The Grants and Cooperative Agreements Act at 31 U.S.C. 6306 provides that:

The head of an executive agency may vest title in tangible personal property in a nonprofit institution of higher education or in a nonprofit organization whose primary purpose is conducting scientific research -

1) when the property is bought with amounts provided under a procurement contract, grant agreement, or cooperative agreement with the institution or organization to conduct basic or applied scientific research;

(2) when the head of the agency decides the vesting furthers the objectives of the agency;

(3) without further obligation to the United States Government; and

(4) under conditions the head of the agency considers appropriate.

Under these provisions, the federal government pays institutions to annually acquire medical, technical, and scientific equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The recipients acquire title to the equipment and do not return it to the government.

These provisions are based on testimony of the National Science Foundation from as far back as the 1950s. The federal government found it too difficult to keep title to the property and take it back once the grant was completed. Additionally, it was a nightmare trying to move the equipment from one grantee to another. That is why it is given to the recipients.

However, the equipment is usually quite valuable and often unique. Instituions other than the grantee would be interested in making arrangements with the grantee to use the equipment, when available, at the grantee's facilities. However, to do this they must know the equipment exists.

Does anyone know of a government system that keeps records of this equipment and which grantee received it? Does it make sense to have an internet-based database of this type of equipment. With such a database, one institution could contact another that has the desired equipment and make arrangements to use it, if available.

By Ramon Jackson on Monday, October 30, 2000 - 09:14 am:

I think it makes sense to insure equipment provided at government expense is well utilized after the program that provided it ends. Transfer of title under these conditions also makes sense.

Transfer could, probably should, be conditional upon making it available to other institutions when not in active use by the receiving institution. There often would be operational cost involved. That could be covered by terms requiring the receiving organization to allow such use and charge direct operational costs to the visiting organization. I expect this can be done relatively easily in the terms of transfer. Monitoring compliance could be a problem, but I expect a good bit of self monitoring can be expected within the nonprofit and research communities.

Models already exist for effective use based upon schedule coordination. Many of the research vessels affiliated with universities are actually government owned, though it is not obvious and sometimes even not fully advertised by the institution. Woods Hole's R/V Atlantis and Scripps' R/V Melville are actually Navy AGORs as were their respective famous older ships Argo and Chain. Their valuable time has long been coordinated. These ships cost a considerable amount whether sitting in port or operating and are too valuable to do the former. University of Delaware maintains a world wide schedule coordination page. Essentially every research vessel in the world is listed.

These assets are not yet turned over to the institutions, but the model exists and works rather well. I expect it could be applied to any major assets transferred to grantees.