[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
