Uniform Guidance for Federal Awards

On December 26, 2013, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued final guidance entitled Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance).

This is a major reform of how the federal government provides assistance awards (e.g., grants and cooperative agreements). The goal is to increase accountability and transparency while reducing the administrative burden on non-federal entities receiving federal awards.

These new federal regulations became effective for new federal awards and new funding for existing awards on December 26, 2014.

UC Davis has assembled a project taskforce to evaluate the changes that affect current policies, procedures, and systems. This website has been created by the taskforce to serve as a resource for the campus to understand the related changes and implementation timelines.

Overview of Changes

The guidance supersedes and streamlines the eight existing OMB Circulars:

  • A-21 Cost Principles for Educational Institutions
  • A-87 Cost Principles for State, Local and Indian Tribal Governments
  • A-122 Cost Principles for Non-Profit Organizations
  • A-110 Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Other Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals and Other Non-Profit Organizations
  • A-102 Grants and Cooperative Agreements With State and Local Governments
  • A-133 Audits of States, Local Governments and Non-Profit Organizations
  • A-50 Audit Follow-up
  • A-89 Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance

View the taskforce’s Overview of Uniform Guidance which describes the changes, recent activities and preliminary implementation strategy.

The taskforce has also developed a Quick Guide for researchers.

Initial Campus Implementation Plan

The taskforce, chaired by Associate Vice Chancellor Mike Allred and Executive Associate Vice Chancellor Cindy Kiel has defined the following initial implementation strategy in order to make the transition to the new guidance as smooth as possible.

December 26, 2014 – June 30, 2015

UC Davis will continue to follow the current A-21 policies and guidance unless the new award or incremental action is issued under the Uniform Guidance requirements.

  • If the award is issued under the Uniform Guidance, the Sponsored Programs Office, Extramural Funds Accounting and applicable academic departments will comply with the new guidance for that award. For these awards, the following items are significantly different from the A-21 regulations and will be monitored for compliance.
    • Prior approvals
    • Sub-recipient monitoring, payments and F&A rates
    • Modified Total Direct Costs (MTDC) changes
    • Cost share requirements
    • Pre-award costs

Beginning July 1, 2015

UC Davis will comply with the Uniform Guidance requirements for all awards. All necessary changes for compliance with the new guidance including policy changes, campus education and outreach should be complete.

  • UC Davis will be subject to the Uniform Guidance audit requirements beginning July 1, 2015, for fiscal year 2016.

References and Additional Resources

Contact Information