Why, How, Who, and What NIFA and Outcomes Bob MacDonald, Director Planning, Accountability, and Reporting Staff Office of the Director October 13, 2010

Topics Federal Budget Situation – Why your reports are important How NIFA uses your reported outcomes and to whom we send them What - NIFA’s reporting tools for Extension Advertisement – Building Consensus on National Outcomes and Indicators Workshop

Federal Budget Situation Why your reports are important

Source: Government Accountability Office 2007 GAO Report – Pre-Recession

Source: Congressional Budget Office as published in The Washington Post 4/27/2010

How NIFA uses your reported outcomes and to whom we send them

How NIFA uses reported outcomes Budget –Secretary (Agency Estimates – June) –White House (Department Estimates – September) –Congress (President’s Budget – February)

How NIFA uses reported outcomes Budget –Past performance by goal and objective –Proposed increases Past performance (if existing budget line) Future expected results if receive proposed increase

How NIFA uses reported outcomes USDA Performance Annual Report –Examples of Research, Education, and Extension have high visibility (see handout for what NIFA sent forward this year) Portfolio planning and assessment –NIFA and OMB

What - NIFA’s reporting tools for Extension

Plan of Work Required by law – AREERA, 1998 Used by NIFA for –National Program Leadership –Liaison Program –Reporting Outcomes Newsletter

Review of Plan of Work The 2008 Farm Bill (H.R. 6124) states that “The Secretary shall work with university partners in extension and research to review and identify measures to streamline the submission, reporting under, and implementation of plan of work requirements, … In carrying out the review and formulating and compiling the recommendations, the Secretary shall consult with the land-grant institutions.”

Panel – University Members Bill Brown, U TN Nancy Franz, Va Tech Karen Hinton, U NV Steve Loring – NMSU Deb Segla – U AK Mary Jane Willis - Rutgers Charlene Herrick – U ME Marshall Martin – Purdue Ellen Taylor Powell – U WI Oscar Udoh – Southern Jose Ulises Toledo – WVSU

Panel – NIFA Members Ellen Danus - OEP Marty Draper – PAS Gary Jensen – PAS Bart Hewitt - OPA John Mingee - ISTM

Findings 1.The current POW and Reporting process appears to be meeting Congressional and OMB needs and is a vast improvement over the previous, burdensome process. 2.The panel found places within the current reporting system where data no longer needs to be collected.

Findings 3.Through this review process, the panel expects to enhance the quality and usefulness of information collection and lessen the reporting burden. 4.OPA and NPLs should continue to provide Institutions feedback including useful comments about the Plan of Work and Annual Reports.

Findings Eight specific recommendations and nine other recommendations are contained in the report Full report was ed to the POW Newsletter list and is on the NIFA Grant and Project Reporting web page ( under Newswww.nifa.usda.gov/reporting

The Leadership Management Dashboard (LMD) 3.0  Two types exist for two different audiences: o NPL - National Program Leaders at NIFA (internal facing) o Partner – NIFA partners (external facing)  The data in LMD currently draws from 3 sources: o Current Research Information System (CRIS) o AREERA State Plan of Work (POW) Information System o Cooperative Research, Education, and Extension Management System (C-REEMS)

How Can I Get Access? Go to

Building Consensus on National Outcomes and Indicators Workshop

Purpose - To develop one or two regional/national outcomes and indicators for each of the five NIFA priorities Scheduled for February , 2011 in New Orleans at the Wyndham Riverfront Hotel

Workshop Participants 55 Land-Grant Participants needed –25 Research, 25 Extension One Research, One Extension from each Region on each of the Five NIFA Priority Area Teams Directors/Associate/Assistant Directors State Program Leaders –Five Evaluation Specialists ( one on each team ) Five Facilitators ( One for each team ) Ten NPLs – NIFA ( 2 per Team ) Two Office of Planning and Accountability Staff