The document summarizes a presentation from the June 2013 Council on Government Relations (COGR) meeting, led by Jeremy Leffler and Dr. Lisa Nichols, focusing on the work of the National Science Board’s (NSB) Task Force on Administrative Burdens. The Task Force, established in December 2012, was charged with examining the administrative workloads imposed on federally funded researchers at U.S. higher education and nonprofit institutions, and recommending strategies for alleviation where appropriate. Their scope included the inventory and interpretation of regulatory and reporting requirements, with particular attention to the harmonization and streamlining of agency demands to remove redundant or ineffective regulations.
The presentation details extensive engagement with stakeholders such as federal agencies, accrediting organizations, and research-focused bodies like the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP). Key activities included reviews of workload surveys, roundtable discussions at major universities, and solicitation of feedback from the research community. Main areas identified as problematic included financial management, proposal preparation, progress reporting, Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) compliance, effort reporting, and redundant agency requests. Survey responses indicated substantial time investments by investigators in administrative tasks, particularly in proposal preparation. The task force aimed to synthesize its findings and issue a comprehensive public report with recommendations for federal agencies, with the ultimate goal of improving research efficiency and reducing unnecessary administrative burdens.
