Initiating the RPPR

Agency-Specific Instructions: DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. For DOC awards, see these DOC-specific instructions for initiating an RPPR: Initiating the Department of Commerce RPPR

Only the program director/principal investigator (PD/PI) or their PD/PI delegate can initiate an RPPR and only a signing official (SO) can submit it. When there are multiple PIs (MPI), only the Contact PD/PI or the Contact PD/PI’s delegate can initiate the RPPR.

To initiate, the user can choose from one of two ways to access the RPPR functionality:

  1. ClosedAccess RPPR from Status.
    1. Navigate to the Status module in eRA Commons.
    2. Click the List of Applications/Awards heading or arrow on the Status screen.

    Status tab and List of Applications link

    1. From the Status Result - List of Applications/Grants screen, locate the award and click the RPPR link from the Actions drop-down menu in the Available Actions column for the specific grant (use Flat View). The RPPR link for the current reporting period is available once the Notice of Award for the prior year has been issued. This link remains available until the RPPR for the current reporting year has been submitted.

      For multi-year funded awards, the link will display as RPPR Year <X>, the <X> representing the reporting year. The link for a multi-year funded award is available two months prior to the RPPR due date for the current reporting period and remains available until the RPPR is submitted. Note that AHRQ has not yet implemented the RPPR for multi-year funded awards.

      NOTE: While RPPR Year <X> links for multiple years may appear at the same time in Status, you are prevented from initiating a progress report until the previous progress report(s) have been submitted.

    RPPR link

-OR-

  1. ClosedAccess RPPR by clicking RPPR in eRA Commons navigation (not applicable for DOC Awards).
    1. Navigate to the RPPR module in eRA Commons.

      The Manage RPPR screen displays, which shows grants that require RPPRs or have RPPRs in progress. The user can select a progress report in order to perform various actions.
      Signing officials and authorized officials see search options on Manage RPPR, which let them search for specific awards (see ). Search results are listed below.
      Principal investigators or their delegates see only the list of progress reports to which the logged in user has access.

    1. Select a specific award by clicking its link in the Award Number column on the Manage RPPR screen.

    Award Number link

If an RPPR exists already, Commons displays the report for editing.

If the RPPR is not yet started, the RPPR Menu screen displays with an Initiate button.

  1. ClosedClick the Initiate button to begin the RPPR.

    Initiate button

Once initiated, Commons creates the RPPR in a PD/PI Work in Progress status and sets the current reviewer. A message displays as follows:

The RPPR has been successfully initiated.

NOTE: If initiation fails due to business rules validations, error or warning messages display on the screen.

Once initiated, begin editing by clicking the three-dot ellipsis icon next to Award Number and selecting Edit RPPR. The RPPR is accessed for editing via the RPPR Menu screen. The steps for accessing each type of RPPR are outlined in other topics. Refer to Accessing a Single-Project RPPR for Editing or Accessing a Multi-Project or Single-Project with Complicated Structure for Editing.

Accessing a Work-in-Progress RPPR

If an RPPR is due but not started or already initiated, you can access it via the RPPR module. See Manage RPPR Screen.

You can edit an RPPR only if you are the current reviewer. The PI who initiated the RPPR is automatically the current reviewer. When the RPPR is routed to someone else, that person becomes the current reviewer and can edit. See Routing the RPPR.