[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 105 (Thursday, June 2, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-13457]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: June 2, 1994]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

 

Discretionary Cooperative Agreements To Support Biomechanics 
Research

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), DOT.

ACTION: Announcement of Discretionary Cooperative Agreement to Support 
Biomechanical Research.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces a discretionary cooperative agreement 
program with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to 
support research studies to evaluate the biomechanical response of 
human surrogates to impact and solicits applications for projects under 
this program.

DATES: Applications must be received on or before July 5, 1994.

ADDRESSES: Applications must be submitted to the National Highway 
Traffic Safety Administration, Office of Contracts and Procurement 
(NAD-30), ATTN: Belinda Leapley, 400 Seventh Street, SW., room 5301, 
Washington, DC 20590, USA. All applications submitted must include a 
reference to NHTSA Cooperative Agreement Program No. DTNH22-94-R-07260. 
Interested applicants are advised that no separate application package 
exists beyond the contents of this announcement.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: General administrative questions may 
be directed to Belinda Leapley, Office of Contracts and Procurement, at 
(202) 366-9566. Programmatic questions relating to this cooperative 
agreement program should be directed to Richard M. Morgan, Biomechanics 
Division (NRD-12), 400 Seventh Street, SW., room 6221B, Washington, DC 
20590, USA, at (202) 366-4717.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background and Objectives

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is responsible 
for devising strategies to save lives and reduce injuries from motor 
vehicle crashes. The purpose of this cooperative agreement program is 
to promote the improvement of traffic safety for the public through the 
support of research studies designed to evaluate the biomechanical 
response of human surrogates to impact as a means of expanding the base 
of scientific knowledge in this field and to provide for the 
coordinated exchange of scientific information collected as a result of 
the studies conducted.
    Impact trauma research employs the principles of mechanics to 
discover the physical response and physiological results of impacts to 
the human body. Generally, the teams doing the research are comprised 
of individuals from different disciplines: engineering, physiology, 
medicine, biology, and anatomy. The team studies the physical response 
of the body to impact by measuring and recording engineering parameters 
defining the event, such as force, accelerations, displacements, 
surface contours, strains, pressure, etc., and observing the 
physiological consequences in terms of physical or functional 
alterations to the body.
    One of the major research materials used to simulate injury to the 
living human is the human cadaver (hereinafter referred to as a human 
surrogate) exposed to impact and detailed response measurement.
    The focus of this cooperative research effort is the study of human 
surrogate response and injury to physical impacts simulating some 
significant aspect of automotive impact injury, i.e., head, neck, 
torso, or lower extremity injury produced in drivers and passengers, 
restrained by various safety devices and exposed to either a frontal, 
lateral, or rear impact. The specific objectives of this cooperative 
research effort are to: (1) Delineate the mechanism of injury, (2) 
develop functional relationships between the measurable engineering 
parameters and the extent and severity of injury, and (3) quantify the 
impact response of the body in such a way as to allow the development 
of mechanical analogs of the human body.

NHTSA Involvement

    The NHTSA, Biomechanics Division, will be involved in all 
activities undertaken as part of the cooperative agreement program and 
will:
    1. Provide, on an as-needed basis, one professional staff person, 
to be designated as the Contracting Officer's Technical Representative 
(COTR), to participate in the planning and management of the 
cooperative agreement and coordinate activities between the 
organization and the NHTSA;
    2. Make available information and technical assistance from 
government sources, within available resources and as determined 
appropriate by the COTR;
    3. Provide liaison with other government agencies and organizations 
as appropriate; and
    4. Stimulate the exchange of ideas and problems among cooperative 
agreement recipients, and, if appropriate, NHTSA contractors and other 
interested parties.

Involvement for Recipient of an Award

    Any recipient of an award will:
    1. Perform an effort in accordance with the application proposal 
and any incorporation revisions;
    2. Contribute any in-kind resources, that might have been specified 
by the recipient in the application, for the performance of the effort 
under the agreement;
    3. Meet periodically with the NHTSA COTR to promote the exchange of 
information so as to assure coordination of the cooperative effort and 
related projects; and
    4. Provide the NHTSA COTR with following required reports:
    a. Data Reports: The dynamic and other data measured in each human 
surrogate impact test will be provided by the recipient(s) within four 
(4) weeks after the test is run. For each and every test performed with 
a human surrogate, a data package shall be submitted to the COTR. For 
example, were a human subject to be impacted by pendulum to the right 
femur and later to be impacted by pendulum to the thorax, the two (2) 
impacts are separate tests even though there was only one (1) human 
surrogate.
    A data package consists of (1) high speed film, (2) paper test 
report, and (3) either magnetic tape or floppy disk complying with the 
NHTSA Data Tape Reference Guide. The NHTSA, Biomechanics Division, 
maintains a Biomechanics Data Base which provides information, upon 
request, to the public, including educational institutions and other 
research organizations.
    To facilitate the input of data as well as the exchange of 
information, any recipient of a cooperative agreement awarded as a 
result of this notice must provide the magnetic tape in the format 
specified in the ``NHTSA Data Tape Reference Guide.'' A copy of this 
document may be obtained from the programmatic information contact 
designated in this notice.
    b. Performance Reports: The recipient shall present one (1) hour 
semiannual technical performance briefings at the NHTSA headquarters 
building (at 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590) which shall 
be due 30 days after the reporting period and a final performance 
report within 90 days after the completion of the research effort. An 
original and two copies of the final performance report shall be 
submitted to the COTR.

