Competition: Issues on Establishing and Using Federally Funded Research and Development Centers
NSIAD-88-22
Published: Mar 07, 1988. Publicly Released: Mar 07, 1988.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the national defense role of federally funded research and development centers (FFRDC), specifically: (1) the relationships of FFRDC with their sponsoring agencies; (2) compliance with government-wide policy on establishing and placing work with FFRDC; and (3) exemption of FFRDC from competitive procurement requirements.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should implement a program to test the use of Broad Agency Announcements to determine whether the use of such announcements improves its ability to assess whether some non-FFRDC can collaborate meaningfully with FFRDC to pursue Department of Defense (DOD) research goals. If Broad Agency Announcements prove useful, they should be made a permanent part of the FFRDC program. |
A draft plan to strengthen DOD control over FFRDC it sponsors was prepared in 1991 in place of the proposed directive. As of March 1991, this plan was being reviewed by senior DOD management. The proposed plan does not directly address the recommendation and, as far as GAO knows, DOD has no plans to do so.
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Competitive procurementIrregular procurementResearch and development contractsResearch and development facilitiesMilitary forcesResearch and developmentProcurementLogisticsSoftware engineeringEngineering