10 C.F.R. Subpart G—Award Terms Related to Other Administrative Matters
Title 10 - Energy
This subpart addresses administrative matters that do not impose organization-wide requirements on a participant's financial management, property management, or purchasing system. Because an organization does not have to redesign its systems to accommodate award-to-award variations in these requirements, TIAs may differ in the requirements that they specify for a given participant, based on the circumstances of the particular RD&D project. To eliminate needless administrative complexity, the contracting officer should handle some requirements, such as the payment method, in a uniform way for the agreement as a whole. A TIA may provide for: (a) Reimbursement, as described in 10 CFR 600.312(a)(1), if it is an expenditure-based award. (b) Advance payments, as described in 10 CFR 600.312(a)(2), subject to the conditions in 10 CFR 600.312(b)(2)(i) through (iii). (c) Payments based on payable milestones. These are payments made according to a schedule that is based on predetermined measures of technical progress or other payable milestones. This approach relies upon the fact that, as the RD&D progresses throughout the term of the agreement, observable activity will be taking place. The recipient is paid upon the accomplishment of a predetermined measure of progress. A fixed-support TIA must use this payment method (this does not preclude use of an initial advance payment, if there is no alternative to meeting immediate cash needs). Payments based on payable milestones is the preferred method of payment for an expenditure-based TIA if well-defined outcomes can be identified. The procedure and frequency for payment requests depend upon the payment method, as follows: (a) For either reimbursements or advance payments, the TIA must allow recipients to submit requests for payment at least monthly. The contracting officer may authorize the recipients to use the forms or formats described in 10 CFR 600.312(d). (b) If the payments are based on payable milestones, the recipient will submit a report or other evidence of accomplishment to the program official at the completion of each predetermined activity. If the award is an expenditure-based TIA that includes minimum cost sharing percentages for milestones (see 10 CFR 603.570(c)), the recipient must certify in the report that the minimum cost sharing requirement has been met. The contracting officer may approve payment to the recipient after receiving validation from the program manager that the milestone was successfully reached. A TIA must provide that the contracting officer may withhold payments in the circumstances described in 10 CFR 600.312(g), but not otherwise. If an expenditure-based TIA provides for either advance payments or payable milestones, the agreement must require the recipient to: (a) Maintain in an interest-bearing account any advance payments or milestone payment amounts received in advance of needs to disburse the funds for program purposes unless: (1) The recipient receives less than $120,000 in Federal grants, cooperative agreements, and TIAs per year; (2) The best reasonably available interest-bearing account would not be expected to earn interest in excess of $1,000 per year on the advance or milestone payments; or (3) The depository would require an average or minimum balance so high that it would not be feasible within the expected Federal and non-Federal cash resources for the project. (b) Remit annually the interest earned to the contracting officer.
Title 10: Energy
PART 603—TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT AGREEMENTS
Subpart G—Award Terms Related to Other Administrative Matters
§ 603.800 Scope.
Payments
§ 603.805 Payment methods.
§ 603.810 Method and frequency of payment requests.
§ 603.815 Withholding payments.
§ 603.820 Interest on advance payments.
Revision of Budget and Program Plans
§ 603.825 Government approval of changes in plans.
If it is an expenditure-based award, a TIA must require the recipient to obtain the contracting officer's prior approval if there is to be a change in plans that may result in a need for additional Federal funding (this is unnecessary for a fixed-support TIA because the recipient is responsible for additional costs of achieving the outcomes). Other than that, the program official's substantial involvement in the project should ensure that the Government has advance notice of changes in plans.
§ 603.830 Pre-award costs.
Pre-award costs, as long as they are otherwise allowable costs of the project, may be charged to an expenditure-based TIA only with the specific approval of the contracting officer. All pre-award costs are incurred at the recipient's risk (e.g., DOE is not obligated to reimburse the costs if, for any reason, the recipient does not receive an award, or if the award is less than anticipated and inadequate to cover the costs).
Program Income
§ 603.835 Program income requirements.
A TIA must apply the standards of 10 CFR 600.314 for program income that may be generated. The TIA must also specify if the recipient is to have any obligation to the Federal Government with respect to program income generated after the end of the project period (i.e., the period, as established in the award document, during which Federal support is provided).
Intellectual Property
§ 603.840 Negotiating data and patent rights.
