Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
An R01 PI submits the annual RPPR 60 days before the end of the budget year through eRA Commons.
- Is an instance
A UKRI grantee submits the annual Researchfish outcomes return between February and March each year.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A final closeout report is not annual.
- Not an instance
An ad-hoc letter to the programme officer is not the formal annual report.
Editorial commentary
An annual report is the grant-reporting deliverable due once in every twelve-month cycle of a multi-year award. What distinguishes it from other reporting types is its cadence, not its content: an annual report can combine narrative and financial elements, or be narrative-only, depending on the sponsor.
What actually distinguishes it
“Annual” describes timing, not format. NIH’s Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR), filed as an annual, non-competing report through eRA Commons, bundles technical narrative with budget and personnel information — it functions as both the annual report and the year’s interim report at once, since interim reports in US federal funding most commonly run on an annual cadence. UKRI’s Researchfish outcomes return, by contrast, is narrative-and-outcomes focused and submitted annually between February and March, without necessarily carrying a financial-report component.
vs. financial report
An annual report is not automatically the same thing as a financial report. It may bundle one (as the RPPR does), or it may not (as an outcomes-only annual return does) — the two terms describe different axes of the same reporting landscape: one is about frequency, the other about content.
vs. final report
An annual report recurs every year of the award except the last one. A final report is filed exactly once, at project end, closes the technical record, and — unlike an annual report — carries no continuation decision, since there is no further budget period for it to unlock.
Why the boundary matters administratively
Sponsors frequently gate the next budget period’s continuation award on timely receipt of the annual report, so a late annual submission has direct funding consequences that a late final report, filed after funding has already ended, does not.
Also known as
Annual progress report · Yearly project report · RPPR (NIH)
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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