Since the reforms of the early 1990s, the US government has
taken a largely hands-off approach to independent research and
development (IR&D) effort and the allowability of the related
costs, in contrast to the rigorous oversight and allowability caps
applied prior to these reforms. This approach, however, began to
change with the 2012 requirement applicable to Department of
Defense (DOD) contractors to report IR&D projects to the
Defense Technical Information Center to permit assessment of
whether particular IR&D projects were of potential interest to
DOD.
The shift toward greater DOD oversight of IR&D projects is
accelerating, especially regarding research and development
(R&D) effort in support of a contract (i.e.,
"parallel" or "concurrent" R&D) that is
IR&D effort because it is not specifically required by a
contract and multiple potential benefits exist. This shift is
occurring because of the ill-conceived position that apparently
underlies DOD's Better Buying
