An Intro to Research.gov and Annual Reports

Annual reports provide the National Science Foundation (NSF) with yearly information and data about your center or project’s impact and activities. Required of all NSF grants, program officers use these reports to learn about grant activities, monitor progress towards goals and objectives, and provide feedback. They also use this information to analyze program impact and produce their own reports.

As of last year, NSF reports are now solely submitted using the government-wide Research.gov system. After receiving considerable feedback and questions regarding the project reporting service, the Research.gov team recently launched a demo site to provide a platform for practicing how to use the tool. The demo site provides some examples of annual reports and allows PIs to explore the sections – although many of the actual features of the full Research.gov site are not included. Whether you are using the demo site or the full reporting site, here is an overview of the sections your project or center will need to fill out to complete your annual report:

• Cover

  • The cover sheet provides basic information about your project or center.

• Accomplishments

  • This section has a series of questions and text boxes that focus on what was done and what was learned during the reporting period. Questions include, “What are the major goals of the project?” and “How have results been disseminated to communities of interest?” PIs are also asked to report on significant results and key outcomes.

• Products

  • PIs have an opportunity to quantify products created via funding (e.g. inventions, publications, or websites) in this section of the report. Supporting documents including PDFs with tables, charts or other graphics can be uploaded here as well.

• Participants

  • All of the people working as part of your project or center need to be listed in this section of the report, including students, staff, organizations and collaborators, and others.

• Impact

  • This component of the report gives PIs a chance to record how their work, findings, and specific deliverables have had an impact during the reporting period. This section asks specific questions about impact in a variety of areas (e.g. the project’s impact on technology transfer or the impact on society beyond science and technology) and provides text boxes for PI’s answers.

• Changes/Problems

  • This section provides a place for PIs to report on changes in approach or any anticipated problems.

• Special Requirements

  • This final section allows PIs to respond to any special reporting requirements outlined in the award terms and conditions, as well as any award-specific reporting requirements.

It’s important to familiarize yourself with the sections listed above and to begin to collect data for each section long before your report is due (you can find out when your report is due by logging into Research.gov or getting there via Fastlane). The sooner you get started, particularly if this is your first annual report, the better.

Here are some links that will help support your efforts as you create your annual report:

• EvaluATE guide to preparing annual reports
• About Research.gov Project Reporting
• Online Research.gov Help System
• Research.gov Demo Site

While the information provided in this brief overview, and in the links above, should be helpful in completing your annual report, always remember, if in doubt, you can call or email your program officer who will be able to provide the most up-to-date information. Also, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns that were not addressed here. Your feedback is always appreciated!