes,1 collected information from principal investigators about the processes they use for managing grants, and interviewed NIDRR staff to obtain their perspectives on how grant monitoring facilitates grantees' efforts to manage their grants for successful results.
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Fiscal monitoring As part of the monitoring process, NIDRR project officers pay particular attention to grantees' fiscal activities (U.S. Department of Education, 2009)
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Monitoring of at-risk grants The processes described above pertain to routine monitoring of grants. In response to a recent ED initiative, NIDRR is instituting a new process for identifying grants at risk of failure to comply with program requirements, reach performance goals, comply with grant administration and financial management requirements, and/or account for past performance (National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, 2010)
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Strategies for monitoring at-risk grants, used as needed and in consultation with NIDRR management, include conducting formative reviews; establishing performance targets; scheduling regular, frequent written or oral updates; conducting site visits; changing the status of a grant to a cooperative agreement; and delaying continuation awards (National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, 2010)
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Consensus Views Except for new product development projects and complex multicenter studies, grantees reported that the current NIDRR requirements for planning, project management, and budgeting generally helped ensure quality outputs. Several commented on the positive trend in changes to the requirements over the years.
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The variety of the projects resulted in a range of management complexity, from a single action on small individual grants (e.g., Switzer) -- writing one check to the university that oversaw the dispersal of salary funds -- to highly complex protocols for larger center grants requiring complex management and fidelity in implementation across many sites for success.
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When asked specifically about what procedures grantees used to ensure that only NIDRR funds were used to fund NIDRR activities in jointly funded projects, only three grantees indicated the use of joint funding. One grantee reported working with the NIDRR project officer to ensure that there was no double billing of time.
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Following are some of the points made: Interactions with NIDRR project officers • -- The attitude (high standards and emphasis on quality) of the NIDRR project officer has the greatest impact on quality (based on experience with three project officers)
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. To learn more about this important interface between NIDRR's grant monitoring processes and grantees' management of their grants, 16 NIDRR project staff were interviewed in person and asked a series of open-ended questions about their activities and specific questions that related to grantee 2 In addition to grant monitoring, project officers have duties related to peer review and prior ity setting (covered in other chapters of this report)
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They commented that limited travel funds have not permitted sufficient on-site monitoring for grants that require higher levels of technical assistance. This observation is confirmed in the NIDRR Fiscal Year 2011 Grant Monitoring Plan (National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, 2010)
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In addition, staff commented that parts of their regular staff meetings are being used to consult about grants that present special monitoring challenges. Conclusions and Recommendations Related to Grant Management Processes To address the key study question of what planning and budgetary processes are used by grantees to promote high-quality outputs, the committee considered these grantee-level processes in the larger context of NIDRR's structure and processes that support grant management.
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On the whole, it appears that grantees appreciate aspects of NIDRR's grant management processes that facilitate their own grant management strategies. Grantees commented that NIDRR's detailed proposal requirements facilitate their planning, that NIDRR builds output development into the planning by means of the postaward conference, that the APR helps grantees adhere to both the budget and the time frame for a project, that the quarterly reports facilitate quality assurance, and that NIDRR project officers with high standards and an emphasis on quality contribute to successful grant results.
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In particular, NIDRR should consider the following: • h ow the timing of grant applications and notification impact the planning and quality of grant implementation and indirectly the quality of outputs subsequently produced; • m ethods NIDRR staff can use when monitoring large multiproject grant budgets to identify project-level variation that could be im pacting the overall grant budget (e.g., personnel costs) ; • t he need for improved communication between project officers and other NIDRR planning staff who have more access to financial information; • m ore focused reporting in the APR on new product development, stages of output development, and how the work of grants is bring ing effective and practical new services and/or devices to the field or to the market; • m ethods for capturing information on outputs produced at the end, or shortly after the end, of grants so the quality and impact of these products can be assessed; • t he need for more consistency across project officers in the schedule of grantee reporting between APRs; and • t he extent to which new project officers are trained to promote consistency in expectations regarding standards of quality.
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. The specific question asked of grantees was: Have the results of the research and development outputs from this grant, or your prior NIDRR grants, been used to inform the development of new grant applications or other kinds of projects?
