FRPA FAQ
If you have other questions about your FRPA, please see FRPA Help, or contact the Faculty Data & Impact Team in the Office of Faculty Affairs ofafacultydata@colorado.edu
Getting Started
1.What is the deadline for submission, and who needs to submit an FRPA?
2.Do I have to complete my report in one sitting?
Logging On
3.How do I find FRPA Online?
4.Can I use FRPA Online from home?
Outreach
5.How is my outreach description different from the description I wrote when I initially entered a professional activity?
6.Will this outreach information be included when I submit my FRPA form to the department chair?
7.What is outreach and how do I know if I did it?
Entering FRPA Activities
8.Which activity codes must now be entered in CU Boulder Elements first?
9.How do I find out more about CU Boulder Elements?
10.How do I add books and journal articles for my FRPA?
11.How do I enter creative works for my FRPA?
12.How do I import items from CU Boulder Elements?
13.How can I edit activities I've already submitted?
14.How do I edit publications and creative works?
15.What's the difference between activity codes and research keywords?
16.Have the research keywords changed since last year?
17.Where do I find the list of research keywords?
18.Can I copy and paste text from other documents into my online FRPA?
19.How do I carry records forward?
Completing and Printing my FRPA
20.How do I submit my report?
21.There's no place for a signature. Does the department chair still need to sign off on these?
22.How do I print my FRPA?
23.Do I need to print my FRPA?
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1. What is the deadline for submission, and who needs to submit an FRPA?
All annual faculty reports must be completed online and electronically released to your dean's office by February 1st.
Alltenure-track faculty and faculty who specialize in teaching and clinical educationare required to electronically submittheirFRPA each year as part of the annual merit evaluation process. Some units may require research,part-time andotherfaculty to submittheFRPA as part of an internal process.If you do not meet the criteria above, please check with your department chairs and/or directors to confirm if you need to complete the FRPA.All faculty are encouraged to complete the supplemental profile and research expertise section of the FRPA to build their CU Experts faculty profile.
2. Do I have to complete my report in one sitting?
No, the data are saved to the database every time a “save” button is clicked.
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There are three ways to access FRPA Online:
Log in to using your campus IdentiKey credentials. From the “CU Resources” or "Reporting & Compliance" tab, click the tile for “Faculty Reporting & DEPA.” Click the “Login to FRPA Online” button.
OR
FRPA Online can also be accessed directly
OR
- FRPA Online can also be accessed with your FRPA-specific logincredentials at
Staff needing to access an individual faculty member's report on their behalf, please use access method #3 listed above. You will need to first enter your own campus IdentiKey credentials when prompted on the CU Boulder Federated Identity Service page. On the subsequent page, enter the faculty member's FRPA-specific login credentials. If the faculty member does not know their FRPA-specific login credentials, please have them contact the Faculty Data & Impact Team at the Office of Faculty Affairs by emailingofafacultydata@colorado.edu
If you have technical questions, please contact the CU Boulder OIT Service Center 303-735-HELPǰhelp@colorado.edu
4. Can I use FRPA Online from home?
Yes, FRPA Online may be accessed from any location that gives you access to the Internet including from outside the United States.
Outreach
5.How is my outreach description different from the description I wrote when I initially entered a professional activity?
The outreach description should focus more on your direct involvement with and impact on the particular external audience rather than describing the professional aspects of the activity. For example, how did your professional activity specifically help this audience, will you continue to be a knowledge resource to this audience, is your expertise still being used by the audience and, if applicable, were your students able to apply what they learned in the classroom to this situation?
6.Will this outreach information be included when I submit my FRPA form to the department chair?How do I see a report of my outreach activities?
Outreach activities are optional and are not included as part of the FRPA evaluation process. The report you submit will not incorporate any of your outreach coding or outreach descriptions. You can, however, view, print, and save your FRPA complete with the outreach information. To do this, navigate to the “View/Print FRPA” in the left grey menu under the "Enter FRPA Activities" section and then select the report year and sections you would like to view.
7.What is outreach and how do I know if I did it?
Learn more about outreach, and how the outreach and engagement data collected through FRPA is used.
Entering FRPA Activities
8. Which activity codes must be entered in CU Boulder Elements (CUBE) first, and then imported into FRPA?
Many of the Scholarly Work activity codes andall of the Creative Work activity codes must first be entered in CUBE, and then imported into your FRPA. We encourage you to review the full list of FRPA activity codes as well as how these FRPA activity codes map to CUBE categories.
9.How do I find out more about CU Boulder Elements (CUBE)?
The FIS website offers a quick overview about CUBE, as well as quick start guides to help navigate the platform. When you're ready, you may log in directly on CUBE using your campus IdentiKey credentials
10.How do I add books and journal articles for my FRPA?