Period of Support

    The research effort described in this notice will be supported 
through the award of at least one cooperative agreement. NHTSA reserves 
the right to make multiple awards depending upon the merit of the 
applications received.
    Contingent upon the availability of funds and satisfactory 
performance, a cooperative agreement(s) will be awarded to an eligible 
organization(s) for project periods of up to five years. No cooperative 
agreement awarded as a result of this notice shall exceed $550,000 per 
year or $2,750,000 for five years.

Eligibility Requirements

    In order to be eligible to participate in this cooperative 
agreement program, an applicant must be an educational institution or 
other nonprofit research organization. For profit research 
organizations may apply; however, no fee or profit will be allowed.

Application Procedure

    Each applicant must submit one original and two copies of their 
application package to: Cooperative Agreement Program No. DTNH22-94-R-
07260, Office of Contracts and Procurement (NAD-30), NHTSA, 400 Seventh 
Street, SW., room 5301, Washington, DC 20590, USA. Only complete 
application packages received on or before the date identified above 
under DATES: shall be considered. Submission of three additional copies 
will expedite processing but is not required.

Application Contents

    1. The application package must be submitted with OMB Standard Form 
424 (Rev, 4-88, including 424A and 424B), Application for Federal 
Assistance, with the required information filled in and the certified 
assurances included. While the Form 424-A deals with budget 
information, and section B identifies Budget Categories, the available 
space does not permit a level of detail which is sufficient to provide 
for a meaningful evaluation of the proposed costs. A supplemental sheet 
should be provided which represents a detailed breakdown of the 
proposed costs, as well as any costs which the applicant proposes to 
contribute in support of this effort.
    2. Applications shall include a program narrative statement which 
addresses the following:
    a. The objectives, goals, and anticipated outcomes of the proposed 
research effort;
    b. The method or methods that will be used;
    c. The source of the human surrogates to be used;
    d. The number, quality, and anticipated ages at death (Because 
NHTSA has interest in obtaining knowledge of the impact injury process 
and its effect on the total automotive-population-at-risk, an 
experimental human subject pool with ages representative of this 
population is highly desirable.) of the human surrogates (viz human 
cadavers) the applicant expects to use for this research effort along 
with documentation (retrospective or prospective) that provides 
evidence that the applicant has access to the proposed quantity, 
quality, and projected ages of the experimental material;
    e. The proposed program director and other key personnel identified 
for participation in the proposed research effort, including a 
description of their qualifications and their respective organizational 
responsibilities;
    f. A description of the general, as well as specialized impact 
simulation, test facilities and equipment currently available or to be 
obtained for use in the conduct of the proposed research effort; and
    g. A description of the applicant's previous experience or on-going 
research program that is related to this proposed research effort.

Review Process and Criteria

    Initially, all applications will be reviewed to confirm that the 
applicant is an eligible recipient and to assure that the application 
contains all of the information required by the Application Contents 
section of this notice.
    Each complete application from an eligible recipient will then be 
evaluated by a Technical Evaluation Committee. The applications will be 
evaluated using the following criteria:
    1. The applicant's understanding of the purpose and unique problems 
represented by the research objectives of this cooperative agreement 
program as evidenced in the description of their proposed research 
effort. Specific attention shall be placed upon the applicant's stated 
means for obtaining the quantity of experimental material necessary to 
conduct the proposed research effort.
    2. The potential of the proposed research effort accomplishments to 
make an innovative and/or significant contribution to the base of 
biomechanical knowledge as it may be applied to saving lives and 
reducing injuries resulting from motor vehicle crashes.
    3. The technical merit of the proposed research effort, including 
the feasibility of the approach, planned methodology, and anticipated 
results.
    4. The adequacy of test facilities and equipment identified to 
accomplish the proposed research effort, including impact simulation.
    5. The adequacy of the organizational plan for accomplishing the 
proposed research effort, including the qualifications and experience 
of the research team, the various disciplines represented, and the 
relative level of effort proposed for professional, technical, and 
support staff.

Award Selection Factors

    The award selection may not be based solely on the evaluation 
results. Award preference may be given to an innovative or creative 
approach that offers a potentially significant contribution to achieve 
the specific objectives of this cooperative research effort. Award 
preference may be given to a proposal with a larger percentage of cost 
sharing.

Terms and Conditions of the Award

    1. The protection of the rights and welfare of human subjects in 
NHTSA-sponsored experiments is established in Department of 
Transportation 49 CFR Part 11 and in NHTSA Orders 700-1, 700-3, and 
700-4. Any recipient must satisfy the requirements and guidelines of 49 
CFR part 101 and the NHTSA Orders 700 series prior to award of the 
cooperative agreement. A copy of 49 CFR part 11 and the NHTSA 700 
series may be obtained from the programmatic information contact 
designated in this notice.
    2. Prior to award, each recipient must comply with the 
certification requirements of 49 CFR part 29--Department of 
Transportation Government-wide Department and Suspension 
(Nonprocurement) and Government-wide Requirements for Drug-Free 
Workplace (Grants), as well as 49 CFR part 20-- Department of 
Transportation New Restrictions on Lobbying.
    3. During the effective period of the cooperative agreement(s) 
awarded as a result of this notice, each agreement shall be subject to 
the general administrative requirements of OMB Circular A-110, the cost 
principles of OMB Circular A-21, A-122, or FAR 31.2 as applicable to 
the recipient, the requirements of 49 CFR parts 20 and 29, and the 
NHTSA General Provisions for Assistance Agreements.

    Issued on: May 20, 1994.
George L. Parker,
Associate Administrator for Research and Development.
[FR Doc. 94-13457 Filed 6-1-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P