ACTIVITY INDICATORS FOR ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT


NSF Workload Measures

Since the 1980s, both the Foundation's budget levels and the quantity and complexity of its workload have increased dramatically. During this same period, the staffing levels available to manage this workload have remained relatively stable. In FY 1985, the Foundation's budget level was $1.5 billion and it was staffed with 1,173 FTEs. Eleven years later, in FY 1996, NSF's budget level had more than doubled to $3.2 billion, while the FTE level increased by only 2.8% to 1,206. Below, the increases in NSF staff productivity can be seen in specific indicators measuring the number of competitive proposals, award actions, and budget dollars per NSF FTE, as well as administrative dollars as a percent of the NSF budget. NSF maintained its productivity in FY 1996 despite the closing of the agency for more than one month during the two federal government shutdowns.

NSF Workload Measures



Percentage of Proposals Processed within Six Months:

NSF's customer service standard states that NSF will be able to tell applicants whether their proposals have been declined or recommended for funding within six months for 95 percent of proposals. In this category, NSF's performance in FY 1996 was more directly effected by the two federal government shutdowns. The agency is taking steps to improve performance for this indicator in FY 1997 (see FastLane below).



Standard vs. Continuing Grants

NSF has two different mechanisms for making awards for regular research and education projects: 1) Standard grants provide funds in one action to cover all proposed activities for the full duration (generally up to 3 years) of the project. 2) Continuing grants provide funding in increments, one action covers the first year of activity, and additional funding actions are made each year until completion of the project. Standard grants are more efficient administratively because they require only one award action whereas continuing grants require multiple award actions in consecutive years. Standard grants also provide greater management flexibility because they avoid committing funds from future year appropriations, which occurs when continuing grants are utilized. NSF intends to increase the proportion of "standard" grants as opposed to "continuing" grants in an effort to streamline administrative procedures as staffing resources are reduced and budgets remain tight.




Standard and Continuing Grants



Performers

In FY 1996 NSF provided funding to 2,139 academic institutions, small businesses, federally funded research and development centers, and research organizations. The number of businesses and other "non-traditional" organizations receiving NSF awards has increased by 50% since 1991, mainly due to the SBIR Program. This has required additional effort and dedication of resources for pre-award financial and management reviews, outreach and awardee education and additional audit needs. In FY 1996, Research Project Support awards were made to 1,212 institutions; Education and Training awards were made to 1,127 institutions; and Research Facility awards were made to 171 institutions. (Common institutions are counted in each award category.)

Number of Performers



FastLane: Reducing Administrative Burden

Proposal submission and review is the Foundation's central business process. NSF is very concerned about the administrative burden associated with proposal submission and review, and is constantly working to improve this process. The FastLane Project has become a cornerstone in this effort by reengineering all major business transactions between NSF and the research community, and replacing paper based processes with simpler and more efficient electronic ones using the World Wide Web.

FastLane will reduce the administrative burden associated with the proposal and award process for researchers and grantee administrators, for NSF staff, and for the experts who review NSF proposals. The current paper-based process consumes hundreds of thousands of hours in the preparation, submission, and review of proposals. Many of the costs of this process are reimbursed by the government in the form of indirect costs; most of the hours consumed by researchers in this process are hours that could be better spent on research.

Our current indicators focus on the rate of adoption of FastLane by the research community. FastLane has only recently become available to researchers and grantee officials (October 1995). In that short period researchers and grantee officials are using FastLane at an increasing rate each month.

As an initiative utilizing FastLane, NSF's innovative Recognition Awards for the Integration of Research and Education (RAIRE) program has also served as a dramatic prototype for a fully electronic proposal and award process. Proposals, merit reviews and internal NSF documentation were all handled "on-line" and awards will be issued electronically.

Chosen from among 850 nominees in ten categories, the FastLane project was the recipient of the 1996 National Information Infrastructure Award in the government category. The NII Awards were created to recognize today's excellence and tomorrow's opportunities on the national and global information infrastructure. The Government Award honors uses of the information infrastructure to improve the effectiveness of government and increase government's ability to meet citizen needs. Vice President Gore provided his congratulations by stating that "It is through your vision, leadership, and entrepreneurial sprit that the benefits of the Information Superhighway are brought to every sector of the American and global society."

In fiscal year 1997, NSF continues to develop baseline estimates of the time and effort needed for our external customers to complete the administrative requirements for submitting proposals, fulfill reporting requirements, and carry out other grants administration transactions. These estimates will be used to help establish performance indicators for administrative burden. Our goal is to reduce the time and effort associated with these transactions by 50 percent.

FinanceNet: Catalyzing Government Finance

FinanceNet is the Internet's worldwide home for public financial management. FinanceNet began as a concept at the National Performance Review in early 1994 and is now staffed and operated by NSF under memoranda of agreement with agency members of the U.S. Chief Financial Officers Council.

The mission of FinanceNet is to serve as a vehicle and catalyst for continuous improvement and innovation, at all levels of government, in the accountability and stewardship of taxpayer resources by impacting financial management resources, practices, policies and professional standards through the sharing of best practices and dissemination of electronic information.

FinanceNet is the largest government administrative network operating on all Internet service platforms in the world. FinanceNet posts an average of 75 new financial management documents every month, processes over 300 e-mail messages daily and is visited at the rate of nearly 12 million "hits" per year.

FinanceNet's newest Internet endeavor is its leadership role in coordinating the International GovNews Project (IGP). This project is actively supported and promoted by Vice President Al Gore, the National Performance Review and the CFO Council. The International GovNews Project will (1) provide affordable, free and equal access to public government information, and (2) create new feedback channels for free and open dialog between world governments and their publics by creating a new hierarchy (gov.*) on the Internet's Usenet News system. The Project is scheduled for U.S. release in early 1997.


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