Data Call Guidance

OMB# 0925-0682
Expiration: 1/31/2026

Guidance for Submitting and Coding 202X Autism Research Funding Data
In order to perform the monitoring of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) activities mandated by the
Autism Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education, and Support (CARES) Act, the Interagency
Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) is asking agencies and organizations that make significant
contributions to ASD research to report how their 202X investments in ASD research correspond to the
Questions and research Objectives of the 2016-2017 IACC Strategic Plan. This will greatly help the IACC
to understand the current funding landscape and inform their strategic planning activities. To view the
analysis that was conducted using 2017 and 2018 ASD research project data, please see the 2017-2018
IACC Autism Spectrum Disorder Research Portfolio Analysis Report.

Overview:

The 2016-2017 IACC Strategic Plan is organized around seven critical Questions faced by people and
families living with ASD:
• Question 1 (Diagnosis and Screening) – How Can I Recognize the Signs of Autism, and Why is
Early Detection So Important?
• Question 2 (Biology) – What Is the Biology Underlying Autism?
• Question 3 (Genetic and Environmental Factors) – What Causes Autism, and Can Disabling
Aspects of Autism be Prevented or Preempted?
• Question 4 (Interventions) – Which Treatments and Interventions Will Help?
• Question 5 (Services and Supports) – What Kinds of Services and Supports are Needed to
Maximize Quality of Life for People on the Autism Spectrum?
• Question 6 (Lifespan) – How Can We Meet the Needs of People with Autism as They Progress
into and through Adulthood?
• Question 7 (Infrastructure and Surveillance) – How Do We Continue to Build, Expand, and
Enhance the Infrastructure System to Meet the Needs of the ASD Community?
The “202X ASD Research Spreadsheet” accompanying this guidance contains a listing of projects
provided by your organization to the IACC for fiscal year 202X, as well as space for you to include
projects that were newly funded in 202X. On behalf of the IACC, the Office of Autism Research
Coordination (OARC) is requesting information on your agency/organization’s 202X projects. This would
include all ongoing and newly funded projects from 202X (either fiscal year or calendar year, whichever
measure is used by your agency/organization). Please refer to the instructions below to fill out the 202X
ASD Research spreadsheet. In deciding which projects to include in the spreadsheet, please list all
projects that are responsive to Objectives in the 2016-2017 IACC Strategic Plan. In cases where
potentially relevant projects that were new in 202X could be identified through websites or online
databases, OARC pre-populated the spreadsheet with these projects and provided draft coding for your
review. Projects may be added or deleted, and revised coding may be suggested as needed. If you have
any questions about whether a particular project should be included, please feel free to contact OARC
for assistance.

OMB# 0925-0682
Expiration: 1/31/2026
Instructions:
1) Verify information for ongoing projects
All the information for autism research projects that was provided by your organization for 202X is
already in the “202X ASD Projects” spreadsheet. Please review this information for accuracy and fill in
additional information where required in the following columns:
•

•

•
•
•

Project Status in 202X: If a project had any funding or any research activity at any time in 202X,
then please use the drop-down box to list the project as “Ongoing.” If there was no funding or
research activity in 202X, then please use the drop-down box to list the project as
“Terminated.”
Multi-Site (Yes/No): This enables us to keep track of projects that have more than one location
where research activities are taking place. A project is considered to be multi-site if it supports
research activities at multiple locations or if the project is one of several projects that make up
a research network. Please pick “yes” or “no” from the drop-down menu for each project.
202X Funding: Please fill in the 202X funding amount. If the project remained active in 202X
but did not receive funding, please add $0 to the space.
New or Revised Weblink/New or revised Project description: Please fill out only if any
information has changed from 202X.
202X SP Question/202X SP Objective: Please verify the coding of each project according to the
2016-2017 IACC Strategic Plan. The coding from 202X is listed in the “Previous SP Question
Code” and “Previous SP Objective Code” columns.
• If you agree with the Question and Objective codes suggested by OARC, no further
action is required. If you do not agree with the previous years’ coding, you may suggest
an alternative Objective Code in the “202X Objective Code (by Agency/Org)” column. If
you would like to change the Question Code for a project, please use the drop-down
boxes under the “202X SP Question Code (By Agency/Org)” columns to select first the
Question and then the Objective that you think best describes the project according to
the IACC Strategic Plan. Please include a note in the “Comments” column to explain the
reason(s) for the change in Question coding.
• For your convenience, a Coding Reference Sheet is in the first tab of the spreadsheet
and lists all of the Strategic Plan Objectives.

