Federal Agencies Rely on University Scientists and Agency Web Sites to Disseminate Research Results

Federal agencies rely primarily on the university scientists who receive  research grants to make their research results available to the public. Agriculture,  Defense, Energy, EPA, and NASA also disseminate the results of the  research they fund by posting scientists’ final technical reports on their  Web sites, and Education is considering whether to post research results. Agencies Rely on and Encourage Grant Recipients to Make Research Results Available

The eight agencies we examined rely on university scientists to disseminate  the results of the research they fund, and their policies explicitly encourage  principal investigators and universities to disseminate those results  through presentations at scientific conferences and publishing in scientific  journals. Most of the  agency officials told us that posting technical reports on agencies’ Web  sites is an effective way to share information among scientists in the field  of research, as well as with the public. According to NIH officials, the risk associated with posting results  that have not been scrutinized and validated by peer review is simply too  great in the biomedical field. While 87 percent of our survey respondents reported  that all of their federally funded research is covered by financial conflict of  interest policies that are consistent with either NIH’s or NSF’s standards, 17  universities—including 5 universities in the University of California  system—reported that they do not extend either the NIH or the NSF  financial conflicts of interest requirements to cover research grants funded  by other federal agencies. To safeguard against bias in the design, conduct, or reporting of federally  funded research, we recommend that the National Science and Technology  Council coordinate the development of uniform federal requirements for  universities and other funding recipients to identify and resolve financial  conflicts of interest. The NIH and NSF standards provide a useful starting  point for this requirement. To assess agencies’ actions to ensure that universities implement  policies for identifying and managing possible financial conflicts of  interest, we examined whether each agency has regulations or policies  requiring that universities identify and manage possible financial  conflicts of interest. In addition to our review of federal agencies’ actions, we conducted a Web- based survey of the 200 universities and colleges that received the most  federal research funding in fiscal year 2000. The survey contained 42  questions that asked about (1) their policies and procedures for ensuring  that federally funded research results are made available to the public, (2)  their views of the advantages and disadvantages of posting a grant’s final  technical report to the agency’s Web site, (3) their conflict of interest and  financial disclosure policies, (4) any FOIA requests federal agencies had  received that asked for access to research data, and (5) data on their  research funding and technology transfer activities. These agencies included Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Education, EPA, the  National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and NIH.
Why GAO Did This Study

In fiscal year 2001, federal agencies provided $19 billion for university research, a vital part of the nation's research and development effort. GAO was asked to examine federal agencies' actions to ensure that (1) the results of the university research grants they fund are made available to the public and (2) universities receiving such grants implement policies for identifying and managing possible financial conflicts of interest. GAO reviewed the actions of eight federal agencies and conducted a Web-based survey of 200 leading research universities (refer to GAO-04-223SP). GAO also met with officials in the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to discuss the National Science and Technology Council's role in coordinating federal science policy.

What GAO Found

Each of the eight federal agencies GAO examined relies on university scientists who receive federally funded research grants to make the results available to the public. Although university scientists customarily seek to publish their research results in peer-reviewed journals, agencies cannot require such publication as a condition for funding because it is impossible to ensure in advance that the results will be accepted for publication. Agencies do, however, explicitly encourage funding recipients to make results public. The Departments of Agriculture, Defense, and Energy; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) also disseminate the results of their funded research by posting them on their Web sites. Officials from these agencies said that posting the results is an effective way to share information among scientists, as well as with the public. In contrast, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) do not post research results on their Web sites. According to NIH officials, the risk associated with posting researchers' final reports before they have been validated by peer review is too great in the biomedical field. The Department of Education is considering how best to widely disseminate the results of research it funds. NIH and NSF are the only federal agencies that require universities to implement policies for identifying and managing possible financial conflicts of interest for the research they fund. The other six agencies do not have financial conflict of interest standards for university research grants. Of the 171 universities that responded to the GAO survey, 148 (87 percent) reported that all of their federally funded research is covered by financial conflict of interest policies that are consistent with either NIH's or NSF's standards. However, 17 universities reported that they do not extend either agency's requirements to cover research grants from other federal agencies. Unless federal agencies uniformly require that universities implement conflict of interest policies, the government cannot properly safeguard against financial conflicts of interest that might bias federally funded research.