REEport Projects

All experiment station scientists/faculty with an AAES appointment of 50% or greater must maintain their own capacity-funded REEport project.

Scientists/faculty with a minority appointment in the AAES must serve as a Co-PI on at least one Capacity project according to AAES Policy. Capacity project types include Hatch, Hatch/Multistate, McIntire-Stennis, and Animal Health.

Non-Capacity or competitive grants are not required unless awarded.  These are supplemental funding and do not fulfill the Capacity-funded project requirement.

Capacity funding: These are 5-year research plans with measurable goals and impacts designed to contribute to the broad research mission of USDA-NIFA. Required for faculty with 50% AAES appointment or more.

• Hatch (research on all aspects of agriculture)
• Animal Health (funding to promote animal health research)
• McIntire-Stennis (a program focused on state forestry research – U of A Monticello)
• Hatch-Multistate (also called “Regional”, cooperatively planned research of concern to multiple states or a region) There are several types of Multistate project groups and some types do not require a REEport. The project tagged with ‘ERA, CC, or DC’ may not require a separate REEport number. Contact REEport Admin for more details

Non-Capacity funding: Competitively awarded and not required, often found and applied for on grants.gov)

• Non-Formula (awarded by NIFA for specific projects)
• State (awarded by 3^rd party organization)

NIFA utilizes two reporting systems to implement research performance progress reporting.  The faculty member, the department head, and the department admin will have access to view their department’s REEports on both systems.

• NRS (NIFA Reporting System) is the newest of USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture’s reporting systems. The NRS system is currently being used for Capacity Grants (Hatch, Hatch-Multistate, McIntire-Stennis, and Animal Health). Eventually, all projects and programs funded by NIFA capacity grants or non-capacity research, extension, or education grants will be reported in NRS.
• REEport (Research, Education, and Extension project online reporting tool) is the other grants management and reporting system managed by NIFA and is used for Non-Capacity and competitive grants (State, Non-Formula).

You can also search on Workday for UADA REEports. Go to the search bar and type ‘REEport’ and the faculty member’s last name.  This will bring up their active and terminated REEport numbers.

First, determine your funding source.  If this is for your overall 5-year research plan, you will submit on NRS for a Capacity REEport.  If this is funding that you’ve been awarded through NIFA or another party, you will submit it on the REEport site for a Competitive REEport.  Contact REEport Coordinator for more information

Steps to create a new Capacity REEport project:

1. Researcher creates research proposal outline. It must have clear and documented relevance to agricultural research. It should serve as a general statement of your 5 year research plan. It should include objectives, methods, and justification for your research.
2. Researcher and/or Dept Head select a review committee of 3 peers. Peer Review Committee and Dept Head conduct a review and approval of the project proposal
3. Project Approval Peer Review form is signed by committee members and Dept Head, then sent to jabailey@uark.edu
4. If appropriate, prepare and submit new IRB or IACUC approvals with UofA Research Compliance
5. Researcher enters new project information into NIFA’s NRS system portal and submits for Organizational Review
6. REEport Admin reviews and sends final project to NIFA.  New REEport number is created and added to Workday. REEport is active in NIFA and UADA systems.

How to submit a new project on NRS

Steps to create a new Non-Capacity REEport project:

1. Researcher seeks out, applies, and is awarded research grant
2. Awards coming from NIFA will include a link to a draft already created on the REEport site for you. Faculty will enter the missing research data and submit for organizational approval.
3. Other 3^rd party awards are added by researcher into the REEport site once they are awarded

How to submit a new project on REEport

All research projects, regardless of funding type, will require annual updates. These updates are called Results and Progress Reports.

Capacity Projects
Results are due each January and summarize the research that took place the previous fiscal year.  Results must be reviewed and approved by the Dept Head before they are submitted for organizational review in the NRS system.  Departments may set internal due dates earlier to allow for departmental review. Follow a federal fiscal reporting duration of Oct 1^st – Sept 30^th, regardless of project start date
How to add annual Results on NRS

Non-Capacity/Competitive
Follow a fiscal calendar based on start date.  Progress & Final reports are due 90 days after the anniversary of the start date.
How to add Progress/Final report on REEport

Projects 

Multistate Research Projects (MRP’s) are capacity projects that have scientists from around the US working as a team on projects of regional or national interest.  UADA researchers can sign up for multistate projects on the NIMSS website by submitting an ‘Appendix E’

Once you join a Multistate project on the NIMSS site, you will also submit for a new REEport number on the NRS site.  NIMSS hosts the overall project research being conducted by the group, while the NRS site will host your specific contributions to the project.