Please Note: If other aspects of a project have changed since 202X (e.g., PI, Project Title, Institution),
please do not alter the information in these cells; instead, provide revised data in the “Comments”
column in the spreadsheet. Please ignore any cells that are blacked out; you do not need to put any
information in these columns.

OMB# 0925-0682
Expiration: 1/31/2026
2) Provide information on projects that are new in 202X
The tab labeled “202X ASD Projects” also includes space to list all the new projects funded by your
organization in 202X. This new project data should be entered in rows below the ongoing project data.
The beginning of this section for data entry can be found by looking for rows that have a yellow
highlighted cell on the far left. These cells indicate that all new project information should be entered
into the adjacent cells to the right. Please fill in the missing information in the green cells for each
project. The Project Status in 202X (“New”) has been filled in for you. If you know of any projects that
are ongoing that were inadvertently left out of the 202X Data Call, please provide them in these rows as
well, and choose “Ongoing” from the drop-down options for Project Status. Please fill in all of the
required columns to the best of your ability according to the instructions above, including:
• Project Status in 202X: This has been auto-populated to “New”.
• Start/End Date: Please fill in the column for start date and the column for end date. If available,
use specific dates and not just the year.
• 202X Funding: Please fill in the 202X funding amount; if the project was active but did not
receive funding, fill in $0.
• Project Description and Weblink: A short, accurate project description (a few sentences is
enough) or a weblink to a site where a project description can be found is very useful for
verifying coding of the projects, as well as helping readers understand the activities included in
the projects. If no project description or weblink is available, please type “Project
description/weblink unavailable.” At least one of these columns will need to provide
information on the project for OARC to verify coding.
Columns where previous information does not exist for new projects, such as 202X funding, previous
project descriptions or last year’s codes, have been blacked out. You need not put any information in
these cells for new projects.
For some organizations with publicly available databases, OARC has pre-populated the spreadsheet
with new projects that began in 202X that were identified from the database as potentially being
related to ASD research. We have made every attempt to include as much available data as possible
as well as provide suggested Objective and Question coding. Please review these projects and revise
the list as needed, supplementing any missing and/or incorrect data as well as adding additional
projects if necessary.
Coding
In previous years, OARC has requested that funders code each project according to the Objectives in the
IACC Strategic Plan. To reduce the burden on agencies and organizations participating in the IACC
portfolio analysis data collection, the OARC is again offering the option to have organizations send
their new project listings to OARC to assign preliminary codes, and then for OARC to return the coding
to the organization for verification. Hopefully this second option will reduce the effort required of
organizations to determine which code best fits each project. If you would like to take advantage of
this opportunity, please follow the procedure below:
Instructions for obtaining pre-coding of new projects from OARC:
If you would like OARC to assign preliminary codes for new 202X projects, then simply leave the 202X
Strategic Plan (SP) Question and Objective Code columns blank and return the spreadsheet with a note

OMB# 0925-0682
Expiration: 1/31/2026
stating that you would like our office to assign codes. Once OARC has assigned preliminary codes, our
office will return the spreadsheet to you for coding verification. Once you receive the list of projects
with preliminary coding added, you may review the coding and determine whether you would like to
keep the preliminary codes or suggest alternate codes.
Instructions for organizations that wish to do the preliminary coding of their own projects:
If your organization would prefer to assign the codes, then you may use the drop-down boxes in the
2018 SP Question and Objective Code (by Agency/Org) columns to assign first the Question and then the
Objective that best describes each project according to the Strategic Plan (the assignments must be
made in that order). A project may also fit within a Question but not a specific Objective, in which case
you can select the appropriate Question followed by “Not specific to Question X objectives” in the
Objective column.
3) Provide information regarding other projects if applicable
If you are aware of additional projects funded by your organization that may address a broader scientific
scope (e.g., that may include autism but are not limited to autism, such as projects pertaining to
multiple disabilities or disorders) but still have relevance to autism or the IACC Strategic Plan for Autism
Spectrum Disorder, please provide the project information in the “Other ASD-Related Projects”
tab. These projects will not be included in the autism research project listing for your agency or
organization and their funding will not be included in your agency’s or organization's total for autism
spending, but summary information about these projects may be made available to the IACC for their
information and to the public via the IACC Portfolio Analysis Report, with the goal of informing the
community of additional projects that may have relevance to autism research.

Send your completed ASD Research Spreadsheet to [email protected]. Any questions
may also be directed to this e-mail address, and one of the OARC staff will follow up.