Final Report for MREA grants

NHMRC has sought to balance rigour and burden in designing these new questions and has considered factors such as data quality and privacy.

The new questions cover:

• the number of people to whom the grant provided a salary (partial or full), including those at collaborating institutions
• the diversity of people supported by the grant
• research outputs, outcomes and impacts from the grant.

Other information, such as publications, research datasets, qualifications, awards, prizes and supervision/mentoring, is collected through the CIA’s completion of their Sapphire profile.

In order to ease the transition for CIAs completing the Final Report, the new workforce question is only required to be completed with data from 2024 onwards. For example, if 2024 is year 3 of a 5-year grant then workforce data would be provided for years 3 to 5.

NHMRC recommends CIAs enter the number of people to whom the grant provided a salary (partial or full), including those at collaborating institutions, in a staged manner such as yearly.

NHMRC and the Health and Medical Research Office (HMRO) have worked together to align the data collected from this and the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) performance indicators survey to provide consistency across the sector.

The new Final Report template will be available in Sapphire to all CIAs from applicable schemes from Thursday 31 October 2024 and can be progressively completed and saved.

A Final Report must be completed within 6 months of completion of the funding period, relinquishment or termination of the grant. Final Reports are required for all grants except Independent Research Infrastructure Support Scheme (IRIISS) and Postgraduate Scholarship grants.

Transitioning to the new template

The revised Final Report template for MREA grants will be available on the existing Final Report milestone. Workflows and approvals will not change.

1. If there is no Final Report initiated (status: pending), the grant will use the new Final Report template. No further action will be required.
2. If a Final Report is in progress but not yet submitted to the RAO, when the new template is released the content will be lost. NHMRC recommends that all CIAs with Final Reports in progress save a backup copy and, if appropriate, submit before Thursday 31 October 2024 when the new template will be released.
3. If a Final Report has been submitted to the RAO and no changes are required by the CIA, it can be submitted to NHMRC as usual. If a Final Report has been submitted to the RAO and changes are required when it is sent back to the CIA, the CIA will see the new template and the previous contents will be lost. NHMRC recommends RAOs saving a backup copy of the PDF submitted by the CIA to the RAO, before sending a Final Report back to a CIA.
4. If a Final Report has been submitted to NHMRC and no changes are required, it will be accepted as usual. If a Final Report has been submitted to NHMRC and changes are required, when it is sent back to the RAO, and then the CIA, the CIA will see the new template and the original content will be lost. NHMRC recommends the RAO saves a backup copy before sending a Final Report back to a CIA. NHMRC will be working to process as many submitted Final Reports as possible.

If RAOs are unsure of what MREA Final Reports are due and/or submitted to NHMRC please contact Postaward.management@nhmrc.gov.au by Tuesday 15 October 2024 to request a list.

Please note the RAO is certifying the Final Report in system using the current process. The expectation is that the data included in the report by the CIA has been confirmed and verified by the CIA prior to submitting to the RAO.

For more information contact:

• research.policy@nhmrc.gov.au for enquiries about the Final Report, including queries about completing the new questions
• postaward.management@nhmrc.gov.au for scheme requirements and when to complete the Final Report
• Research Help Centre or 1800 500 983 for assistance with Sapphire.

Advice for completing the Final Report

• If there is a job share arrangement enter 1, because 1 position is being supported by the grant.  
• If a person’s salary is being supported by more than one NHMRC grant concurrently and those grants all require completion of a Final Report, then that person’s data would be entered into the workforce table in the Final Report for all of those grants.
• If a person moves from one category in the workforce table to another in a year (for example, less than 5 years post-PhD to 5-10 years post-PhD) count them in one category, and use the one they started the calendar year in.
• A Health Professional with a PhD should be recorded as a Health Professional, even if their work supporting the grant has been exclusively as a researcher.
• CIAs are responsible for completing the Final Report template in Sapphire.
• Everything in the final report template will be editable until the form is submitted.
• The free text boxes are limited to 2,000 characters.