An accountability requirement for government funds for research (the effort reporting requirement) is discussed, with attention to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-21, which regulates direct and indirect cost reimbursement to universities. Effort reporting forms are used by faculty members to allot their time among a number of discrete functions. A workshop, sponsored by the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, was held to discuss the effort reporting requirement. Attended by university officials and faculty, the purpose of the workshops was to discuss the defects of effort reporting and the recent agreements by Stanford University and Yale University that eliminate it. The workshop also explored the adaptability of these agreements to other universities, many of which differ greatly from Stanford and Yale, and from each other. Generally, the workshop sought: (1) to probe the greater flexibility of the recent revision of A-21 (1982); and (2) to disseminate the findings to university representatives. The workshop recommended that a government-university research roundtable be formed to prepare a definitive study of policies and problems related to the handling of indirect costs for research. In addition, faculty should be more involved in the budgetary process at their universities. Appendices include: a history of effort reporting under OMB Circular A-21; an excerpt from the 1982 revision of Circular A-21; a Personnel Activity Reporting form used at University of California, Berkeley; and the articles, "Effort Reporting at Yale University," (Leonard V. Wesolowski) and "Effort Reporting at Stanford University" (Gerald J. Lieberman). (SW)