There are several types of Multistate project groups and some types do not require a REEport. Project tagged with ‘ERA, CC, or DC’ may not require a separate REEport.  Contact the REEport Admin for more information

How to join a Multistate project

Travel Funding

If you plan to attend a multi-state meeting, you may be eligible for funding support for your trip. Please provide the information below to the Business Office Fiscal Operations Manager via email to request approval. Please email: hfranken@uark.edu

– How does this work?

• The meeting must be listed on the NIMSS website. https://www.nimss.org/
• The person traveling to the meeting must be listed on the NIMSS website as the Head or Lead PI for the university.
• If the meeting is not listed on the NIMSS website yet, please contact NIMSS to get it listed. If it won’t be listed in time to book travel the AES Business Office will accept an official email listing the dates and title of the meeting.
• Maximum funded amount is $1,200 dollars.
• When submitting the final expense report, use the worktag provided by the Business Office Fiscal Operations Manager and attach the email approval as a pdf in Workday. ALL related multi-state charges must be on one expense report. If you submit multiple expense reports they may be denied.

– What can I use the funds for?

• Funds must be used for expenses directly related to attending the multi-state meeting.

Examples of what funds may be used for are: conference registration, flight or rental car, hotel, meals.

NOTE: Funds CANNOT be used for the PI to stay an extra day before or after the multi-state meeting for collaboration. Any additional days must be charged to a different worktag even if the total cost is under the funding limit.

– What information do I need to provide?

• What is the project code (typically letters and numbers)?
• What is the full name of the person attending the meeting?
• Is the person attending the Head/Lead PI for University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture?
• Email this information to the Business Office Fiscal Operations Manager to request funding. hfranken@uark.edu

Each professor with at least a 50% AAES appointment is required to have at one capacity funded REEport project by their 6^th month of employment.  Capacity projects will cover the main scope of your research for the next 5 years and are funded through Hatch, Hatch/Multistate, Animal Health, or McIntire-Stennis.

Your ‘REEport’ is a 4-digit number assigned to your capacity project that will track both the research and funding.  You should have at least one REEport number for your main research plan

1. Researcher creates research proposal outline. It must have clear and documented relevance to agricultural research. It should serve as a general statement of your 5 year research plan. It should include objectives, methods, and justification for your research.
2. Researcher and/or Dept Head select review committee of 3 peers to review proposal
3. Peer Review form is signed by committee members/Dept Head and sent to jabailey@uark.edu
4. If appropriate, prepare and submit new IRB or IACUC approvals with UofA Research Compliance
5. Researcher creates new project in NIFA’s new NRS system, and submits for Organizational Review
6. REEport Admin reviews and sends final project to NIFA.  New REEport number is created and added to Workday

See ‘Submitting a new REEport’ for detailed steps and instructions

Department Heads & Assistants have access on both the REEport and NRS websites to view projects.  A list of active projects will be sent to departments twice a year and can be requested at any time by contacting the REEport Admin.

Department Head approval is required for all capacity grant yearly results and progress reports. These reports are due by January 15^th each year so we suggest that you set your internal deadline earlier if needed.   We have asked all researchers to obtain departmental approval before they submit their results for org review. Reviews can be done via email as in previous years, or directly on the NRS website.

REEport numbers can be searched on Workday by typing ‘REEport lastname’.  REEports are set up to default to a researcher’s main capacity grant.  Occasionally, a REEport may need to be connected to a different worktag to process charges.  Expiring REEports may have additional worktags connected that need to be carried over to a new REEport.

These and other REEport worktag updates can be requested via email

• For Grant Worktag updates, contact Bo Chang at bchang@uark.edu
• For any other Worktag updates, contact Heather Frankenberger at hfranken@uark.edu