Interim RPPR, No Tribble At All
Like those little fuzzy, purring, furry Tribbles that came cascading out of the grain silo onto Captain Kirk, we have one more RPPR to bounce off you!
As you may recall we started the transition to the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) back in April of 2012. And now, with NIH having transitioned to the Final RPPR as of January 1, 2017, we have one more transition to make. And that is to the Interim RPPR.
The Interim RPPR (IRPPR) will be used when you are submitting a Competing Renewal application (Type 2). Since the Type 2 application is a competing application, there is no guarantee it will be awarded. And whether it is or isn’t awarded, can create some confusion about what to do for a final report.
So here is the scenario of how the Interim RPPR will be used. If you opt NOT to apply for Competing Renewal, complete the Final RPPR as you normally would within 120 days of the project end date. If you are going to complete a Competing Renewal application (or have already submitted such an application), you will submit an Interim RPPR. This must be submitted within 120 days of the project end date.
If you are awarded the renewal, the Interim RPPR will be treated as your annual RPPR and no other progress reporting will be needed for that segment of the study. If the application is NOT awarded, then the Interim RPPR will be accepted as the Final RPPR.
Like the mystery of how the tribbles were able to consume an entire silo of quadrotriticale (notice it ends in “cale?” Probably just as tasty as kale!), there is still one mystery here as well. Who can initiate and submit these various types of RPPRs? First, annual RPPRs have not changed at all. The Progress Report delegation permits any user with the ASST role the ability to complete progress report information for a specified PI, but they cannot route or submit the report. The Submit delegation permits a specified Principal Investigator (PI) the ability to submit to agency the progress report, listing them as the Signing Official (SO) for that submission.
Second, Interim and Final RPPR work in the same manner as the old Final Progress Report (FPR). With the FPR, both SOs and PIs could initiate and/or submit to agency. They could also route the report back and forth for review and edits. All of this done without the need to delegate any authority. Interim RPPR and Final RPPR work in the same manner. No delegations needed for the initiation and submission of either version of these RPPRs.
Now because the format between the annual RPPR, the Interim RPPR and the Final RPPR are so similar, and permissions and delegations have not changed, this transition will be no tribble at all! (Come on! You knew I was goin’ there!)
Visit the NIH eRA Items of Interest page for more information.