[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 153 (Monday, August 10, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42656-42658]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-21274]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration


Discretionary Cooperative Agreement to Support Biomechanical 
Research

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, DOT.

ACTION: Announcement of discretionary cooperative agreement to support 
biomechanical research.

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

DATE: Applications must be received on or before September 30, 1998.

ADDRESS: Applications must be submitted to the National Highway Traffic 
Safety Administration, Office of Contracts and Procurement (NAD-30), 
ATTN: Rose Watson, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Room 5301, Washington, 
D.C. 20590, USA. All applications submitted must include a reference to 
NHTSA Cooperative Agreement Program No. NRD-01-8-07346. 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 Rose Watson, Office 
of Contracts and Procurement, at (202) 366-9557. Programmatic questions 
relating to this cooperative agreement program should be directed to 
Emily A. Sun, National Transportation Biomechanics Research Center 
(NRD-51), 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Room 6221E, Washington, D.C. 20590, 
USA, at (202) 366-4722.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background and Objectives

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 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.

[[Page 42657]]

    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, or 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 e.g., 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 perform human surrogate impact tests 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 will consider applications which propose the use of human 
surrogates, such as human cadavers or other innovative techniques, to 
achieve these objectives.

NHTSA Involvement

    The NHTSA National Transportation Biomechanics Research Center 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 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 incorporated 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 deliverables:
    a. Data Package: 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, where 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 or an equivalent 
digitally-captured video, (2) two copies of the test report, and (3) 
test data stored on magnetic tape, CD-ROM, or floppy disk complying 
with the NHTSA Data Tape Reference Guide. The NHTSA National 
Transportation Biomechanics Research Center 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, S.W., Washington, D.C. 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. NRD-01-8-
07346, Office of Contracts and Procurement (NAD-30), NHTSA, 400 Seventh 
Street, S.W., Room 5301, Washington, D.C. 20590, USA. Only complete 
application packages received on or before the due date identified 
above will be considered. Submission of three additional copies will 
expedite processing but is not required.

Application Contents

    The application package must be submitted with OMB Standard Form 
424 (Rev, 4-88, including 424A and 242B), 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.
    Applications shall include a program narrative statement which 
addresses the following:

[[Page 42658]]

    1. The objectives, goals, and anticipated outcomes of the proposed 
research effort;
    2. The method or methods that will be used:
    3. The source of the human surrogates to be used;
    4. The number, quality, and anticipated ages at death of the human 
surrogates the applicant expects to use for this research effort along 
with documentation that provides evidence that the applicant has access 
to the proposed quantity, quality, and projected ages of the 
experimental material (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);
    5. 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;
    6. A description of the general, as well as specialized impact 
simulation, test facilities and equipment (including sled impact 
systems, component test systems, and data acquisition systems with high 
channel capabilities) currently available or to be obtained for use in 
the conduct of the proposed research effort; and
    7. 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 applicant 
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 and 
the ethical use of human surrogates in NHTSA-sponsored research is 
governed by NHTSA Orders 700-1 through 700-4. Any recipient must 
satisfy the requirements and guidelines of these NHTSA Orders prior to 
award of the cooperative agreement. A copy of NHTSA Orders 700-1 
through 700-4 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 the requirements of 49 CFR 
Parts 190, 20 and 29, the cost principles of OMB Circular A-21, A-122, 
or FAR 31.2 as applicable to the recipient, and the NHTSA General 
Provisions for Assistance Agreements.

    Issued: July 27, 1998.
Raymond P. Owings,
Associate Administrator for Research Development.
[FR Doc. 98-21274 Filed 8-7-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-M