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Guidance for submission of final reports

Final reports need to be submitted for most research grants and fellowships

NERC maintains close interest in work carried out under its research grants and fellowship schemes. A final report must be submitted via Je-S within three months of the termination of the award, so that Council can satisfy itself that the work has been done to acceptable standards.

The Output & Performance Measures (OPM) exercise may also be used to consider aspects of the award not covered in the final report (eg exploitation, science & society and publication record beyond the end of the award).

Requirements for final reporting are detailed in section G of the NERC Research Grants booklet and Section D of the NERC Fellowship Handbook.

These specifications must be adhered to. Any award holder failing to comply with these requirements runs the risk of the report being graded unsatisfactory

The Principal Investigator/Fellow must ensure the following is submitted within three months of the end of the overall grant:

• a completed final report form summarising basic information on original objectives, achievements, outputs etc
• a full list of publications

For research grants, one report only should be submitted for a split or consortium award. Split and consortium awards are considered to have one Principal Investigator at the lead university, both of whom will be liable to sanctions if the final report is not received.

In addition, a Final Expenditure Statement is required for each component of a NERC research grant or fellowship award within three months of that component ending.

Each report should clearly state the original aims and objectives of the research project, including any recommendations or amendments made by the NERC at the time of the award. The extent to which these objectives have been achieved, the principal outcomes of the work and its significance to the field should be summarised.

The Principal Investigator / Fellow must apply in writing to NERC for a postponement of the due date of the Final Report if there are exceptional reasons preventing its submission on time. Such requests should be sought from NERC by submitting a request for a time only extension to the project via the Je-S system. Please note any such request will not be automatically approved.

A sanction of 20% of the expenditure incurred on the grant will be applied for non-submission of the Final Report within the prescribed deadline. This will be automatically applied.

Final Reports from research grants and fellowship awards will be evaluated by a NERC science programmes officer and graded either satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

For guidance on sanctioning procedures following non-submission of a report or the report being deemed unsatisfactory, please see section G of the Research Grants Handbook or section D of the Fellowship Handbook.