The One Solution Initiative

Due to an increased emphasis on results-oriented accountability, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is requiring all federal agencies to formally integrate performance with budget decisions as a prerequisite for continued funding. Through its One Solution Initiative, CSREES is responding to this challenge for greater accountability by integrating several different reporting systems within the agency.

The One Solution Initiative is charged with developing a new management strategy that will improve the quality and completeness of agency reports required by the OMB and Congress.  Because CSREES accomplishes its mission through federal funding and other assistance provided to partners, rigorous data collection and reporting practices are critical to measuring the performance of agency activities.

Under the One Solution Initiative, the various reporting processes currently used by CSREES will be unified into an innovative integrated system that better aligns the agency budget with performance outcomes across research, education, and extension. Implementing more effective information resource management practices will also simplify and decrease the reporting burden experienced by the agency's land-grant university partners and other institutions receiving CSREES grants and awards.

Specifically, One Solution will:

• re-use and combine existing information from separate reporting systems;
• standardize what the various reporting systems require, such as definitions and examples of "outputs" and "outcomes";
• provide ways for information systems to communicate directly to the agency systems;
• better define and redefine exactly what information is required of the grantees;
• maintain the CRIS legacy database by migrating years of data onto a common platform for use through REEIS and the One Solution system; and
• develop a single, web-based interface for CSREES reporting and report management for partners and CSREES staff.

The new reporting system will allow CSREES to better manage increasing performance and budget reporting expectations. Additional benefits will be enhanced data quality and analyses; improved national program leadership and planning; decreased reporting burden on grantees; and a focused measureable way of demonstrating how the agency is fulfilling its mission and serving the American public.

With input from the partnership, the One Solution Team developed a Business Case (2005), Project Plan (2006), and more recently the CRIS Transition Standard Report (2007) with modified categories and more complete guidance.

Although One Solution is not, by any standard, finished or about to be unveiled, we now have the right tools to assemble a One Solution integrated system. It will be named t he "CSREES Information System (CIS)" with incremental implementation over the next 2-3 years.

November 2008

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