(a) The contracting officer must confer with program officials and assigned intellectual property counsel to develop an overall strategy for intellectual property that takes into account inventions and data that may result from the project and future needs the Government may have for rights in them. The strategy should take into account program mission requirements and any special circumstances that would support modification of standard patent and data terms, and should include considerations such as the extent of the recipient's contribution to the development of the technology; expected Government or commercial use of the technology; the need to provide equitable treatment among consortium or team members; and the need for the DOE to engage non-traditional Government contractors with unique capabilities.
(b) Because a TIA entails substantial cost sharing by recipients, the contracting officer must use discretion in negotiating Government rights to data and patentable inventions resulting from the RD&D under the agreements. The considerations in §§603.845 through 603.875 are intended to serve as guidelines, within which there is considerable latitude to negotiate provisions appropriate to a wide variety of circumstances that may arise.
§ 603.845 Data rights requirements.
(a) If the TIA is a cooperative agreement, the requirements at 10 CFR 600.325(d), Rights in data-general rule, apply. The “Rights in Data—General” provision in Appendix A to Subpart D of 10 CFR 600 normally applies. This provision provides the Government with unlimited rights in data first produced in the performance of the agreement, except as provided in paragraph (c) Copyright. However, in certain circumstances, the “Rights in Data—Programs Covered Under Special Protected Data Statutes” provision in Appendix A may apply.
(b) If the TIA is an assistance transaction other than a cooperative agreement, the requirements at 10 CFR 600.325(e), Rights in data—programs covered under special protected data statutes, normally apply. The “Rights in Data—Programs Covered Under Special Data Statutes” provision in Appendix A to Subpart D of 10 CFR 600 may be modified to accommodate particular circumstances (e.g., access to or expanded use rights in protected data among consortium or team members), or to list data or categories of data that the recipient must make available to the public. In unique cases, the contracting officer may negotiate special data rights requirements that vary from those in 10 CFR 600.325. Modifications to the standard data provisions must be approved by intellectual property counsel.
§ 603.850 Marking of data.
To protect the recipient's interests in data, the TIA should require the recipient to mark any particular data that it wishes to protect from disclosure with a specific legend specified in the agreement identifying the data as data subject to use, release, or disclosure restrictions.
§ 603.855 Protected data.
In accordance with law and regulation, the contracting officer must not release or disclose data marked with a restrictive legend (as specified in 603.850) to third parties, unless they are parties authorized by the award agreement or the terms of the legend to receive the data and are subject to a written obligation to treat the data in accordance with the marking.
§ 603.860 Rights to inventions.
(a) The contracting officer should negotiate rights in inventions that represent an appropriate balance between the Government's interests and the recipient's interests.
(1) The contracting officer has the flexibility to negotiate patent rights requirements that vary from that which the Bayh-Dole statute (Chapter 18 of Title 35, U.S.C.) and 42 U.S.C. 2182 and 5908 require. A TIA becomes an assistance transaction other than a cooperative agreement if its patent rights requirements vary from those required by these statutes.
(2) If the TIA is a cooperative agreement, the patent rights provision of 10 CFR 600.325(b) or (c) or 10 CFR 600.136 applies, depending on the type of recipient. Unless a class waiver has been issued under 10 CFR 784.7, it will be necessary for a large, for-profit business to request a patent waiver to obtain title to subject inventions.
(b) The contracting officer may negotiate Government rights that vary from the statutorily-required patent rights requirements described in paragraph (a)(2) of this section when necessary to accomplish program objectives and foster the Government's interests. Doing so would make the TIA an assistance transaction other than a cooperative agreement. The contracting officer must decide, with the help of the program manager and assigned intellectual property counsel, what best represents a reasonable arrangement considering the circumstances, including past investments and anticipated future investments of the recipient to the development of the technology, contributions under the current TIA, and potential commercial and Government markets. Any change to the standard patent rights provisions must be approved by assigned intellectual property counsel.
(c) Taking past investments as an example, the contracting officer should consider whether the Government or the recipient has contributed more substantially to the prior RD&D that provides the foundation for the planned effort. If the predominant past contributor to the particular technology has been:
(1) The Government, then the TIA's patent rights provision should be the standard provision as set forth in 10 CFR 600.325(b) or (c), or 10 CFR 600.136, as applicable.
(2) The recipient, then less restrictive patent requirements may be appropriate, which would make the TIA an assistance transaction other than a cooperative agreement. The contracting officer normally would, with the concurrence of intellectual property counsel, allow the recipient to retain title to subject inventions without going through the process of obtaining a patent waiver as required by 10 CFR 784. For example, with the concurrence of intellectual property counsel, the contracting officer also could eliminate or modify the nonexclusive paid-up license for practice by or on behalf of the Government to allow the recipient to benefit more directly from its investments.
