Complying with Department of Energy Policy
Limits on Participation in Certain Foreign Talent Recruitment Programs
On June 7, 2019, DOE issued Order No. 486.1, which requires those performing work on DOE contracts to disclose fully and, as necessary, terminate affiliations with foreign government-supported talent recruitment programs from countries deemed by DOE to be high risk (China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea). Talent recruitment programs are defined to include "foreign-state-sponsored attempt(s) to acquire US scientific-funded research or technology through foreign government-run or funded recruitment programs that target scientists, engineers, academics, researchers, and entrepreneurs of all nationalities working or educated in the United States.
In conjunction with this foreign talent program prohibition for DOE contractors, new quarterly reporting relating to senior or key personnel has been imposed.
Although this directive currently applies to DOE contracts, it is expected that the ban on participating in foreign talent recruitment programs may be extended to cooperative agreements and grants in the future.
COMPLETING GRANT APPLICATIONS
Current & Pending Support and Biosketches
Current and Pending Support and Biosketches must be provided for all senior personnel and faculty associates. The term "senior personnel" includes:
(Co)Principal Investigator(s) - the individual(s) designated by the grantee and approved by DOE who will be responsible for the project's scientific or technical direction. If more than one, the first one listed will have primary responsibility for the project and the submission of reports.
Faculty Associate (faculty member) - an individual other than the Principal Investigator(s) considered by the performing institution to be a member of its faculty or who holds an appointment as a faculty member at another institution and who will participate in the project.
Current & Pending Support
Current and Pending support is intended to allow the identification of potential duplication, overcommitment, potential conflicts of interest or commitment, and all other sources of support.
The PI and each senior/key person at the prime applicant and any proposed subaward must provide a list of all sponsored activities, awards, and appointments, whether paid or unpaid;
- provided as a gift with terms or conditions or provided as a gift without terms or conditions;
- fulltime, part-time, or voluntary positions;
- faculty, visiting, adjunct, or honorary;
- cash or in-kind;
- foreign or domestic;
- governmental or private-sector;
directly supporting the individual's research or indirectly supporting the individual by supporting students, research staff, space, equipment, or other research expenses.
All foreign government-sponsored talent recruitment programs must be identified in current and pending support.
The DOE Office of Science requires the use of the format approved by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which may be generated by the Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv), a cooperative venture maintained at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sciencv/, and is also available at https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/nsfapprovedformats/cps.pdf. The use of a format required by another agency is intended to reduce the administrative burden to researchers by promoting the use of common formats.
For every activity, list the following items:
- The sponsor of the activity or the source of funding
- The award or other identifying number
- The title of the award or activity. If the title of the award or activity is not descriptive, add a brief description of the research being performed that would identify any overlaps or synergies with the proposed research.
- The total cost or value of the award or activity, including direct and indirect costs. For pending proposals, provide the total amount of requested funding.
- The award period (start date – end date).
- The person-months of effort per year being dedicated to the award or activity
If required to identify overlap, duplication of effort, or synergistic efforts, append a description of the other award or activity to the current and pending support.
Details of any obligations, contractual or otherwise, to any program, entity, or organization sponsored.
Review the solicitation carefully for program-specific requirements.
DOE references:
Office of Science, or p. 91 of the FY 2021 Solicitation
EERE – Energy Efficiency & Renewal Energy
ARPA-E
Biosketch
A biosketch is to provide information that can be used by reviewers to evaluate the PI's potential for leadership within the scientific community. Examples of information of interest are invited and/or public lectures, awards received, scientific program committees, conference or workshop organization, professional society activities, special international or industrial partnerships, reviewing or editorship activities, or other scientific leadership experiences.
The DOE Office of Science requires the use of the format approved by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which may be generated by the Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv), a cooperative venture maintained at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sciencv/, and is also available at https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/nsfapprovedformats/cps.pdf. The use of a format required by another agency is intended to reduce the administrative burden to researchers by promoting the use of common formats.
The biographical information (curriculum vitae) must include the following items within its page limit:
- Education and Training: Undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral training, provide institution, major/area, degree and year.
- Research and Professional Experience: Beginning with the current position list, in chronological order, professional/academic positions with a brief description.
- Publications: Provide a list of up to 10 publications most closely related to the proposed project. For each publication, identify the names of all authors (in the same sequence in which they appear in the publication), the article title, book or journal title, volume number, page numbers, year of publication, and website address if available electronically. Patents, copyrights and software systems developed may be provided in addition to or substituted for publications. An abbreviated style such as the Physical Review Letters (PRL) convention for citations (list only the first author) may be used for publications with more than 10 authors.
- Synergistic Activities: List no more than 5 professional and scholarly activities related to the effort proposed.
In addition, the biographical sketch must include information to permit DOE to identify individuals who are conflicted with or potentially biased (favorably or unfavorably) against the investigator. Include a section entitled "Identification of Potential Conflicts of Interest or Bias in Selection of Reviewers" that will not count in a page limit. Provide the following information in this section:
- Collaborators and Co-editors: List in alphabetical order all persons, including their current organizational affiliation, who are, or who have been, collaborators or co-authors with you on a research project, book or book article, report, abstract, or paper during the 48 months 92 preceding the submission of this application. For publications or collaborations with more than 10 authors or participants, only list those individuals in the core group with whom the PI interacted on a regular basis while the research was being done. Also, list any individuals who are currently, or have been, co-editors with you on a special issue of a journal, compendium, or conference proceedings during the 24 months preceding the submission of this application. If there are no collaborators or co-editors to report, state "None."
- Graduate and Postdoctoral Advisors and Advisees: List the names and current organizational affiliations of your graduate advisor(s) and principal postdoctoral sponsor(s). Also, list the names and current organizational affiliations of your graduate students and postdoctoral associates.
Personally Identifiable Information: Do not include sensitive and protected personally identifiable information including social security numbers, birthdates, citizenship, marital status, or home addresses. Do not include information that a merit reviewer should not make use of.
Review the solicitation carefully for program-specific requirements.
DOE references:
Office of Science, or p. 91 of the FY 2021 Solicitation
EERE – Energy Efficiency & Renewal Energy
ARPA-E
Agency Communications:
Updating Information for Award
Complying with DOE Policy when Updating Information for Award
Any form – Current & Pending, Biosketch, Facilities
If the Proposal Update seeks information regarding the biosketch or current and pending support, ensure that any new or previously unreported required information is included.
Research Performance Progress Report
DOD awards follow different models for annual and final technical reports, and DOD policy does not explicitly address updating current and pending support information during the period of performance.
Nonetheless, all participants on the project (including those who were not paid) must be reported, and countries of foreign participants must be identified.
Refer to award terms and the referenced technical report instructions for further details.