A new circular for Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards has been published by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Known as the Omni-Circular, A-81 supersedes and streamlines requirements from eight OMB circulars, including A-21, A-110 and A-133.

For the past year, the DOR Office of Contracts and Grants has collaborated with the Council On Governmental Relations (COGR) to review the then draft circular. COGR incorporated many of our recommendations and items of concern, as well as those of other universities, and submitted them to the OMB.

Dr. Rathindra N. Bose, Vice Chancellor and Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer, has created a taskforce to evaluate our current grant managements policies and procedures.

The new guidelines will become the foundation from which our research should be administered beginning with awards issued on or after December 26, 2014. It should be noted that most items in A-81 result in no material changes to our processes; those that do are being revised to follow this new guidance.

If you have questions, please contact David Schultz.