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NIH Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR)

Adapted from NIH Grants & Funding>Research Performance Progress Report

The Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) is the progress report form used by grantees to submit progress reports to NIH. The RPPR documents grantee/recipient accomplishments and compliance with the terms of the award. There are three types of RPPRs, all of which use the NIH RPPR Instruction Guide: the Annual RPPR, the Final RPPR and the Interim RPPR.

Types of RPPRs

  • Annual RPPR – The Annual RPPR is used to describe a grant’s scientific progress, identify significant changes, report on personnel, and describe plans for the subsequent budget period.
  • Final RPPR – The Final RPPR is used as part of the grant closeout process to submit project outcomes.
  • Interim RPPR – The interim RPPR is used when a competing renewal (Type 2 application) has been submitted. If the competing renewal is not funded, the Interim RPPR will serve as the Final RPPR for the project and no other report is required. If the renewal application is funded, the Interim RPPR will serve as the annual RPPR for the final year of the previous competitive segment.

Submitting the RPPR

All 3 types of NIH RPPRs are submitted through eRA Commons (there is no form available for download). The Annual and Interim RPPR links can be accessed through the Commons Status tab. The Interim RPPR link will appear one day after the project segment end date, but before it has moved to closeout. The Final RPPR link will become available through the closeout module once the grant is eligible for closeout.

The RPPR will not be submitted by OSP until all areas of the RPPR are in compliance with NIH guidelines and internal policies and procedures.

Due Dates

Annual RPPR:

  • Streamlined Non-Competing Award Process (SNAP) RPPRs are due approximately 45 days before the next budget period start date.
  • Non-SNAP RPPRs are due approximately 60 days before the next budget period start date. 
  • Multi-year funded (MYF) RPPRs are due annually on or before the anniversary of the budget/project period start date of the award.

Interim and Final RPPR:

  • 120 days from period of performance end date for the competitive segment.

Information Needed

As each award may have specific requirements depending on the NIH award mechanism, please consult the NIH RPPR Instruction Guide to determine the exact items needed for a specific project’s RPPR. At a high level, the following is needed for nearly every RPPR:

  • Date due to sponsor
  • An eRA Commons username and delegate access to the project director/principal investigator’s (PD/PI’s) project in eRA Commons.
  • Accomplishments - NIH requires up to two pages of accomplishments exclusive of graphs and charts.
  • Participants - Names and effort of all personnel that have worked at least one person-month on the project during the reporting period, regardless of the source of compensation. The PD/PI’s effort must be listed regardless if it was less than 1.0 calendar month. As a reminder, all PD/PIs on NIH awards are required to have measurable effort.
  • eRA Commons usernames of all scientific staff reported on the RPPR (grad student, postdoc, PI).
  • Changes in Other Support – If there have been changes in the active Other Support of Senior/Key personnel since the last reporting period, an updated Other Support page is required. Examples include if a previously active grant has terminated and/or if a previously pending grant is now active. Any changes from the previous reporting period must be annotated so it is clear what has changed from the previous submission (please note this is not needed for a Final RPPR).
  • Changes in Level of Effort – It must be reported if there will be, in the next budget period, either a reduction of 25% or more in the level of effort from what was approved by the agency for the PD/PI(s) or other Senior/Key personnel designated in the Notice of Award, or a reduction in level of effort below the minimum amount of effort required by the Notice of Award.
  • Unobligated Balance/Carryover greater than 25% - It must be reported if there will be an anticipated estimated unobligated balance (including prior year carryover) greater than 25% of the current year’s total approved budget.
  • Publications and Inventions - Publications (compliant with NIH Public Access policy), conference papers, presentations, website(s) or other Internet site(s), reportable technologies or techniques or inventions, patent applications, and/or licenses should be listed on the RPPR.
  • Training and Professional Development - Any opportunities for training and professional development on the project should be described.
  • New Senior/Key Personnel - If you have new Senior/Key personnel to report, a biosketch for the new Senior/Key personnel is required.
  • Changes in any human, animal, biohazard, select agent research, or foreign components, as applicable.

Roles and responsibilities:

  • The department holds the primary responsibility for entering information into the RPPR forms in eRA Commons, as well as completing a corresponding Continuation request in GMAS.
  • The department will route the RPPR in eRA Commons to the appropriate Awards Management contact at OSP when it is ready for submission
  • The OSP Awards Awards Management team will review RPPR/Continuation requests once all required signatures are obtained on the GMAS request
  • The OSP Awards Management team will submit the RPPR to the NIH in eRA Commons as the Signing/Business Official on behalf of the contact PD/PI, and mark the Continuation request as submitted in GMAS. Please note that only the project PD/PI or their PD/PI delegate can initiate RPPRs in eRA Commons. For multi-PD/PI grants only, the Contact PI or the Contact PD/PI's delegate can initiate the RPPR.