OMB Guidlines for RPPR

OMB Paperwork Reduction Act Contact Regarding the RPPR

Sharon Mar

Policy Analyst│Information Policy

OMB│Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

Tel: 202.395.6466│Fax: 202.395.5167│[email protected]

 

Paperwork Reduction Act approval process for Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR)

According to the recently issued OMB/OSTP RPPR policy letter, agencies will be required to use the RPPR format for use in submission of annual or other interim progress reports on research and research-related grants and cooperative agreements.  This format is intended to replace performance reporting formats now used by agencies for these types of awards, and thereby increase the consistency of reporting and reduce paperwork burdens.

OMB seeks to facilitate use of the RPPR for agencies by clarifying the applicability of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA).  OMB will apply the PRA in four different ways, depending on the nature of the requested changes made by agencies as follows:

• Agencies that currently collect the mandatory or optional information covered by the RPPR components and associated instructions, may submit a “non-substantive change” request to OMB for review and approval under the PRA.  This type of request may be submitted directly to OIRA for expedited review without prior public notice and comment. 

• Agencies that currently collect some of the mandatory information covered by the RPPR components and associated instructions and elect to collect more mandatory information, must request OMB approval of a “revision” under the PRA.  Since the mandatory RPPR information has already been subject to one round of public notice and comment under NSF’s Federal Register 60-day notice, OMB will require only a 30-day FR notice from agencies opting to add additional mandatory information to their existing collection.

• Agencies that currently collect some mandatory information and elect to collect additional, questions covered in an optional RPPR component must request OMB approval of a “revision” under the PRA.  This type of request involves the normal PRA public notice and comment process, which will result in a new three-year OMB approval.

• Agencies that do not currently have their own specific performance reporting format(s) and need to adopt the RPPR, must request a “new” collection under the PRA, which also involves the normal PRA public notice and comment process. 

Please note that any additional agency and/or program-specific reporting that agencies may develop will require OMB review and clearance under the PRA.  We encourage agencies to minimize reporting burden and limit to the degree to which they supplement the standard categories.