The National Institutes of Health has announced that use of the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) will become mandatory for awards under the Streamlined Noncompeting Award Process (SNAP) and Fellowship Awards (F series) which have budget start dates on or after July 1, 2013. (SNAP continuation proposals for these awards are due no later than May 15th. Fellowship continuation proposals for these awards are due no later than May 1st. The use of the RPPR is required for these grants regardless of the actual date of submission.)
While the format of the RPPR will be new to many PIs, the majority of the content of the RPPR is not substantially different from that of an eSNAP progress report. The report will still need to describe progress, study results, the significance of any findings and any significant changes. Additionally, where possible, information will be pre-populated from NIH systems, including PD/PI information, grant number, project title, project period, performance sites and personnel, helping to ease data entry into the report. The format of the report, however, will vary from an eSNAP progress report. It will include the following reporting components:
- Cover Page
- Accomplishments
- Products
- Participants
- Impact
- Changes
- Special (agency specific) Reporting Requirements
- Budget (applicable for non-SNAP awards only, once they transition to RPPR)
In order to complete the various sections of the report, users will answer questions by using a checkbox, by entering text or uploading a PDF, or by selecting “Nothing to Report.”
Although much of the report content remains the same, one significant change will be the required inclusion of more detailed information on foreign components. This will include dollars spent in foreign country(ies) (through first-tier subawards) and the organizational affiliation of personnel at foreign sites.
The RPPR will also include a specific location to report distinctly on any competitive revision/administrative supplement associated with the award. Although a separate narrative report on supplements has long been a requirement for any award with a supplement, there was no such distinct section on prior report formats.
Enhanced Enforcement of Public Access Policy
Concurrent with the required use of the RPPR for SNAP and Fellowship awards with budget start dates on or after July 1st, NIH is making two significant changes with respect to their Public Access Policy.
- NIH will delay processing of a non-competing award if publications arising from it are not in compliance with the policy.
- NIH is also instituting changes in how publication information is included in progress report submissions, whether or not a progress report is submitted as an RPPR or using the PHS 2590 forms:
- The RPPR requires grantees to report publications using a Commons-linked My NCBI account. The RPPR publication section (C.1) is pre-populated with the PD/PI’s publications from My NCBI and the PD/PI just checks the publications to be associated with the current progress report.
- Additionally, although they are not transitioning yet to the RPPR process, the process for reporting publications in a paper PHS 2590 submission (for non-SNAP grants) will also be changing. Grantees will now be required to provide a My NCBI-generated PDF list of publications as part of the progress report.
Detailed information on linking My NCBI accounts and Commons accounts, as well as detailed information on associating funding to publications, and on creating the My NCBI PDF report can be found in the March 2013 edition of this newsletter.
If faculty have questions on whether publications resulting from an award are compliant with the Public Access Policy, they may follow instructions which are also detailed in the March 2013 RA newsletter for “Checking the Compliance of your articles.” Additionally, staff within the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library can also now access NIH’s new tool, the NIH Public Access Compliance Monitor, and are available to assist with Public Access Policy compliance questions. Faculty may contact either Jeremy Kupsco (jkupsco@emory.edu) or Christian Noble (cnoble@emory.edu) if they have questions about the compliance status of their publications.
Communications after RPPR Submission
NIH has also created a new Progress Report Additional Materials (PRAM) feature within Commons to allow for electronic submission of information in response to specific requests from NIH for additional materials following the submission of an RPPR. This may include requests for information or clarification concerning a submitted RPPR, or information related to the Public Access Policy compliance status of publications.
The use of PRAM for such responses is not required at this time. Grantees may respond to any such requests via e-mail to the Grants Management Specialist. However, NIH expects to make use of PRAM mandatory in the future.
NIH has provided the following resources regarding the RPPR and the Public Access Policy:
Research Performance Progress Report website:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/RPPR/
NIH RPPR Instruction Guide
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/RPPR/rppr_instruction_guide.pdf
RPPR Frequently Asked Questions
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/RPPR/faqs.htm
NIH Public Access Policy
Managing Compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy Using My NCBI
http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53595/#mybibliography.Managing_Compliance_to_th