Abstract

US Federal Funding is a complex, bureaucratic, and risk-averse landscape. Moreover, geopolitics is progressively impacting research funding in the US, and this is resulting in an alarming wave of new compliance requirements for non-US ‘foreign organizations’. International research support offices are often under-resourced and ill-equipped to deal with changing Federal compliance regulations. This leaves our institutions open to severe penalties, or intense monitoring by funding agencies and US Pass-Through Entities (prime award recipients).

This session brings together knowledge from experts in US Federal funding: both in pre-award and post-award support, and from the university and private sectors. It will explain some key compliance pitfalls that non-US institutions regularly fall into. It will offer practical advice and guidance in preparing institutions to support US Federal grants: e.g., registering entities in SAM.gov, subrecipient monitoring, financial reporting, and Federal audits. It will explain recent changes in the Uniform Guidance, describe how funding agencies are responding to Federal government mandates like the National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33), and offer solutions for managing increased monitoring like, for example, the NIH’s revised policy for non-US subaward recipients.

This will be a targeted session for Research Managers working in international pre- and post-award research funding. It aims to equip them with the tools needed to de-risk their institutions’ Federal funding portfolios. It will help them diversify their institutions’ funding portfolios by empowering them with the skills and knowledge to effectively manage US Federal awards – from proposal development to closeout. In doing so, it will defuse some of the most complex issues we face when supporting funding proposals to US Federal sponsors.