Grant Progress Reporting - comprehensive

OMB Control No. 0648-0121

Expiration Date: XX/XX/202X

NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve

FY2019 Cooperative Agreement Performance Progress Report Guidelines

Introduction

This document provides guidance for the content and submission of NERR award progress performance reports. These reports are required on a semi-annual basis and provide information to the Office for Coastal Management (OCM) and the Grants Management Division (GMD) to determine if NERR programs are adhering to the terms of financial assistance awards, making appropriate progress toward award tasks, supporting the goals and objectives of the management plan, and addressing CZMA Section 312 Evaluation necessary actions.

New in FY2019 Progress Report Guidelines

• Updated Section 312 Evaluation Metrics and Recommendations Reporting Guidance, and include reference to current guidance.

• Please note that if you have a research award that received NEW funds in FY2019, you will be be required to utilize the new Research Progress Report Form in Grants Online, in addition to attaching the NERRS-specific reports. We anticipate that in 2019, this will only be applicable to the multiyear pilot awards, and we have sent separate guidance directly to those programs. If you have any questions or would like additional guidance, please contact your liaison or [email protected]..

Reporting Requirements

Award recipients are responsible for upholding the standard terms and conditions for all NOAA awards, including timely submission of semi-annual progress reports, financial reports, and post award action requests. Performance progress reports should be submitted every six months from the start of the award via NOAA’s Grants Online System https://grantsonline.rdc.noaa.gov/. Reports must be submitted no later than 30 days after the end of the performance period. For example, if the award starts July 1, the reporting period is July 1 through December 31 and the progress report is due by January 30. Final reports are not comprehensive; they cover only the last six month period of the award and are due within 90 days after the end of the award period. All financial and progress report requirements should be met during this period so that the award can be closed out in a timely manner. Please note that post award action requests will not be processed if progress and financial reports are not up to date. NOAA’s Grants Management Division will suspend payment on awards if reports are late.

Progress Report Contents

All recipients should follow the format below for consistency in providing valuable, comparable information across the system. Each semi-annual report should include:

1. Report Heading

Reserve name

Report contact name, email and phone number

Grant or cooperative agreement number

Reporting period

Date of submission

2. Progress and Status of Award Tasks

The status of each task should be described following the CAMMP format of the award for the six month reporting period only. The reports should describe the activities that have taken place to achieve the outcomes outlined within each task of the grant. Outcomes, the results and/or products from conducting activities, should be described when appropriate. Given that outcomes are written for each award based on a 12 month scope of work, some outcomes may not be fully realized until the end of the award. While most awards are 18 months long, most tasks should be completed and reported on within the 12 month time frame. If anticipated milestones are not being met, the challenges or obstacles should be explained. Post award action request approvals will be made based on this information.

This section should provide a summary of progress on each task. Each entry should include the task title, description of activities, status of milestones (not started, in progress/on schedule, not on schedule, completed) and challenges related to meeting milestones if appropriate, and outcomes from the tasks, when appropriate. Where tasks have supported the collection or creation of environmental data and information, report entries should describe how the data have been made available and accessible to the public, per the data management plan that was submitted with the original award application.

3. Section 312 Evaluation Progress

This Section describes status and progress in meeting any ‘necessary actions,’ ‘program suggestions’ or ‘recommendations’ identified in the most recent Section 312 Evaluation Findings. The current evaluation metrics guidance (Reporting Guidance Coastal Zone Management Act, Section 312 Evaluation Metrics and Recommendations ) is attached as a reference.

1. Recommendation Report Format

Recommendation type (“Necessary Action” or “Recommendation.”) and full text of recommendation.

Short Summary

• Description of key activities and results that address the recommendation during the reporting period. Most descriptions should be 1-5 sentences.

• If the status of the recommendations is either “not started” or “not on schedule,” include a short explanation and describe any plans to address the recommendation.

Deadline(s) established by the evaluation recommendation, if applicable.

Status (“Completed” + completion date, “In-progress,” “Not on Schedule,” or “Not Started”)

2. Closing out a Recommendation

If a program has fully addressed a recommendation during a reporting period, it should mark the status as completed in its performance progress report. For this submittal, a brief paragraph summary of how the recommendation was addressed over multiple reporting periods should be included. A recommendation that is not a necessary action may also be marked as complete if a program explores pursuing the recommendation but determines it is not in the best interest of the program. A brief paragraph summary describing how the conclusion was reached should be included.

After a recommendation is reported as complete in the performance progress report, and the site liaison concurs through approval of the performance progress report, no future reporting is necessary. If you have questions about whether a recommendation should be closed out, please consult with your site liaison. Please note that not all recommendations are written as tasks with end points, and in some cases programs will need to continue to report on recommendations until the next evaluation.

