United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2000-09-11 monographic deposited born digital 38 p. GA 1.13:RCED-00-170 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-170 P0b002ee18039449e f:rc00170 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-170 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-170 RCED-00-170 Strategic planning Research grants Agency missions Grant administration Program evaluation Environmental research EPA Science to Achiever Results Grant Program Letter Report RCED Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Science to Achieve Results (STAR) grants program, focusing on: (1) whether funding amounts awarded for the grants align with EPA's strategic goals, EPA's Office of Research and Development's (ORD) research priorities, and program office priorities; (2) the extent to which the completed focused grants have provided research that is being used by EPA's program offices; and (3) ways in which ORD could enhance its management of the program to help ensure that it meets its objectives.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) STAR grant funding has generally been aligned with EPA's ORD's, and the program offices' broadly defined priorities; (2) since the STAR program began in 1995 through March 2000, about two-thirds of the approximately $415 million in funding for STAR grants has addressed EPA's multipurpose strategic goal of ensuring that EPA uses sound science in addressing environmental hazards and improving environmental protection; (3) although STAR grants were generally aligned with the agency's strategic priorities and those of ORD and the program offices, EPA's program officials varied in the extent to which they believe the grants' results are useful to them; (4) according to the officials, the grants varied in their usefulness to the program offices largely because the STAR program's goals--meeting program office needs specifically and advancing environmental science generally--may be in conflict; (5) ORD has not consistently tracked the STAR grants to ensure that they are completed on time and that the results are available for use by EPA's program office; (6) according to several program officials, ORD could improve its communication with the program offices during the grant process; (7) ORD has not consistently obtained information from cognizant program officials when designing the requests for grant applications or reviewing grant proposals for relevancy during the grant selection process, nor has ORD adequately communicated the results of the completed grants; (8) ORD recognizes these concerns and has several initiatives under way; (9) these include establishing a Web site to improve communication and involving more program officials in grant application design and review; (10) because the STAR program is relatively new, ORD's primary focus has been on establishing a framework and processes for the program and not on setting program criteria to measure its overall effectiveness; and (11) recent reports by two independent scientific organizations agree that while the program is well structured to achieve its goals, communications between ORD and EPA's program offices should be improved. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-170/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-170.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-170/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-170.pdf GAO/RCED-00-170 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-170 Letter Report GAO/RCED-00-170; Environmental Research: STAR Grants Focus on Agency; Strategic planning Research grants Agency missions Grant administration Program evaluation Environmental research EPA Science to Achiever Results Grant Program