NIH All About Grants Podcast: Reporting on Your Scientific Progress

August 15, 2023 �

David Kosub: So you're working diligently on getting your research done that was supported by that NIH grant. Maybe you've made some progress, maybe you've had some adversities. But what is it that you're expected to tell us when your progress report comes up? This is David Kosub and I am with NIH's All About Grants.

Announcer: From the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, this is All About Grants.

David Kosub: All right, well, welcome to the show. I'm glad to say that we have with us Dr. Tom Cheever. He is a program officer with the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. And he is going to be telling us everything that we should know about research progress reporting from his program officer perspective. Welcome to the show, Tom.

Dr. Tom Cheever: Thanks so much, David. Thanks for having me.

David Kosub: Absolutely. So let's just start with an easy one, what exactly is this research progress report? And, you know, maybe you can touch on some of the different types and all that.

Dr. Tom Cheever: Yeah, can do. So the Research Performance Progress Report or often abbreviated to RPPR, because it's a bit of a mouthful. It's really how recipients of NIH awards report their progress to NIH. It's how we find out how things are going for you. And, I think, also importantly demonstrates compliance with the relevant NIH and different government policies that apply to this. So you can think of them as, kind of, in basically three flavors. The content is pretty similar although with a few exceptions across all three. But they, kind of, vary the most in when exactly they're used. So let's start with the annual progress report or annual RPPR. That's the one that you may have completed the most in that this is the one that's used to report on progress from just the prior budget period, which for most people's going to be just that previous year. So you may complete a few of these if your award is for a couple of different years. The other two reports are used at the end of, kind of, a whole grants cycle. So one of those is called the final RPPR or F-RPPR. That's used to report on progress at the completion of award. And then the last remaining type is called this interim RPPR or I-RPPR. And that's used in, kind of, in lieu of a final RPPR if you're submitting a renewal or a type two application.

David Kosub: And just for clarity for the listeners' sake, we're going to be talking generally about progress reporting on research grants. But, you know, this is generally applicable to other types of grants as well. So thank you for that definition the description of these different types of progress reporting. I mean, I guess, the big question is, why is this important? Why do we have this? Why do we ask our recipients to do this?

Dr. Tom Cheever: Yeah, and, you know, I think it's important for a couple of reasons. And we'll start off with just the one is that it's actually required to submit and for NIH to have to review and approve progress reports in order to make the subsequent year's award if there is one. So, like, for an annual RPPR. So we can't give you the next year's funds if you haven't submitted it. And if we haven't, kind of, reviewed and approved it. But then just in addition to that, it's also the primary way that we track progress is, kind of, what's in the name of an RPPR. And also just again make sure that we're still in compliance with all the relevant policies that are applicable on that case.

David Kosub: And what information should someone be reporting on? Like, what's the level of granularity? I mean, what should they not be reporting?

Dr. Tom Cheever: Yeah, sure. So just to, kind of, orient so there's several sections in it in an RPPR often with, kind of, like a letter designation A,B,C,D,E that kind of thing For this topic here, let's focus on the section that maybe people maybe have the most questions on which is this accomplishment section. Where you're actually telling us in, kind of, a free text response what you did during that prior year. This is actually section B of the progress report. And at the most fundamental level, I think, you want to just think about reporting on what you did, what worked, what didn't. And, I think, also just importantly what were the key accomplishments during that reporting period. It's hard to, kind of, specify directly about granularity given the different, kind of, areas of research that might be involved. But in general, you want to make sure that your program officer who's reading every single one of these, is able to just, kind of, get a sense for what happened that prior year. So, you know, in some cases, high level overviews may be sufficient if it's a really important part of the project maybe a little bit more granularity will be there. I think, kind of, just again focusing on getting across what did you do, what worked, what didn't, what were your main accomplishments starting from that, you know. And if your program officer has questions based on that, they can always reach out to you to ask for, kind of, more information in certain sections that, kind of, thing. Just maybe a couple of other points in terms of, kind of, what else to include in your award. There can be some cases where your notice of award might actually say, you know, it's required that you report on milestones or some other topics. That's something that you want to make sure that you're commenting on if by chance you have any, kind of, supplements on your award. Which is usually indicated by a three before a grant number. You also want to make sure that you're reporting on progress there.

David Kosub: This may be an obvious question, but how often is someone's supposed to be reporting? I mean, if it's an annual RPPR, I'm assuming once an year. But, you know, if you could talk more about that, kind of, frequency, and, you know, any additional information that might be relevant to that.

Dr. Tom Cheever: Yeah, in just in terms of frequency, in many cases it's going to be that annual progress report yearly. But there may be cases where for different circumstances you may be asked to report more frequently than that. That will be indicated in your notice of award as well. And just make sure that you're following those instructions.