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Annex 5-1 at the end of this chapter contains a table with more detail about the nature of the new projects generated from existing NIDRR grants. That table is organized by type of NIDRR program mechanism and separates the grants into rows within the program mechanisms.
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Two respondents stated that their grants had come to an end point because on one a long-standing question had been successfully addressed, and on the other that there was no opportunity to propose further work in his specific line of research as an independent researcher. A third respondent stated that the study was still in the grant cycle but was fully expected to inform the development of new grant applications and projects; the fourth offered no explanation.
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This information is obtained from NIDRR project officers, from the APR system, from state-of-the-science conferences organized by center grants, and from other grantee meetings during the year. Knowledge dissemination and transfer is at the core of NIDRR's logic model.
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Tracing the pathway of grants and outputs would be helpful in answering questions about NIDRR's impact. REFERENCES National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.
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" refers to grant applications/proposals that have not, or not as yet, been funded.
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funding to study the efficacy and D (DRRP) effectiveness of a telephone-based problem-solving treatment in service members after deployment; the study uses a detailed, scripted, and modular intervention focusing on problem-solving treatment and behavioral activation and involves collaborating with two military bases and a separate data center • se of lessons learned from this study and successful single-center U studies
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149 GRANT MANAGEMENT Types of Projects Basis for Application conference of output to New grant or new agenda Collaboration other projects Commercialization X X X X X X X X X*
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major private corporate foundations to continue the grant's work • preliminary research framework on advancing economic self A sufficiency for people with disabilities led to the development of curriculum and training programs in six states and funding from state developmental disability councils and Medicaid Infrastructure grants • n an annual basis, the $300,000 from NIDRR was leveraged to O support program development, additional research, expansion of financial service options, and an inclusive economic empowerment model in more than 100 cities • newsletter, which is received by more than 20,000 individuals in A the disability community monthly, has received additional support from multiple private foundations to help expand its reach • IDRR funding has led to new funding from the Social Security N Administration, the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Assets for Independence Act, and the Department of the Treasury • he principal investigator on the project has become the chair of T a work group within an important consortium that involves more than 750 community groups, financial institutions, government agencies, and businesses that are working together to advance new options for financial stability and mobility for working-age adults with disabilities Grant 6 • ew NIDRR grant for a Rehabilitation Research and Training N (Field Initiated Center Project [FIP]
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151 GRANT MANAGEMENT Types of Projects Basis for Application conference of output to New grant or new agenda Collaboration other projects Commercialization X X X X X X X X X X X continued
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study • elp in funding a research utilization conference H • everaged a Fulbright Scholar grant for an international data L analysis • pplied the approach to other issues, such as a comparative A effectiveness study of hip and knee replacement rehabilitation in skilled nursing facilities and inpatient rehabilitation facilities • sed the same study design for a new NIDRR-funded study U Grant 11 • his grant application arose as part of a Traumatic Brain Injury T (FIP) Model System (TBIMS)
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153 GRANT MANAGEMENT Types of Projects Basis for Application conference of output to New grant or new agenda Collaboration other projects Commercialization X X*
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both commercial and research projects involving more than 100 different partners in more than a dozen countries totaling more than $50 million • he virtual assistive technology work has evolved into an T international collaborative effort involving more than 40 partners on every continent except Antarctica and has influenced grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) , NIDRR, the Canadian government, and the European Commission, among others • he work on accessibility guidelines has influenced policy T throughout the world and led to a large number of research and development projects internationally • he work on interfaces was used to inform the development of one T of the project areas in the current RERC • he cross-disability interface work has influenced both federal T regulations and commercial product design • he user needs work has influenced international policy and T standards design • he grant's work led to follow-up work, including an invention T that allows people with "locked in" syndrome (which paralyzes the body, except for the eyes, but leaves the mind alert)
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155 GRANT MANAGEMENT Types of Projects Basis for Application conference of output to New grant or new agenda Collaboration other projects Commercialization X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X continued
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funded for a follow-up study by DOD, and is working with two military bases and a separate data center Grant 23 • pplied for DOD funding; awaiting reply but still collaborating A (Traumatic Brain with TBIMS and Spinal Cord Injury Model System (SCIMS) Injury Model centers on this study System [TBIMS]
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157 GRANT MANAGEMENT Types of Projects Basis for Application conference of output to New grant or new agenda Collaboration other projects Commercialization X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X*
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