Transparency in Funding Task Force

Purpose

In June 2024, the Transparency in Funding Task Force was convened and charged by Provost Christopher Alan Bracey with conducting an assessment of GW’s practices, policies and procedures as well as benchmarking GW’s approach against peer institutions, and making a recommendation as to whether the university should adopt a policy of full disclosure on where research and gift dollars originate, and if so, to determine if monetary thresholds and/or exceptions should be instituted.

Task Force Final Report

Findings

The task force found:

•  More than 80% of GW’s sponsored projects are from sponsors who publicly display their awards and encourage publication of results (e.g., the federal government,);
• Individual funders sponsor a very small percentage of GW’s funding, compared to GW’s overall portfolio (e.g., sponsored projects expenditures from industry or corporate sponsors are less than 2% of GW’s total);
• The majority of individual gifts are $999 or less. This size gift accounts for more than 90% all gifts donated; and
• Fewer than 0.1% of gifts received at GW have a request for donor anonymity.

Recommendations

The task force recommends strengthening the balance between maintaining appropriate transparency and protecting academic freedom by:

• creating a centralized GW webpage that highlights the university’s guiding principles for the acceptance of external funds and presenting all relevant policies and processes in one location;
• regularly reviewing and updating policies relevant to the negotiation and acceptance of external funds;
• updating GW’s Gift Acceptance Policy and procedures to add language that refines and clarifies the guiding principles underpinning the acceptance of external funding;
• creating a simple, streamlined process for individuals to request data about funding and developing guidelines and parameters for sharing that data; and
• developing GW-specific resources for scholars experiencing hostility or harassment as a result of their research areas, sources of funding or research findings.
   

Committee Members