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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
 
Program Assessment

Program

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National Ambient Air Quality Standards Research

EPA's National Ambient Air Quality Standards Research Program provides scientific information needed to support the setting and review of national air quality standards. Currently the program focuses mainly on particulate matter research because of the complexities and uncertainties associated with it.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Adequate

This rating describes a program that needs to set more ambitious goals, achieve better results, improve accountability or strengthen its management practices.
  • The program's strategic and annual planning processes for particulate matter research efforts are good but it is unclear how the planning informs resource requests. Periodic reviews by external bodies and internal procedures to ensure customers are involved in planning decisions do help the program target important issues.
  • The program has established new performance goals but it is unclear how progress toward thse goals will be measured. Work is needed to define how customer surveys and expert panel reviews will determine whether progress has been made.
  • The program lacks efficiency measures. While the program has worked to improve efficiency, measuring efficiency of basic research can be difficult.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Improving multi-year plans, financial data tracking, and other systems to better integrate grantee and program performance with financial information.
  • Developing and implementing adequate, easily understood methods for calculating progress on performance measures.
  • Developing efficiency measures that assess program progress.

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