Hatch Project Development & Reporting

 

Developing a Hatch project

I. Preparing

The development of research objectives and procedures, and the formalization of these expressions into a project outline, is an activity that is of paramount importance to the Experiment Stations System. The commitment by the administration, when projects are approved, authorizes the expenditure of funds and personnel effort for the research for relatively long periods and removes such resources from use for other research. Projects should, therefore, be developed thoughtfully and subjected to close peer review to assure technical excellence and pertinence to Georgia’s agricultural and scientific needs.

The duration of projects is a maximum of five years. Longer periods are often needed, as in the case of breeding activities, but the efforts required to revise and rewrite such projects periodically are warranted in view of the fund commitment involved and probable changes in objectives or procedures that are needed after three to five years.

Write your project outline using the Hatch Project Outline Template.

 

II. Reviewing

The project leader will develop the project with the help and advice of the department head. The project should then be subjected to a thorough peer review. The project leader will pass the project to the department head with a list of persons who have reviewed the project up to that point. In addition, the department head will be responsible for:

•  Selecting two department reviewers and one reviewer outside the department
  
  
•  Sending Hatch project proposal and Reviewer Form to the reviewers with a request to review proposal for:
  • high scientific quality
  • clear and achievable objectives in the indicated time frame
  • investigative state of the art procedures and acceptable scientific methods
  • addressing important national research priorities
    
  • clearness of writing and grammatical correctness
    
    
• Collect reviewers input with one of the following recommendations:
  • Recommended as written
  • Recommended with changes indicated
  • Not recommended for approval
    
    
• Complete the Department Head Approval Form.  When a project is submitted to the Accountability & Reporting office, this signed form will need to be included.  Digital signatures are accepted.
  

 

Submitting a Hatch project

Once the project is ready, the PI should submit the project to the Accountability & Reporting office at nifahelp@uga.edu.  Below is a list of items you will need to submit your project.

• Information from the Project Outline
• Department Head Approval Form
  
• IRB approval date (If human subjects are used)
• IACUC approval date (if vertebrate animals are used)

The Accountability & Reporting office will share your project with the Associate Dean for Research for approval.  Once approved internally, your project will be submitted to NIFA for final approval and tracking.  You will be notified when the process is complete.

Acknowledgement of Funding

Proper acknowledgement of public funding in published articles, manuscripts, dissertations, posters, presentations, inventions, and patents is required.

Please use the following language to acknowledge NIFA support in such publications:

This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch project [insert accession number].

An abbreviated acknowledgement may be used in social media and press releases.  See language below:

This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

 

Reporting on a Hatch Project

Each year, Principle Investigators must submit a Progress Report for active Hatch and Hatch Regional/Multistate projects.

Reporting periods are October 1 – September 30.  

The Accountability & Reporting office will send reminders with due dates to PIs each fall with instructions for submitting a Progress Report and/or a Final Report, using the Hatch Project Reporting Template.