CRIS Forms Assistance


Forms: AD416 // AD417 // Assurance // AD419 * // AD421 * //

* A checklist, generated annually by CRIS is used
to determine which projects require this report.



CRIS Forms

AD-416 Research Resume

This form is submitted at a project's inception or revision according to the "Manual for Preparing CRIS Forms AD-416 and AD-417" and includes:

  • project identification
  • performing organization
  • principal investigator/co-investigators
  • funding type
  • contract/grant/cooperative
    agreement information
  • title
  • objectives
  • approach
  • keywords
  • start date, and
  • estimated termination date
  • non-technical description of the
    situation or problem the project addresses
  • non-technical description of the
    purpose of the project
  • project contact
  • other participating states
The AD-417 Research Classification and CSREES Assurance Statements are required along with the AD-416 (Assurance Statements are not required for State projects).

AD-417 Classification of Research

This form is submitted at a project's inception or revision along with the AD-416 Research Resume. The research classification is used to retrieve and select projects for inclusion in various reports and inventories. Some of these reports are used at the Federal level for planning budgets and funding programs. The classification is also used for on-line searching by researchers around the world. A project will not be included in the correct reports and inventories if the appropriate classification codes have not been assigned.

The classification scheme is a multi-dimensional system of codes and is explained in the CRIS "Manual of Classification of Agricultural and Forestry Research". The Classification Manual is available online in a PDF version.

CSREES Assurance Statements

This Assurance form is submitted at a project's inception or revision along with the AD-416/417. The assurance statement is required as policy for safeguarding the rights and welfare of human and animal subjects used in investigations. If animal or human subjects are involved, you must complete the institutional review process (have an approval date) before the project can be submitted to CRIS. On October 1, 2001, the CSREES-662 Assurance Statement form was officially replaced by the CSREES-2008 Assurance Statement form.

AD-419 Research Funds and Staff Support

This form is submitted annually to report funds expended during each Federal fiscal year (October 1 - September 30). Collectively, the project data are used to plan programs and budgets, and to answer legislative and executive branch questions. Because of their growing importance at both the Federal and State levels, these data must be timely, accurate, and consistent from institution to institution.

At most institutions, the accounting department prepares this data for all projects. Like the AD-416/417 and 421, this information is required by CRIS in electronic format. If your institution has been submitting the AD-419 data in a tape record format or spreadsheet file, you can continue to use this format. Files can be sent to CRIS as email attachments or sent on diskette to the CRIS office.

Even if you use a spreadsheet to prepare the AD-419s, you can still use the CRIS Web forms site to import standard comma-delimited data or the CRIS ASCII "tape file" format. After importing AD-419 data into the Web forms, Submit AD-419s to CRIS using this Administrative function.

A site may also enter AD-419 data per project using the CRIS Web forms and submit all project data to CRIS when complete. An AD-419 Summary of all funds reported will be created in HTML format to display and print from your Web browser.


AD-421 Accomplishments Report

This form is submitted annually to report progress during the life of a project. The same form is used to submit a final (or summary) report, which should be completed within 90 days of the project's termination. This information is entered into the CRIS technical database which is available for searching on-line.

The information required for the AD-421 are:

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