(d) For subawards under a TIA that is other than a cooperative agreement, the TIA should normally specify that subrecipients' invention rights are to be negotiated between recipient and subrecipient; that subrecipients will get title to inventions they make; or some other disposition of invention rights. Factors to be considered by the contracting officer in addressing subrecipient's invention rights include: the extent of cost sharing by parties at all tiers; a subrecipient's status as a small business, nonprofit, or FFRDC; and whether an appropriate field of use licensing requirement would meet the needs of the parties.
(e) Consortium members may allocate invention rights in their collaboration agreement, subject to the review of the contracting officer (See §603.515). The contracting officer, in performing such review, should consider invention rights to be retained by the Government and rights that may be obtained by small business, nonprofit or FFRDC consortium members.
§ 603.865 March-in rights.
A TIA's patent rights provision should include the Bayh-Dole march-in rights set out in paragraph (j) of the Patent Rights (Small Business Firms and Nonprofit Organization) provision in Appendix A to subpart D of 10 CFR 600, or an equivalent clause, concerning actions that the Government may take to obtain the right to use subject inventions, if the recipient fails to take effective steps to achieve practical application of the subject inventions within a reasonable time. The march-in provision may be modified to best meet the needs of the program. However, only infrequently should the march-in provision be entirely removed (e.g., if a recipient is providing most of the funding for a RD&D project, with the Government providing a much smaller share).
§ 603.870 Marking of documents related to inventions.
To protect the recipient's interest in inventions, the TIA should require the recipient to mark documents disclosing inventions it desires to protect by obtaining a patent. The recipient should mark the documents with a legend identifying them as intellectual property subject to public release or public disclosure restrictions, as provided in 35 U.S.C. 205.
§ 603.875 Foreign access to technology and U.S. competitiveness provisions.
(a) Consistent with the objective of enhancing national security and United States competitiveness by increasing the public's reliance on the United States commercial technology, the contracting officer must include provisions in a TIA that addresses foreign access to technology developed under the TIA.
(b) A provision must provide, as a minimum, that any transfer of the technology must be consistent with the U.S. export laws, regulations and the Department of Commerce Export Regulation at Chapter VII, Subchapter C, Title 15 of the CFR (15 CFR parts 730–774), as applicable.
(c) A provision should also provide that any products embodying, or produced through the use of, any created intellectual property, will be manufactured substantially in the United States, and that any transfer of the right to use or sell the products must, unless the Government grants a waiver, require that the products will be manufactured substantially in the United States. In individual cases, the contracting officer, with the approval of the program official and intellectual property counsel, may waive or modify the requirement of substantial manufacture in the United States at the time of award, or subsequent thereto, upon a showing by the recipient that:
(1) Alternative benefits are being secured for the United States taxpayer (e.g., increased domestic jobs notwithstanding foreign manufacture);
(2) Reasonable but unsuccessful efforts have been made to transfer the technology under similar terms to those likely to manufacture substantially in the United States; or
(3) Under the circumstances domestic manufacture is not commercially feasible.
Financial and Programmatic Reporting
§ 603.880 Reports requirements.
A TIA must include requirements that, as a minimum, provide for periodic reports addressing program performance and, if it is an expenditure-based award, business/financial status. The contracting officer must require submission of the reports at least annually, and may require submission as frequently as quarterly (this does not preclude a recipient from electing to submit more frequently than quarterly the financial information that is required to process payment requests if the award is an expenditure-based TIA that uses reimbursement or advance payments under §603.810(a)). The requirements for the content of the reports are as follows:
(a) The program portions of the reports must address progress toward achieving performance goals and milestones, including current issues, problems, or developments.
(b) The business/financial portions of the reports, applicable only to expenditure-based awards, must provide summarized details on the status of resources (federal funds and non-federal cost sharing), including an accounting of expenditures for the period covered by the report. The report should compare the resource status with any payment and expenditure schedules or plans provided in the original award; explain any major deviations from those schedules; and discuss actions that will be taken to address the deviations. The contracting officer may require a recipient to separately identify in these reports the expenditures for each participant in a consortium and for each programmatic milestone or task, if the contracting officer, after consulting with the program official, judges that those additional details are needed for good stewardship.
§ 603.885 Updated program plans and budgets.
In addition to reports on progress to date, a TIA may include a provision requiring the recipient to annually prepare an updated technical plan for future conduct of the research effort and a revised budget if there is a significant change from the initial budget.
§ 603.890 Final performance report.
