• Strategic Plan Objectives
• Government Performance Results Act Indicators
• Performance Monitoring and Reporting

NIDRR's Programs, or funding mechanisms,fund grantees that conduct research and development projects that produce findings, products, and outcomes that support Goal 4 (Data-Driven Decision-Making) of the U.S. Department of Education's FY 2011 Annual Performance Report.

Under 29 U.S.C. 762(h)—5 Year Plan, NIDRR also must create its own 5-year plan. Read a the latest plan in the Federal Register.

The Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) indicators, or performance measures, for NIDRR span across many programs and therefore do not target specific programs.

NIDRR has continued to make progress in meeting GPRA performance targets and moving to providing more current performance data.

View NIDRR's 2010 Report on its GPRA Performance Measures.

In addition to the Government Performance Results Act indicators described in the previous section, NIDRR believes that assessing grantee performance involves more than just the generation of performance reports. Assessment of performance affects every asepct of NIDRR's operations beginning with the priorities that applicants respond to by submitting a proposal for funding consideration.

NIDRR has worked to ensure the relevance of its research portfolio through its competitive grant awards. NIDRR research staff spends a significant amount of time each year developing research priorities. The aim is to produce research priorities that reflect and build upon the current state-of-knowledge and that are relevant to the lives of people with disabilities and their families.

Interested parties submit applications in response to priorities that appear in the Federal Register. Here is a short guide on how to prepare an application to one of NIDRR's specific CFDA programs.

Once applications are received, each application undergoes a peer review rating process to ensure that only the highest quality work is funded.

When winning applicants become officially-funded NIDRR grantees, NIDRR staff develop a working relationship with each grantee to ensure that expected results (e.g., outputs, outcomes, etc.) described in the proposal are produced. Tracking grantee progress toward expected results requires NIDRR Project Officers to utilize a vareity of monitoring and accountability tools and mechanisms including but not limited to The Annual Performance Report and Data System, Formative Review, and a summative or external evaluation. All of these tools help us track and report results or our accomplishments.