8.0 PROJECT FUNDING AND GRANTS ADMINISTRATION
8.1 Guidelines for Technical ProjectsThe EWRI GB must provide advance approval of all projects. These guidelines apply to funding and administration for technical projects with total costs greater than $10,000. Funded technical projects may originate from within a committee or may be initiated by EWRI staff in consultation with the funding agency. Projects may be funded by governmental agencies, institutions of higher learning, associations, or private organizations.
Projects normally lead to, but are not necessarily restricted to, the following activities and products:
- Manuals of practice and design guidelines
- Codes, standards and commentaries
- Conferences, symposia, workshops, and advisory panels (information transfer)
8.1.2 Justification of Projects
Projects must be justifiable in terms of the importance of the problem they address and the likelihood that the project will contribute materially to the solution. The following items are to be considered:
- National or local and professional, need, priority, and impact
- Funding source potentials
- Relevance to the EWRI mission
There may be no organizational or personal conflicts of interest. Areas of potential conflicts to be avoided are:
- Competition with individual EWRI members or their organizations. To demonstrate the absence of such conflicts, EWRI should show a collective effort of unique qualifications not readily found elsewhere.
- Steering committee members or reviewers serving as contractors on the same project.
- Financial benefit to a member of the council/committee developing the project (or the member's organization).
8.2 The Grant Development Process
The grant development process within EWRI is as follows:
- An opportunity is brought to the attention of the EWRI GB by an EWRI member, an ExCom, council or staff.
- After informing the GB members, the EWRI President assigns the responsibility for developing a project proposal to the appropriate ExCom, which in turn appoints a subcommittee that includes the EWRI Director and other appropriate individuals.
- The subcommittee evaluates the feasibility of the project in terms of need, priority and impact of the project; potential funding sources; relevance to the EWRI mission; the potential for conflicts of interest and the availability of appropriate expertise to complete the project.
- If the subcommittee determines the project to be feasible, the subcommittee drafts a preliminary proposal (scope of work, schedule, staffing, level of effort estimate and potential funding sources) for review by the EWRI GB.
- If the EWRI GB approves the preliminary proposal, EWRI staff submits it to ASCE’s Department of Grants and Contracts (DGC), which subsequently presents it to ASCE’s Committee on Project Evaluation (SCOPE) for endorsement of ASCE’s leadership.
- Upon SCOPE’s approval, the EWRI Finance Committee develops project costs and completes the draft proposal, working with DGC to apply overhead in the appropriate percentage as justified by the most recent ASCE’s Federal Government audit.
- The EWRI President appoints a peer review committee to review the draft proposal and recommend revisions where appropriate.
- Following the peer review, the EWRI President initiates preliminary discussions with potential funding sources.
- If the peer review committee evaluation and preliminary discussions with the potential funding source(s) are positive, the EWRI GB approves the revised proposal.
- DGC submits the proposal to the funding organization(s), and coordinates with the EWRI President.
- DGC accepts the award on behalf of EWRI and, subject to the concurrence of ASCE legal counsel, executes an Agreement with the funding source.
- DGC executes subcontracts with any external organizations participating in the project.
A representative of Department of Grants and Contracts (DGC) staff, jointly appointed by EWRI Director and the Director of DGC, shall function as Project Manager and be responsible to the EWRI Director for fiscal matters and to the project steering committee for technical matters. Project financial management, including the development of subcontract documents and the issuance of invoices and payments, will be the responsibility of the Project Manager, with feedback and approval from EWRI Director. Project technical administration, including the submission of progress reports to the funding source, will also be the responsibility of the Project Manager. The Project Manager will work closely with the appropriate ExCom (Institute Operations or Technical Activities) acting in whole or through a subcommittee as the project steering committee. Any outside subcontractor selection process will be conducted by the project steering committee in accord with guidelines set forth by the EWRI GB.
A peer review committee consisting of at least three persons, the majority of whom should be EWRI members, must be appointed by the EWRI President to perform technical review of any funded project. This committee may consist of the same individuals who preformed the peer review on the original proposal.