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3. Reporting on 312 Evaluation Metrics

Please note that each reserve will report its progress through the existing NERRS performance measurement databases. No separate reporting will be required in the annual progress report.

4. Performance Measures

The activity of collecting performance measures falls in an operations and management task. All performance measures should be reported in the applicable performance measure databases, as described in the table below. All measures should be reported on for the first two six-month periods of each operations award, except the two research measures which are reported only at the twelve-month report period.   Reserve personnel may use the NERRS Performance Measures Database and may add information to the Research and Monitoring Database throughout the reporting period to keep draft reports before submitting their semi-annual reports.

	Research Measures	Volunteer	CTP Training Activities	CTP Outcomes and Success Stories	CTP Technical Assistance	Education Output Indicators
Requirement	REQUIRED	REQUIRED	REQUIRED	REQUIRED	OPTIONAL	REQUIRED
Reporting Frequency	coincide with the one-year progress report.	Volunteers - every six months Research -	Every six months. (Minimum of five Training Events per Fiscal year, target of 90% CDMs reporting that they intend to apply what they learned)	Minimum of one CTP Success Story required per year	Submit as they occur	Every six months
Where do I report?	NERRS Research Monitoring Database https://coast.noaa.gov/nerrsresearch/	NERRS Performance Measure Database https://coast.noaa.gov/nerrspm/Login.aspx	NERRS Performance Measure Database https://coast.noaa.gov/nerrspm/Login.aspx	NERRS Performance Measure Database https://coast.noaa.gov/nerrspm/Login.aspx	NERRS Performance Measure Database https://coast.noaa.gov/nerrspm/Login.aspx	Knack Database https://noaaedeval.knackhq.com/unified-data-call#nerrs/
What do I report?	Research and monitoring projects; products (i.e., publications, presentations)	Number of volunteers and volunteer hours,	Number of events, Number of contact hours, number of Coastal Decision Makers reached, event type and duration, post event evaluation	Success stories are comprehensive narratives with significant results	Description of service to Coastal Decision Makers that support CTP	Educators, Students Public Outreach, Visitors, Volunteers, TOTE Outcomes (educators that intend to/have integrated), success stories. OPTIONAL: TOTE outcomes, Stewardship Education Activities
Reporting Instructions	Projects and products associated with time frame of operations award should be entered into the Research Database to coincide with the one-year progress report.	Volunteer hours will be entered in two places for each 6-month reporting period: under a Reserve reporting page and the Education reporting page. Education volunteer indicators should be reported under the education page, all else under reserves. (See NERRS Performance Measurement Guidance page 19 for more details)	Report in the online performance measuring database	Report in the online performance measuring database	Report in the online performance measuring database	Report in Knack database. Reminder - do NOT report on education measures in the NERRS Performance Measure Database. TOTE: just report once under TOTE events. Success stories: report in Knack (see instructions NERRS Education Performance Monitoring Guidance Manual page 5)

Performance Measure Reporting Summary Table

Managers are expected to ensure that all required elements are submitted for a given time period. Please fill out and include the table below as part of your semi-annual progress report, as verification that the Reserve has completed Performance Measure reporting. Note: This table replaces the ‘Manager Summary Report’ that was generated from the NERRS Performance Measure database and the NERRS Education Knack Database; NOAA is no longer requiring that Manager Summary Report or the Knack screenshot to be attached to each semi-annual report.

Type of Measures	Date Measures Submitted for First Progress Reporting Period.	Date Measures Submitted for 2nd Progress Reporting Period.	Notes from Reserve
Volunteer Measures
Research Measures (submitted over the course of the year or to coincide with the one-year progress report).	N/A
CTP Training (Minimum 5 per year, target of 90% of CDMs reporting that they plan to apply what they learned)
CTP Outcome Story (Minimum 1 story per year)
CTP Technical Assistance (as needed)
Education Output Indicators (Knack Database)
312 Metrics (Existing indicators, reported through existing databases)	N/A

E. Reporting on Equipment and Real Property

Equipment or supplies acquired at a cost or having a fair market value of $5,000 or greater per unit must be inventoried in the final progress report by completing standard form SF‐428. Recipients who requested funds for real property (common to construction grants) or land acquisition must complete standard form SF‐429. Recipients must report on equipment, supplies, and real property at a cost or fair market value of $5,000 or greater purchased by any subrecipients or if equipment was obtained from a federal agency. More guidance on property definitions and forms is posted under: http://coast.noaa.gov/funding/forms.html.