A TIA must require a final performance report that addresses all major accomplishments under the TIA.
§ 603.895 Protection of information in programmatic reports.
If a TIA is awarded under the authority of 42 U.S.C. 7256(g) (i.e., it is a type of assistance transaction “other than” a contract, grant or a cooperative agreement), the contracting officer may inform a participant that the award is covered by a special protected data statute, which provides for the protection from public disclosure, for a period of up to 5 years after the date on which the information is developed, any information developed pursuant to this transaction that would be trade secret, or commercial or financial information that is privileged or confidential, if the information had been obtained from a non-Federal party.
§ 603.900 Receipt of final performance report.
The TIA should make receipt of the final report a condition for final payment. If the payments are based on payable milestones, the submission and acceptance of the final report by the Government representative will be incorporated as an event that is a prerequisite for one of the payable milestones.
Records Retention and Access Requirements
§ 603.905 Record retention requirements
A TIA must require participants to keep records related to the TIA (for which the agreement provides Government access under §603.910) for a period of three years after submission of the final financial status report for an expenditure-based TIA or final program performance report for a fixed-support TIA, with the following exceptions:
(a) The participant must keep records longer than three years after submission of the final financial status report if the records relate to an audit, claim, or dispute that begins but does not reach its conclusion within the 3-year period. In that case, the participant must keep the records until the matter is resolved and final action taken.
(b) Records for any real property or equipment acquired with project funds under the TIA must be kept for three years after final disposition.
§ 603.910 Access to a for-profit participant's records.
(a) If a for-profit participant currently grants access to its records to the DCAA or other Federal Government auditors, the TIA must include for that participant the standard access-to-records requirements at 10 CFR 600.342(e). If the agreement is a fixed-support TIA, the language in 10 CFR 600.342(e) may be modified to provide access to records concerning the recipient's technical performance, without requiring access to the recipient's financial or other records. Note that any need to address access to technical records in this way is in addition to, not in lieu of, the need to address rights in data (see §603.845).
(b) For other for-profit participants that do not currently give the Federal Government direct access to their records and are not willing to grant full access to records pertinent to the award, the contracting officer may negotiate limited access to the recipient's financial records. For example, if the audit provision of an expenditure-based TIA gives an IPA access to the recipient's financial records for audit purposes, the Federal Government must have access to the IPA's reports and working papers and the contracting officer need not include a provision requiring direct Government access to the recipient's financial records. For both fixed-support and expenditure-based TIAs, the TIA must include the access-to-records requirements at 10 CFR 600.342(e) for records relating to technical performance.
§ 603.915 Access to a nonprofit participant's records.
A TIA must include for any nonprofit participant the standard access-to-records requirement at:
(a) 10 CFR 600.242(e), for a participant that is a State or local governmental organization;
(b) 10 CFR 600.153(e), for a participant that is a nonprofit organization. The same requirement applies to any GOCO or FFRDC, even though nonprofit GOCOs and FFRDCs are exempted from the definition of “recipient” in 10 CFR 600.101.
Termination and Enforcement
§ 603.920 Termination and enforcement requirements.
(a) Termination. A TIA must include the following conditions for termination:
(1) An award may be terminated in whole or in part by the contracting officer, if a recipient materially fails to comply with the terms and conditions of the award.
(2) Subject to a reasonable determination by either party that the project will not produce beneficial results commensurate with the expenditure of resources, that party may terminate in whole or in part the agreement by providing at least 30 days advance written notice to the other party, provided such notice is preceded by consultation between the parties. The two parties will negotiate the termination conditions, including the effective date and, in the case of partial termination, the portion to be terminated. If either party determines in the case of partial termination that the reduced or modified portion of the award will not accomplish the purpose for which the award was made, the award may be terminated in its entirety.
(3) Unless otherwise negotiated, for terminations of an expenditure based TIA, DOE's maximum liability is the lesser of:
(i) DOE's share of allowable costs incurred up to the date of termination, or
(ii) The amount of DOE funds obligated to the TIA.
(4) Unless otherwise negotiated, for terminations of a fixed-support based TIA, DOE shall pay the recipient a proportionate share of DOE's financial commitment to the project based on the percent of project completion as of the date of termination.
(5) Notwithstanding paragraphs (3) and (4) of this section, if the award includes milestone payments, the Government has no obligation to pay the recipient beyond the last completed and paid milestone if the recipient decides to terminate.
(b) Enforcement. The standards of 10 CFR 600.352 (for enforcement) and the procedures in 10 CFR 600.22 (for disputes and appeals) apply.
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