David Kosub: I see, I see. And you mentioned your program staff looking at these reports, you know, what exactly are you all looking for? And I suspect, you know, every program officer might have a different, kind of, view point on this. So, you know, keep that in mind, but keeping that in mind rather, you know, it's, like, how exactly are you all using this? Can you all ask for additional information if it's not there but you need it? You know, all that that would be great.

Dr. Tom Cheever: Yeah, at a high level, we're looking for indicators of progress. And then again, just whether we're in compliance with all the different policies that are applicable to that kind of award. So like in the accomplishment section, like, we've talked about for example, we're looking for, like, kind of, some tangible indicators of progress on the aims. So it maybe that you completed an experiment or that you added sample size to an experiment. Or, you know, had a publication made, which again, you want to make sure you're also reporting in the publication section. But those are, kind of, some examples of some of those, kind of, you know, areas where we can see, yep they made progress on their aims in response to that, that kind of thing. You know, in the other sections, we're looking to make sure that, you know, everything is in compliance with public access policies for publications, for example. Making sure that we're in compliance with all the different human subject and vertebrate animal considerations looking for any, kind of, changes or new foreign components. And whether we're also, kind of, meeting any other, kind of, additional, kind of, special terms and conditions for an award. And we're just going to say in general, we're looking for progress on what was previously reported, that kind of thing. So if for example we're looking at a progress report and it's identical to the previous year's one, that may raise questions for us. We might wonder whether there's an error in submission or whether there actually wasn't any progress. In which case we will certainly be following up with people. But, you know, in general, we're looking for you know, the progress that was done on this grant award that we're talking about in this progress report. And from that most previous reporting period. Because we do have access to all the different prior RPPRs. So we know what was done in the past, we want to know what happened in just that most recent reporting period.

David Kosub: So don't just cut and paste from previous year though

Dr. Tom Cheever: Exactly. Exactly.

David Kosub: Is a rule of thumb. You know, we know that science can be a little finicky, you know, things happen. You know, can you, kind of, touch on this? If there's challenges and you may not have any progress report to report, that is, what do we do in that situation? Can you expound upon that just a bit more?

Dr. Tom Cheever: Yeah, it's a great question. I think, just we'll start off with program officers like myself, we all have scientific backgrounds like grantees. And definitely understand that things and science don't always go according to plan. Or in a nice, kind of, linear progression that, kind of case. So when you run into challenges, hurdles, roadblocks, that kind of thing, we understand that is part of the process. The main thing you want to do is just tell us about what challenges you encountered there. And what did you do to try to address it. What worked there? What didn't? That kind of thing. I think, for program staff when we're again looking to, kind of, of assess, you know, was sufficient progress made? In many cases troubleshooting, coming up with alternative approaches and that kind of thing, those can be signs of sufficient progress. And again, if we have more questions or, you know, looking for more information, we'll certainly, kind of, follow up with you to get more information to help us better understand what's going on there.

David Kosub: That's good. So it definitely seems like, you know, if you're experiencing some issues, you know, reach out and tell us about them, you know, we're here to help. So, Tom this has been great to hear more about progress reporting and what the expectations are for the accomplishments. Do you have any final thoughts? This is an opportunity to, kind of, leave our audience with, you know, any important issues that you want to make sure that we discuss on this topic.

Dr. Tom Cheever: Yeah, thanks so much, David. I think, the main point I want to get across is that progress reporting, it's a really important part of the grant process. And program officers really do read these things top to bottom. And like we, kind of, mentioned earlier, it's required to issue next year's award. And one of the main ways that NIH really fulfills our stewardship role here in making sure that we're following all the appropriate policies and regulations. So we just, kind of, just help remind people to make sure to keep your report focused on the NIH award that you are reporting on and from that most recent reporting period. And, you know, I have often heard from grantees, and I know from myself when I'm reading these, it's helpful to try to, kind of, think about how to keep these things as organized as you can. So for some people they find it helpful when they're reporting progress by aim, for example. Or using bullets to, kind of, highlight what were the main, kind of, key outcomes from a reporting period that can hopefully be helpful for grantees as they write in. And it's certainly helpful for program staff as we're looking through these to, kind of, make sure that progress is appropriate. And that again, we're just meeting all those policy needs that we have.

David Kosub: That is wonderful. Totally appreciate this opportunity to speak with you, Tom about progress reporting. And, you know, to, kind of, reiterate some of the points reach out to your program staff if you have questions. You know, also reach to your offices of sponsored research if you have some questions. Please consider checking out, you know, NIH's grant's page grants.nih.gov. There's a wealth of information there from, you know, regulation to policies, examples of what to report, whole bunch of other good information. So please do check it out. This has been David Kosub with NIH's All About Grants. Thank you.