Reserves also must briefly address any significant equipment issues including how the equipment will be used after the project ends.

F. Data Sharing Plan

Reserves should ensure that environmental data and information collected and/or created via this award is being shared according to the data management plan submitted with the initial award application. Specifically, environmental data should be made visible, accessible and independently understandable to users, free of charge or at minimal cost, in a timely manner (typically no later than two (2) years after the data are collected or created), except where limited by law, regulation, policy or by security requirements. For tasks that create and/or collect environmental data and information, other than core SWMP data (i.e., weather, water quality, and nutrients), please note in the progress report when the resulting data have been made publicly available or archived at CDMO. If the data are not available by the end of the award period, the final progress report should include information about when and where the non-core SWMP data will be made publicly available.

The environmental data and information produced under this award and which are made public must be accompanied by the following statement: These environmental data and related items of information have not been formally disseminated by NOAA and do not represent and should not be construed to represent any agency determination, view, or policy.

Failing to share environmental data and information in accordance with the submitted Data/Information Sharing Plan may lead to disallowed costs and be considered by NOAA when making future award decisions.

G. Optional Addendum

We understand that it often takes more than the NOAA federal and state cost share to operate a reserve. We encourage reserves to describe the activities that are relevant to the mission of the reserve, but may be outside the scope of the operations grant. This information will enable OCM to capitalize on opportunities within and outside of NOAA and share this information with NOAA partners and leadership about innovative projects and challenges at the reserve. It would be advantageous to describe the partners and leveraged funds that support this work.

Annual reports

Annual comprehensive reports are not required per the award reporting guidelines. For those sites that produce an “annual report”, please make them available to the NERR community.

Post award requests

List of Award Action Requests

The actions below may be initiated by the recipient within NOAA’s Grants Online System. Please note that the NOAA Grants Management Division has developed an updated Award Action Requests (AARs) Guidance for Grant Recipients that incorporates policy updates instituted under 2 CFR Part 200. http://www.corporateservices.noaa.gov/grantsonline/Documents/AAR_Assistance/Recipient_AAR_Help.pdf

H. Links and Additional Resources

NOAA’s Acquisition and Grants Home Page

http://www.ago.noaa.gov/

The grantee link includes information and links to policies, manuals, Grants.Gov, Grants Online, training, federal forms and the ASAP (Automated Standard Application Program). The Department of Treasury Financial Management Services ASAP allows grantee organizations receiving federal funds to draw from accounts pre-authorized by NOAA and other federal agencies.

NERRS Intranet

https://coast.noaa.gov/NerrsIntranet/

All guidance documents and reporting tools can be found on the intranet under the Grants and Performance Measurement tab within the ‘NERRS Guidance, Policy and Planning Documents’ section.

NERRS Research Database

https://coast.noaa.gov/nerrsresearch/

The NERRS Research Database houses reserve research and monitoring projects and products. Products should be entered using “add publication” function.

NERRS Performance Measure Database
https://coast.noaa.gov/nerrspm/

Reserves will submit all performance measures through the NERRS Performance Measures Database.  Reports should be submitted in accordance with the Grants Online reporting timeline: reports are due thirty days after the reporting period ends.  Reserve personnel can use the NERRS Performance Measures Database throughout the reporting period to before submitting performance measures reports to OCM.

NERRS Education Knack Database
https://noaaedeval.knack.com/unified-data-call#nerrs/

Reserves will submit all education performance measures through the Knack education database. Reports should be submitted in accordance with the Grants Online reporting timeline: reports are due thirty days after the reporting period ends. Reserve personnel can use the Knack Database at any time to post their data throughout the reporting period; access a pie-chart summarizing their data; and access/print a report.

Appendices

1. NERRS Performance Measures Database Guidance Document for Reserve Users

2. NERRS Education Sector Performance Monitoring Guidance Manual.

3. NERRS Coastal Training Program Performance Monitoring Basics.

4. Reporting Guidance, 312 metrics

Paperwork Reduction Act:

A Federal agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, nor shall a person be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with an information collection subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 unless the information collection has a currently valid OMB Control Number. The approved OMB Control Number for this information collection is 0648-0121. Without this approval, we could not conduct this information collection. Public reporting for this information collection is estimated to be approximately 10 hours per comprehensive response and 4 hours for a final non-comprehensive response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the information collection. All responses to this information collection are required to obtain or retain benefits, pursuant to the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, 16 USC Chapter 33. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this information collection, including suggestions for reducing this burden to the Office for Coastal Management (OCM), attention Liz Mountz at [email protected].

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