2022 NSF Policy Office

Over the years, subawards and subrecipient monitoring have often been the subject of scrutiny at the federal level with a focus on the adequacy of oversight for large amounts of federal dollars passed through to non-federal entities under federal awards.  Through several recent audit reports and other post award activities, the National Science Foundation is noticing a trend in NSF recipients failing to obtain prior written approval from NSF for new subawards and failing to perform and document their assessment subrecipients’ risk and monitor based on the results of the risk assessment, as required by NSF award terms and conditions. During this webinar, the Resolution and Advanced Monitoring branch discussed: 1) stressing the importance of adhering to this award term and condition; 2) sharing the challenges NSF faces when this issue is identified; 3) understanding the challenges pass-through entities face with subawards and subrecipients that may contribute to non-compliance; and 4) identifying possible solutions on improving compliance and preventing disallowance of costs by NSF. The event presentation and on-demand recording are available in our Resource Center.