10 - Information Requests

AFOSR Spring Review 

Every year, AOARD participates in the AFOSR Spring Review. Since AOARD funded projects may be highlighted during the review, the PO will request slides from the PI to be used to construct their brief. Generally, the PO needs 4-5 slides that describe the project (telling a short story is great). For newly initiated projects, the slides should provide detail on background, idea behind the research, research plan, and expected outcomes.

It is important to do a great job putting these slides together. The PO wants to do a first-rate job on describing the project and to be able to tell a coherent story about the research. More importantly, this is critical as it will be presented to an audience composed of Directors, senior management, chief scientists from AOARD, AFOSR, AFRL, government organizations, and invited visitors. Ultimately, these people decide how important AOARD is to the overall research organization and what levels of funding should be budgeted each year. They can make recommendations to either increase support for a project or area, or to terminate it.  

PowerPoint slides are requested as the PO cannot always work with Adobe Acrobat files to create their own versions. Whenever making the slides, the PI needs to provide captions and descriptions in the notes describing what the slides are showing - assume the PO knows nothing as sometimes the projects and areas are completely new, so erring on the side of over-explaining is welcomed. The PO will get back to the PI with questions that may surface. Keep in mind, the PO’s scientific background may be different from the technical area of the research, and that they must be able to answer basic technical questions about the project.

On the first slide, list the PI’s name (include Co-PIs), project title, AOARD project number, institution, funding level, length of time of this grant period, and number (#) of students/post docs, significant publications (e.g., Science, Nature, journal covers, joint publications with AFRL scientists), and any interactions with AFRL (e.g., current collaborations with an AFRL scientist, invited speaker by an AFRL scientist at a meeting, visited an AFRL lab on a WOS).

Here are some of the things that are generally sought when putting together a research story.  

1. Why is this research being done, what technology will this research advance, what is so important about it?
2. What has been done (results, major findings, and conclusions, and/or planned experiments)? If the project is new, the focus is to be on background and planned experiments/theory.
3. What has been or will be the impact of this research if successful, who in this subject area will be interested and why? Is this research transformational, will it open new doors or lines of research? 

Important - These slides need to be releasable to the public or marked as "unpublished data". Listing an application of the technology is ok, but the focus should be on fundamental and basic research. Slides can be provided with additional background and information to provide understanding of the research. These additional slides will not be publically released. Slides that either are or are not public releasable should be clearly marked as such. Notes are to be added to each slide to help explain the research.

Interim Reports (IPR)

Depending on the conditions of the grant, an interim report (IPR) may be required. The report is considered delinquent if not received by the date noted in the grant. AOARD takes timely submission of reports seriously; future funding options are at risk and may not be exercised until the report has been received and approved. The IPR may be circulated to scientists at AFOSR, AFRL, and possibly to other scientists within the US government.

The IPR should provide a current record of accomplishments, which will be used as a basis for continuing support of the project (dependent on availability of funds). The IPR covers research accomplished only during the period of performance (DATE to DATE). The final report, when submitted, will summarize the entire funding period. The report should be written for the intended audience of a PO who is technically conversant with the research program being supported. When constructing the report, the PI is to keep in mind that the amount of funding received for this period should be relative to the amount of effort to put into the report (e.g., do not submit a $300k report for $50k of funding; do not submit a $50k report for $300k of funding).

Make sure the report includes the following information:

1. Performance period covered by report (date to date)
2. Proposal Title
3. Contract/Grant number (AOARD proposal number if known)
4. PI’s Name(s):
5. Performing organization(s) and department(s)
6. Technical Report Text – To include an abstract and discussion of specific aims of the research, significant experimental/theoretical research advances or findings and their significance, and any continuation plans.
7. List of papers submitted or published under AOARD sponsorship during this reporting period, to include the following lists: a) papers published in peer-reviewed journals; b) papers published in non-peer-reviewed journals or in conference proceedings; c) presentations.
8. Any interactions with industry/Air Force Research Laboratories or significant collaborations that resulted from this work.

Final Reports

A final report is required to close out an AOARD project. The report may be circulated to scientists at AFOSR, AFRL, and possibly to other scientists within the US government. The report along with an abstract will be uploaded to DTIC for searchable electronic retrieval and may be available to the public, so the PI needs to contact the PO about inclusion of confidential information or intellectual property.

The final report covers the entire performance period of the grant. It should be written for the intended audience of a PO who is technically conversant with the research program being supported. When constructing the report, the PI is to keep in mind that the amount of funding received for the entire period of performance should be relative to the amount of effort to put into the report (e.g., do not submit a $300k report for $50k of funding; do not submit a $50k report for $300k of funding).

A template/guide to construct the report is available from the PO. Reading this one-page guide before beginning the report may save time. The report should be submitted to the PO along with a completed, signed and dated Form DD 882 (provided by PO), which documents any inventions.

To serve as a guide, the report should include the following information:

1. Full period of performance covered by report (date to date)
2. Proposal Title
3. Contract/Grant number (AOARD proposal number if known)
4. PI’s Name(s):
5. Performing organization(s) and department(s)
6. Technical Report Text – To include an abstract and discussion of specific aims of the research, significant experimental/theoretical research advances or findings and their significance to the field.
7. List of papers submitted or published under AOARD sponsorship during the entire grant period, to include the following lists in standard format showing authors, title, journal, issue, and date:
        a) papers published in peer-reviewed journals;
        b) papers published in non-peer-reviewed journals or in conference proceedings;
        c) presentations;
        d) manuscripts submitted but not yet published.
8. List any interactions with industry/Air Force Research Laboratories or significant collaborations that resulted from this work.

Along with your report please submit a completed Form DD 882 (attached) to document any inventions.