Quick Tips: Preparing a High-Quality Report
Complete, timely, and high-quality reporting is necessary to ensure compliance with the OMAFRA-U of G Agreement, to support performance measure reporting, to avoid inefficient revision workflows, and to enable effective knowledge mobilization efforts by OMAFRA and U of G. Below are key tips for ensuring compliant and quality reports but does not include all report fields. Responses to all fields should be as fulsome as possible.
U of G program staff will perform a review of your report and will send non-compliant reports back for revisions prior to OMAFRA review.
Milestones Table: Provide an ‘Actual Completion Date’ for all milestones that have been completed; leave the field blank for uncompleted milestones. Do not propose a new target date. A brief explanation should be provided for any milestones that have either been completed or are past their Target Completion Date. Any delays, complications or changes in the Milestone section should be commented on in the Brief Explanation section of the table.
Progress on Objectives, Deliverables and Milestones: This field allows for further discussion on project progress and can be used to relate milestone progression to the achievement of project objectives and deliverables. Ensure a rationale is provided when a project is not progressing as originally proposed. This field is not for reporting results.
Project Results: Provide a summary of the results of the project. Even if results are limited, please provide preliminary observations or activities. Technical language is appropriate. Results should be written to demonstrate progress on project objectives. Additional results documents can be uploaded if applicable. The Final Report should contain a comprehensive summary of results.
KTT Plan Table: The KTT Plan for your project, if submitted and approved in the current RMS system, is reported on similar to the Milestones Table above. Please provide a comment on each activity that has been started, completed, or delayed in the Explanation column. Only provide Actual Start or End Dates for items that have started or ended, respectively. Do not propose new target dates.
KTT Activities should reflect knowledge mobilization efforts by all team members that are relevant to the project. KTT Activities, publications, and IP can be added to a project at any time, not just when a report is due. It is greatly appreciated when documents or URLs associated with the KTT activities are included.
KTT activities will be assessed against the KTT Plan from the proposal. Please ensure you review your KTT Plan and explain the rationale for any planned KTT activities that were not carried out during the project.
Team Member Table: Fully describe the involvement of each team member and estimate their FTE contribution to the project over the reporting period. The Actual FTE and Actual Activities in the project should be updated with each report.
HQP Table: Please ensure all HQP engaged in the project are identified in the HQP table. HQP identified as “TBD" during the application stage should have a name attached to this role in the reports. New HQP entries can be added during reporting as well.
Content in this tab should be written in plain language. Avoid the use of first-person language. Focus on the outcomes of the research.
Key Summary Statements (final report only) are of particular importance as they are translated and used for the OMAFRA public search portal. Special attention should be given to this field to ensure the statements are clear, concise and communicate what was done and what the key outcomes were. Avoid technical language and acronyms.
Information provided in this the Confidential Information section of the report is accessible only to program staff and OMAFRA reviewers. Issues with project progress can be described in more detail here.
Comments on Financial Report: The Lead Applicant should provide an explanation for any significant variances between the actual expenditures and the approved budget. If an FRS snapshot is not present, please reach out to rescoord@uoguelph.ca. Projects that receive operating funding but do not have an FRS Snapshot alongside the completed Comments on Financial Report will be sent back for revisions prior to OMAFRA review.
If you Receive a Revision Request
If an administrative review determines that a report is not complete or compliant, it will be sent back to the Lead Applicant for revisions via an RMS system-generated email. A report may also be sent back for revisions following the technical review. Please respond to revisions requests within 14 days.
Use the ‘Researcher Response’ field to respond to the requested revisions (answer questions posed or indicate the changes they have made to the report). Appropriate changes must also be made directly within the report.
When to Contact Program Staff
It is very important that program staff are made aware of issues with project progress as they occur. If you are encountering issues carrying out the research as proposed or if there are significant changes in the use of approved project funds, please reach out to a Research Program Coordinator at rescoord@uoguelph.ca. We are here to help!
Program staff should also be made aware if partner funding is lost or new sources of leverage are secured.
Details on how to request a project amendment, including project extensions, are available on the Amendment Requests webpage. Extensions should be requested at least three months before the end date of the project.
File attachments
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Alliance Collaborative Research Agreement (CRA) Financial Report Template | 22.84 KB |