Notice Number: NOT-OD-18-103

Key Dates
Release Date: November 16, 2017

NOT-OD-17-085
NOT-OD-17-022
NOT-OD-17-037
NOT-OD-15-111
NOT-OD-15-014
NOT-OD-14-092
NOT-OD-14-084
NOT-OD-14-079
NOT-OD-14-026
NOT-OD-13-113
NOT-OD-13-035
NOT-OD-13-061
NOT-OD-12-083

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Purpose

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) intends to publish the Project Outcomes Section of all Final and Interim Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPRs) submitted on or after October 1, 2017 and make them available to the general public via the NIH RePORTER.

Background

NIH implemented the annual RPPR in 2012, based on a policy memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to the heads of executive departments and agencies. The uniform RPPR replaced previous interim performance reporting formats used by NIH and other agencies.

The Research Business Models (RBM), an Interagency Working Group of the Social, Behavioral & Economic Research Subcommittee of the Committee on Science (CoS), charged NSF and NIH to serve as the co-chairs of an interagency workgroup. The RBM asked the Working Group to consider lessons learned from the development of the annual RPPR and to develop a standard format for use in reporting final progress on Federally-funded research projects and research-related activities. On November 16, 2016, the Working Group published a Federal Register notice announcing the updated standardized RPPR.

NIH Implementation

With NIH's implementation of the Final and Interim RPPR, recipients are required to adhere to the new requirement to report on Project outcomes. This section will be made publicly available via the NIH RePORTER, thus allowing recipients to provide the general public with a concise summary of the cumulative outcomes or findings of the project (analogous to the Project Summary/Abstract section of the competing application) at the end of each competitive segment.

The NIH will only publish project outcomes that have been reviewed and approved by NIH staff to ensure the narrative is written for the general public in clear and comprehensible language, without including any proprietary, confidential information or trade secrets. If the description of the project outcomes are found to be unacceptable, recipients will be required upon NIH request to submit revised project outcomes statements using the Additional Material functionality in place for the Final and Interim RPPR (i.e., Final Report Additional Materials (FRAM) for Final RPPR). The Additional Material functionality for both the Final and Interim RPPR have been enhanced in order to capture revised project outcomes in a web form format that will support NIHs ability to make this information publically available. Please note that the web form data entry field pertains only to the entry of Project Outcomes text. Any other additional materials requested, if applicable, should be uploaded as a file attachment. In order to assist recipients, NIH has posted sample descriptions for project outcomes that may assist recipients in submitting acceptable project outcomes. See the Sample Project Outcomes description available at: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/rppr/sample_project_outcomes_RPPR.htm.

See steps on how to submit revised project outcomes for interim RPPRs (IRAM) and for final RPPRs (FRAM) in the eRA Commons online help.]

Reminders

NIH has successfully transitioned to the Interim and Final RPPR. For details concerning the requirements please refer to NOT-OD-17-085 and NOT-OD-17-022.

NIH requires that organizations submit an "Interim-RPPR" while their renewal application (Type 2) is under consideration. In the event that the Type 2 is funded, NIH will treat the Interim-RPPR as the annual performance report for the final year of the previous competitive segment. If the Type 2 is not funded, the Interim-RPPR will be treated by NIH staff as the institution's Final-RPPR.

The RPPR web page provides related resources and the FAQs were updated based on NIH's implementation of the Final and Interim RPPR.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Division of Grants Policy
Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration
Office of Extramural Research
Email: grantspolicy@od.nih.gov