Progress 10/01/11 to 10/07/15
Outputs
Target Audience:The primary users of NIMSS are the agricultural experiment stations, cooperative extension and the 1890 agricultural research institutions. Participants to multistate projects include scientists from the Land-grant institutions, federal, private, and foreign universities. NIMSS is a web-based system, so researchers, Extension educators, stakeholders and other cooperators can search the System for relevant and timely information related to multistate research projects. In addition, the public has access to the federal and state funded multistate agricultural research project outlines and impacts in NIMSS. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Clemson University received the award for the re-design of the new NIMSS. The pre-development work by the programmers began during this period. Full access to the system and the database was given toClemson developers while they try to understand how the system works. NIMSS continued to be managed by the NERA staff at Rutgers while development of the new versionwas in progress. Currently, the multistate research portfolio consists of 256 projects/activities. 119 are standard Multistate projects, 126 are Coordinating Committees, two are Rapid Response projects and the rest are National Research Support projects (NRSPs). 44 projects terminated as of Sept. 30, 2015and 33 startedon October 1, 2015. A NIMSS Redesign Team was formed composed of the four regional NIMSS System Administrators (Chris Hamilton, Sarah Lupis, Rubie Mize, Donna Pearce), one Executive Director (Jeff Jacobsen), AES Director (Steve Loring), four State staff regional representatives (Shelley Whitworth [NC], Tammy Heil [S], Angie Dangerfield [W], Rachel Unger [NE]) andNIFA representative (Katelyn Sellers). The purpose for the team is to provide efficient and quality interactions among the major users and the programmers. The team held monthly calls, email updates andconducted beta-testing of the new system. During the lastyear of this project, the NERA staffdid a tremendous job in keeping the 'old' system running without significant interruptions as the system, along with its database,was moved froma university server to a private commercial server and then to Clemson's server. The service provided to NIFA to prepopulate REEport with Hatch multistate project records also continued to run smoothly during the transition. The new NIMSS was rolled out in December 2015.
Publications
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Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14
Outputs
Target Audience: The primary users of NIMSS are the agricultural experiment stations, cooperative extension and the 1890 agricultural research institutions. Participants to multistate projects include scientists from the Land-grant institutions, federal, private, and foreign universities. NIMSS is a web-based system, so researchers, Extension educators, stakeholders and other cooperators can search the System for relevant and timely information related to multistate research projects. In addition, the public has access to the federal and state funded multistate agricultural research project outlines and impacts in NIMSS. Changes/Problems: The major re-design of NIMSS was deemed necessary as security vulnerabilities of the current system were identified.The re-design by Clemson will fix these vulnerabilities and improve the functionalities of the system. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Training for new NIMSS users and new administrators at the Agricultural Experiment Stations. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Through the system website nimss.umd.edu What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? The major task during this reporting period is the development of the RFA for the major re-design of NIMSS. Proposals were solicited in March 2014, reviewed by the NRSP1 Management Committee and awarded to Clemson University. Clemson started pre-development work in August-Sept. 2014.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The NRSP1 Management Committee, which serves as the advisory committee for this project, met four times during the reporting period. The Committee discussed plans for the re-design of NIMSS and progress on the impacts writing component of the project. As of Sept. 2014, there were 262 multistate projects and activities. Of these, 122 were multistate projects, 8 NRSPs, and the rest are coordinating committees (Advisory, Development, CC's and ERA's). The regional breakdown is as follows: North Central=97, Northeast=36, South=58, West=63 and NRSPs=8.63 projects terminated on Sept 2014 and 49 started on October 2014. 218 technical committees met and used NIMSS to authorize these meetings in 2014. 164reports for 146 projects were submitted, 13 are termination reports.
Publications
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Progress 10/01/12 to 09/30/13
Outputs
Target Audience: The primary users of NIMSS are the agricultural experiment stations, cooperative extension and the 1890 agricultural research institutions. Participants to multistate projects include scientists from the Land-grant institutions, federal, private, and foreign universities. NIMSS is a web-based system, so researchers, Extension educators, stakeholders and other cooperators can search the System for relevant and timely information related to multistate research projects. In addition, the public has access to the federal and state funded multistate agricultural research project outlines and impacts in NIMSS. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Training for new NIMSS users and new administrators at the Agricultural Experiment Stations. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? A major upgrade and re-design of the backend of the system is being planned. Specifically, the NIMSS website which is currently driven by Cold Fusion technology will be re-written to be driven by Java technology to make the website code more portable in the future. During rewrite, improvements and fix requests will be implemented.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The NRSP1 Management Committee, which serves as the advisory committee for this project, met four times during the reporting period. The Committee discussed plans for the NIMSS Upgrade and progress on the impacts writing component of the project. As of Sept. 2013, there were 273 multistate projects and activities. Of these, 119 were multistate projects, 7 NRSPs, and the rest are coordinating committees (Advisory, Development, CC's and ERA's). The regional breakdown is as follows: North Central=104, Northeast=36, South=60 and West=66. 4. 56 projects terminated on Sept. 2013 and 42 started on October 2013. 225 technical committees met and used NIMSS to authorize these meetings in 2013. 