DOE Compliance

Current & Pending Support and Biosketches

Current and Pending Support and Biosketches must be provided for all Senior Personnel. 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.

Current & Pending Support

(NEW) On June 1, 2022, the Department of Energy issued FAL Department of Energy Current and Pending Support Disclosure Requirements for Financial Assistance, directing program officers to implement new disclosure requirements for DOE and NNSA awards. Program officers will implement the provisions in new funding announcements effective immediately.

Note that the FAL is not applicable to financial assistance agreements that exclusively fund conferences, workshops, and other technical meetings.

Note, Section A of the FAL states: "In addition to current and pending support, DOE/NNSA program offices may also require disclosure of past support." And also that "Disclosure of past support may be unnecessary in basic and fundamental research that leads to publications and other forms of scholarly communication."

The new provisions include PI certification about the completeness and accuracy of current and pending support, disclosure of past support on an as-needed basis as required in new funding opportunity announcements (FOAs), and a reminder about the requirement to disclose participation in foreign talent recruitment programs.

Current and Pending Support is intended to allow DOE to identify potential duplication, overcommitment, potential conflicts of interest or commitment, and all other sources of support. The Principal Investigator (PI), each senior/key person at Caltech, and any proposed sub-award must include all sponsored activities, awards, and appointments, whether:

• paid or unpaid;
• gift funds to Caltech of any kind, whether or not they include terms or conditions;
• full-time, part-time, or voluntary;
• 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.

Review program solicitations carefully for variations and program-specific requirements.

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. You may also be required to describe the research being performed and explicitly identify any overlaps or synergies with the proposed research.

Details of any obligations, contractual or otherwise, to any program, entity, or organization sponsored. Supporting documents of any identified source of support must be provided to DOE on request, including certified translations of any document.

(NEW) Each current and pending support disclosure must be signed and dated and include the following certification statement:

I, [Full Name and Title], certify to the best of my knowledge and belief that the information contained in this Current and Pending Support Disclosure Statement is true, complete, and accurate. I understand that any false, fictitious, or fraudulent information, misrepresentations, half -truths, or omissions of any material fact, may subject me to criminal, civil or administrative penalties for fraud, false statements, false claims or otherwise. (18 U.S.C. §§ 1001 and 287, and 31 U.S.C. 3729-3733 and 3801-3812). I further understand and agree that (1) the statements and representations made herein are material to DOE's funding decision, and (2) I have a responsibility to update the disclosures during the period of performance of the award should circumstances change which impact the responses provided above.

If the fillable PDF NSF format is used, the individual must still include a signature, date, and a certification statement using the language included in the paragraph above. If the online version is used in SciENcv, a signature, date, and a certification statement must be attached until the SciENcv website automatically attaches a certification statement.

DOE references:

FAL Department of Energy Current and Pending Support Disclosure Requirements for Financial Assistance (June 2022)

Office of Science, or p. 99 of the FY 2021 Solicitation

Biosketch

A biosketch provides 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. 98 of the FY 2021 Solicitation