Scholarly works such as books and journal articles must be entered or claimed in CU Boulder Elements (CUBE), and then imported into FRPA. CUBE uses online databases to discover your scholarly works, and creates the citation(s) for you. You may also add any missing scholarly work directly into CUBE. Using your campus IdentiKey credentials, log in to CUBE at .
All books (both Scholarly and Creative) are now entered as a “Book” in Elements. All book authors can take advantage of the built in Google Book search. Once in FRPA, faculty can import their book as either a Scholarly Work or as a Creative Work, whichever is the appropriate category for their work. There are now two creative works codes to choose from to differentiate books and those creative works that are in forms other than books such as single published poems or a short story. The FRPA codes that are now available for these types of works include: 509 Plays, Poems, or Fiction (Books) and 510 Plays, Poems, or Fiction (Other than a Book).
CUBE is provided by the Office of Faculty Affairs and managed as part of the Faculty Information System (FIS). This project is the first step in creating a critical data hub for faculty to interact with scholarly data for campus reporting requirements such as the annual FRPA as well as larger annual reporting for grants and other requirements while also collecting important campus-wide information to describe the contributions and scholarly impact of the Boulder campus faculty. Public data from these efforts will be presented on the research profiles for all faculty at .
11.How do I enter creative works for my FRPA?
All creative works must now be entered in CU Boulder Elements (CUBE) and then be imported into FRPA. Using your campus IdentiKey credentials, log in to CUBE at .
The FIS website offers quick start guides specifically for entering creative works in CUBE.
12.How do I import items from CU Boulder Elements?
Once you have claimed or entered items in CU Boulder Elements, return to FRPA Online. Click on the relevant menu item (Scholarly or Creative), then click theImport button and follow the instructions on-screen.
13.How can I edit activities I've already submitted?
To edit, select the section of interest (Example: Teaching) from the left grey menu. Records for the current report year will display.Click on the description of the record to edit.The individual record will open for editing.Note:Reports may not be edited after April 30th of the following year. For example, a 2024report may not be edited after April 30, 2025.
14.How do I edit publications and creative works?
Click on the Activity Description from within FRPA to edit the assigned activity code, or to add or edit the DEI or outreach information. If you would like to edit the Activity Description, return to CUBE and make your edits there. You will then need to re-import the edited item.
15.What's the difference between activity codes and research keywords?
Activity codes are 3-digit codes to describe the various activities most faculty engage in during the year.These codes are listed within each section of the report on a pull-down menu with the heading “Activity Code.”
Research keyword codes are 7-digit codes that are used to describe areas of research and/or teaching interests to allow the database to be searched in order to locate faculty with knowledge in particular areas of interest.
16.Have the research keywords changed since last year?
The structured vocabulary list of keywords comes from the SPIN database which is used nationally to support grant funding in the United States. The last major update of this list occurred in 2010.
17. Where do I find the list of research keywords?
The research keywords may be viewed from within the FRPA Online application, in the “Research” section. Click on the “Edit Research & Expertise” button. In item 1, you will find a searchable list of keywords.
18. Can I copy and paste text from other documents into my online FRPA?
Any time you are at an area where you can enter text, you may also use the copy and paste function from your word-processing software.Highlight the text you want to copy and use "Control+C" or "Command+C", place the cursor in the field you want to insert the text and use "Control+V" or "Command+V" to paste your information.
19. How do I carry records forward?
To carry records forward from the previous year, go into the activity menu item in the left grey menu (e.g., Teaching) that you want to carry records forward from. You must do each activity type separately. For sections which allow the carry forward feature, you will see a “Copy From Last Year” button. If you have an eligible activity in the previous year, clicking “Copy From Last Year” will open a dialog box. Follow the 2-step process on-screen to carry items forward to the current report year. You may then edit the activity after you have copied it to the current report year.
Completing and Printing my FRPA
20. How do I submit my report?
Use the link in the left grey menu that says "Finish Your FRPA." Select the"Complete & Release”button. There is a scrolling list of departments, schools, and colleges to select from. Select the units that you wish to release your FRPA to and click "Finish Complete & Release." This will direct a copy of your FRPA to your chair or director as well as to your dean. Should you make modifications to your FRPA after the initial submission, you will need to complete and re-release the updated report to your unit.
21. There's no place for a signature. Does the department chair still need to sign off on these?
No, departmental signatures are not necessary. The logon and password serve to protect the user from anyone tampering with their report.Therefore, they act as an electronic signature and should be safeguarded.Your online submission to your chair/director is your authorization that the form is complete.
To print, select the “View/Print FRPA” in the left grey menu under the "Enter FRPA Activities" section. Choose the report year and sections you would like to include. Click “Continue.” A new browser window will open, containing your report. You may print this using your web browser’s print functionality.
23. Do I need to print my FRPA?
FRPA is submitted electronically, therefore printing is not required. You may check with your unit to see if they have a different requirement.