This article outlines important changes to the Project Management Center (PMC) that will enhance your experience and improve how you manage your projects and reporting. Understanding these updates will help you navigate and utilize the PMC more effectively.

Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) Users: These updates primarily affect Financial Assistance (FA) recipients, with FEMP users only impacted by the verification of personally identifiable information (PII).

Verify Your Personal Information

• If you are a new external user (both FEMP and FA), you will now be required to confirm that the personally identifiable information (PII) you submitted during your new user request is accurate.
• Existing external users (FEMP and FA) must also verify their PII annually.
  • This ensures the security of your information and aligns with CMEI's cybersecurity initiatives.
• Before you can complete any action in the PMC each year, you will be directed to your User Account Information to verify your PII.

Understand the Reorganization of Reporting Sections

The Federal Assistance Reporting Checklist (FARC) reporting sections have been reorganized to better align with accountability and report submission frequency. This change helps clarify which reports are for technical project management and which are for award management. The new structure applies to all FA awards made or modified after March 1, 2022.

This reorganization is reflected in both the printed and electronic FARC within the PMC.

Submitting Scientific, Technical, and Intellectual Property Reports

• Scientific and Technical Information (STI) Reporting and Intellectual Property (IP) Reporting are now grouped under Project Management Reporting.
• These reports, including publications, datasets, inventions, and patents, are crucial indicators of your project's impact.

  • Frequency: These reports now have a frequency of 'As Specified' (A5) and 'Post-Project' (P).

  • Action: If your project produces STI or IP, you should submit them to OSTI E-Link or iEdison during and after the project period.

  • Applicability: This reorganized reporting and frequency apply to all awards made or modified after March 2022 and will be automatically assigned to all FARCs.

Complete Demographic Reporting

• If your FA award has a project start date after March 1, 2022, you will be required to submit demographic information for the Principal Investigator (PI) and Business Contact within 30 days of the award.
• Although not required, PIs and Business Contacts of projects that started before March 2022 are encouraged to submit this information.
• This data helps CMEI understand the communities it serves.
• You will access a web-based demographic report in the PMC after March 1, 2022.

Manage Participants, Collaborating Organizations, and Current/Pending Support

• 'Participants and Collaborating Organizations' and 'Current and Pending Support' have been removed from quarterly reporting and are now stand-alone reports within the FARC.
• This change allows CMEI to track this information more effectively and identify updates.
• For awards made or modified after March 1, 2022, submit any changes to these areas as a separate report to the PMC.

Update Your Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)

• A new field for collecting the Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) has been added to the Project Overview of awards.
  • This change reflects the federal government's transition from the DUNS number to the UEI number for identifying entities.
  • While this change is currently visible only to internal CMEI users, it is important to be aware of this upcoming standard.