211 reports for 186 projects were submitted, 19 are termination reports. In collaboration with the Impacts Communications Specialist, an ‘Impacts Statements’ was added to the NIMSS’ main menu. NIMSS continues to facilitate the work of the Agric. Experiment Station Directors and Administrative Advisors in managing their multistate research portfolio in a paperless environment. Meetings are authorized through NIMSS, annual reports and minutes submitted, and the system is also used by technical committee members to communicate among themselves. Midterm reviews, peer reviews and regional committee reviews are submitted online in NIMSS, hence significantly simplifying the submission process. With all these information stored in NIMSS, past and current projects are linked and their historical data are easily accessible. The timeline for renewing/revising a multistate project or activity had been diminished as project participants get used to using NIMSS. In majority of cases, renewal projects are ready for implementation before they expire, in most cases at least three months before the expiration date. NIMSS is one of the databases that feed into the USDA-NIFA REEport that was implemented in 2012, and mainly used as source of program info for multistate research and related Hatch projects in the experiment stations. USDA-NIFA and Land-grant representatives held meetings to ensure that both systems meet their reporting needs and to coordinate the transition from CRIS to REEport. This cooperation continues to enrich the Land-grant and federal partnership. The following accomplishments of the impact reporting project were inadvertently excluded from the 2011-12 report. A new impact statement format was designed and approved and the process for impact statement review and approval was refined. Previously prepared impact statements for 25 Multistate projects that terminated in 2011were edited and translated into the new format. All 25 revised impact statements were in the process of being posted on regional websites as well as the AgisAmerica.org site.In addition, eight new impact statements were prepared for other Multistate projects that terminated in 2011. These will also be posted on the regional association websites as well as the AgisAmerica.org site. The impact writer also worked with the administrative advisors to distribute the final products to other outlets. Positive feedback was received from Administrative Advisors and participating scientists. They feel that the impact statements, especially in the new layout that includes photos, will be very helpful in communicating the impacts of their research to key stakeholders and other interested parties.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
2011: http://www.waaesd.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2011-Impact-Statement-Catalogue.pdf
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
2012: http://www.waaesd.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2012-Impact-Statement-Catalogue.pdf
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Progress 10/01/11 to 09/30/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: 1. A Management Committee was organized to provide general oversight, policy development, proposal preparation and budget recommendation for NRSP1. The Committee meets quarterly, and composed of: - four Administrative Advisors, representing each of the four SAES regions; William Brown (S), Steven Loring (W), Bill Ravlin (NC) and Adel Shirmohammadi (NE) - an ARD Director; Shirley Hymon-Parker - a Cooperative Extension Director; L. Washington Lyons - the NIMSS Manager; Dan Rossi - the four System Administrators; Chris Hamilton (NC), Rubie Mize (NE), Donna Pearce (S) and Sarah Lupis (W) - two director's administrative assistants who use NIMSS routinely; Tammy Heil and Shelley Whitworth - and two communicators/writers to advise the impact reporting program. Sara Delheimer, Mike Harrington - NIFA non-voting representatives - Bart Hewitt and Katelyn Sellers 2. During the reporting period, and at any given time, there are about 300 active multistate research projects and activities recorded in NIMSS. Today, there are 304 multistate projects and activities. Of these, 135 are multistate projects, 7 NRSPs, and the rest are coordinating committees (Advisory, Development, CC's and ERA's). 3. The new functionalities introduced in NIMSS last year to improve the speed of data download and transition between forms using the Object-oriented Programming Style (OOPS) and enhanced using RIA technology (Rich Internet Technology) is still an on-going activity. The purpose of this upgrade is to enter data that is used in multiple displays only once. 4. Summary tables for multistate project participation were added to accommodate the reporting requirements of the Agric. Experiment Stations and the regions. To allow for more customized analysis of these data, a print and an Excel version are now available for the yearly summary of participation. The excel conversion is not quite fully operational. The programmer is working on it to make sure that the Excel table can be manipulated. PARTICIPANTS: The Northeast Region (NERA) is responsible at the national level for the maintenance, upgrade and troubleshooting of the system. The Regional System Administrators (North Central, Northeast, South and West) handle the day-to-day tasks related to helping and answering queries from their users. The national system administrator, who is also the Northeast system administrator, manages the tasks assigned to the programmer; provides training, guidance and serves as back-up to the other three regional administrators; and assists new users, particularly those from outside the Land-grant community. TARGET AUDIENCES: The primary users of NIMSS are the agricultural experiment stations, cooperative extension and the 1890 agricultural research institutions. Participants to multistate projects include scientists from the Land-grant institutions, federal, private, and foreign universities. NIMSS is a web-based system, so researchers, Extension educators, stakeholders and other cooperators can search the System for relevant and timely information related to multistate research projects. In addition, the public has access to the federal and state funded multistate agricultural research project outlines and impacts in NIMSS. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: New Impacts Reporting functions are being added in NIMSS for the additional component approved in the new NRSP-1 project.
Impacts
1. At its peak period, NIMSS gets 28,000 hits per day, and an average of 15,000 hits per day during normal operations. Data transferred varied from 2GB to 4GB per day, during slow to heavy period. February is the busiest month and August the slowest. The submission and review process for new multistate proposals had been significantly reduced such that renewal projects are ready for implementation before they expire, in most cases at least three months before the expiration date. 2. The system continue to facilitate the work of the Agric. Experiment Station Directors and Administrative Advisors in managing their multistate research portfolio. Meetings are authorized through NIMSS, annual reports and minutes submitted, and the system is also used by technical commitee members to communicate with each other. 3. The system continues to provide the service of pre-populating the dashboard that USDA-NIFA progam leaders use. In a way, this cooperation enhances the partnership of the Land-grant community with their federal partner. 4. For the Impacts Reporting portion of NRSP-1, the NIMSS programmer had started work on adding functions in NIMSS so that impact statements prepared by the writer can be uploaded and viewed in NIMSS. This new feature will showcase work being done and impacts of the multistate agricultural research projects/activities to society.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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