Notice Number: NOT-OD-18-202

Key Dates
Release Date: July 3, 2018

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 purpose of this Guide Notice is to inform recipients of two recent enhancements within eRA Commons to streamline and improve the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) process for recipients. First, institutional delegations for Interim-RPPRs (I-RPPR) and Final-RPPRs (F-RPPR) have been modified to align with the delegations that institutional users have specified for annual RPPRs. Second, data fields for effort reporting will be modified to enable use of decimals rather than requiring entry of a whole number.

Synchronization of Institutional Delegations for RPPRs

When NIH initially implemented the I-RPPR and F-RPPR, system submission features were modeled on those associated with the form report previously known as, the Final Progress Report (FPR). In NIHs efforts to obtain user feedback on system features, it became clear that utilizing the institutional delegation features available for annual RPPRs would improve efficiency and ease administrative burden for recipient institutions. Therefore, NIH has modified RPPR module within eRA Commons to automatically incorporate the same delegation options available to institutions within the annual RPPR. Specifically, a PD/PI may delegate initiation of any type of RPPR to a program assistant. Additionally, if consistent with institutional policy a signing official (SO) may delegate authority to a PD/PI to submit an RPPR (any RPPR -- annual, interim, or final) directly to NIH without having to be formally submitted by the SO.

Decimals in Effort Reporting

As another opportunity to reduce administrative burden on NIH recipients, NIH has changed its RPPR format to allow effort reported in grant applications to include decimals. Until now, the system only allowed whole numbers and rounded up or down accordingly. The lack of the ability to include decimals contributed to significant inaccurate reporting when a PD/PI has contributed 20% effort or 2.4 calendar months, and the previous system feature rounded effort down to 2 calendar months.

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