Most funding agencies require annual, periodic and final technical/scholarly and financial reports on the activity of the funded project. Reporting frequency is usually defined in the Letter of Award or Grant Agreement which is signed prior to the project start date. On-going reporting to the funding agency is used to monitor the progress of the award against the research programme. This includes work packages, milestones and deliverables, and the overall objectives of the funding call under which the award was made. The funding agency usually provides templates for their periodic reports.

The periodic technical/scholarly report generally comprises:

• An outline of progress towards the overall aims and objectives for the reporting period
• A record of activities according to work packages or tasks and overall achievements during the reporting period, both in technical/scholarly and layman terms
• A list of all deliverables and milestones met in the period
• Details of all workshops and meetings held, as appropriate
• Details of any deviations from the original work programme during the reporting period
• Details of all research outputs, including refereed journal and conference publications and international presentations directly supported by the grant during the reporting period
• Details of Education and Public Engagement (EPE) activities performed during the reporting period
• Details of any measures of impact
• Details of any commercial activities, including invention disclosures or patents filed, industry collaborations and spin-out activities
• Responses to any previous report evaluations or feedback from the funding agency.

Interim financial reports/statements to the funding agency are used to monitor the project spend against the project budget. The funding agency usually provides guidelines for eligible and ineligible costs that the project PI and UCD Research Finance Office (RFO) need to follow, when preparing the financial reports/statements.