How Well

Do You Know eRA

Commons?

2

What is eRA Commons?

• The eRA Commons is an online interface where grant applicants, grantee organizations, grantees and federal staff can access, share, and transmit administrative information related to their applications and grants.

Applications

Post-award Correspondence

Review Assignments

Impact/Priority Scores

Summary Statements

Notices of Award

Assurances

Certifications

Progress Reports

Financial Reports

Invention Reports

Profile Data

Assembled Application Images

eSubmission Errors/Warnings

Training Appointment Actions

3

Who uses eRA Commons?

• Federal users– 25 institutes and centers within NIH– Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) Operating

Divisions• AHRQ, SAMHSA, CDC, FDA

– Other federal agencies• Veterans Affairs (intramural program)

• Institution users– 18,200 registered organizations– 241,000 registered users

• 167,000 registered principal investigators (PIs)

– 57,000 reviewers

4

When will I use it?

• Review errors/warnings identified by eRA system

• Check final application image for assembly issues

• Submit financial conflict of interest notifications

• View information on the review assignment of your grant application

Application Submission

Process

ApplicationIntake at Receipt & Referral

5

When will I use it?

• View Summary Statement & Impact/Priority Scores

• Submit Just-in-time (JIT) data (e.g., other support, certifications)

• View award documents (NoA – Notice of Award)

Peer ReviewProcess

Pre-award Process

Award Process

6

When will I use it?

• Prepare/submit reports

• Manage training grant appointments

• Prepare final reports, invention statement and certification, and population tracking data

Post-award Process

CloseoutProcess

7

What’s new with profiles & accounts?

8

Early Stage & New Investigator support

• ESI support in Commons Personal Profile – Users can enter area of medical residency

and date residency training ended

• Specific application eligibility– ESI & NI eligibility are system-calculated and

status flags are displayed on the grant application’s Status Information screen

Attention: PIsUpdate degree & medical residency info in your

PPF (prior to submitting an application) to ensure ESI & NI status are calculated accurately.

9

Personal Profile – Degrees/Residency screen

ESI eligibility calculated and displayed with eligibility Status and End of Eligibility date for PI, Internet

Assisted Review (IAR) and Trainee users.

10

Status Information screen for an application

ESI & NI Flags

11

Continuous Submission (CS)

• Commons now features new ways for IAR users to check CS status (Personal Profile)– On the Reviewer-Specific Service History &

Continuous Submission Eligibility screen, a CS Eligibility Period box shows 3 fiscal years

• Users can select a time period and click Submit to display eligibility status and view list of all eligible meetings for the past 18-month period

12

Continuous Submission (CS)

CS Eligibility Period dropdown in Reviewer-Specific section of PPF

13

Maintain one Commons account

• If changing institutions, keep your current Commons account – Grant record history, degree information and/or

reviewer service will be kept together– Helps accurately determine eligibility for Continuous

Submission and Early Stage Investigator status– If you are the PI and the Signing Official (SO) for your

organization, you should have two Commons accounts: one for each role. PI and SO roles may not be combined on the same account.

Attention: PIsYour new SO can affiliate your Commons account with your new institution. See the steps for the SO to affiliate the PI. (

http://era.nih.gov/commons/steps_commons.cfm#step3)

14

My NCBI / My Bibliography citations in PPF

• Commons is now linked to NCBI’s My NCBI system. Inside My NCBI, users can store their publications and other authored works in My Bibliography.– Citation data saved in My NCBI now appears

in Commons Personal Profile and eSNAP Upload Science screens.

– Users must link accounts. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/

Attention: PIsAs of July 21, 2010, PIs will no longer be able to enter citation

information into Commons. Learn more at: (

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-10-103.html)

15

Personal Profile Publications screen

My NCBI citations

Citations saved in My NCBI automatically appear in the Publications screen (as long as the user linked their My NCBI and Commons accounts). Screen also includes direct link to My NCBI

so users can move between systems.

16

What’s new with

eSubmission?

17

Latest eSubmission milestones

Jan 2009

Feb 2009:Electronic Career Development (Ks)

Jan 2010

August 2009:Electronic Fellowship (Fs)

January 2010:Restructured application forms

January 2010:Electronic Training

Grants (Ts & Ds)

All “non-complex” mechanisms now require electronic submission.

18

Support for updated forms

• Federal-wide SF424 (R&R) and agency-specific PHS 398 form changes due to:– Three-year OMB renewal of PHS 398 form set– Three-year OMB renewal of SF424 (R&R)

form set– The Federal Funding Accountability and

Transparency Act (FFATA) – NIH Enhancing Peer Review redesign effort

Restructured forms have a Competition ID of:

ADOBE-FORMS-B

19

Error correction window

• NIH currently provides a two-day “error correction window” following a submission deadline to correct eRA-identified errors/warnings as long as: – Initial submission made “on time” – All registrations completed before deadline– AOR enforces that changes are restricted to fixing

errors/warnings– Proof of "on time" submission and description of

changes documented in cover letter

• NIH is currently in talks to potentially eliminate the error correction window. Stay tuned for a related guide notice.

20

Future Grants.gov security enhancements

• Grants.gov security enhancements targeted for late summer/early fall– New “Change My Password” and “I Forgot My

Password/Unlock My Account” features– Stronger passwords

• At least 8 alphanumeric characters with at least one upper and one lowercase letter

– Forced password change every 90 days– Lock-out after three failed login attempts– Session timeouts reduced from 60 to 15 minutes– After one year of inactivity accounts will be locked

• Can unlock account • E-biz POC must reinstate AOR authority

TIP: Log in to your Grants.gov and eRA Commons accounts prior

to deadlines to ensure you have appropriate access.

21

New eSubmission Web site

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/ElectronicReceipt/

New site and new URL. Be sure to

update any links to old site.

22

What’s new with eRA

Commons?

23

xTrain to be required in Jan. 2011

• xTrain allows users to electronically process required paperwork associated with awarded training and career development grants. xTrain use will be required in Jan. 2011.– Create, route and submit appointments, re-

appointments, amendments and termination Notices

– Track the status and timing of training actionsMandating xTrain NIH guide notice posted at:

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-10-072.html

24

Types of grants supported in xTrain

– Kirschstein-NRSA Undergraduate Institutional Training Grants (T34)

– Kirschstein-NRSA Pre-doctoral and Post-doctoral Institutional Training Grants (T32, T35, T90, TL1, TU2)

– Kirschstein-NRSA Fellowships (F30, F31, F32, F33)– NLM Institutional Training Grants (T15)– Research Education Awards (R25, R90)– Institutional Career Development Grants (K12, KL2,

KM1)

xTrain instructions & training resources available at: http://era.nih.gov/training_career/index.cfm

25

eSNAP use mandatory in August 2010

• Use of the Commons electronic Streamlined Non-competing Award Process (eSNAP) module will be required as of Aug. 1 to submit SNAP progress reports

• See NIH guide notice: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-10-093.html

An updated eSNAP User Guide can be found at: http://era.nih.gov/docs/eSNAP_UG_v2.25.0.0_041210.pdf

26

Associate citations with an eSNAP report

Upload Science screen shows citations that can be associated with an eSNAP report. This includes citations that

a user has entered into My NCBI / My Bibliography.

27

Coming soon! FFR

• Federal mandate to implement Federal Financial Report (to replace current Financial Status Report)

• eFFR pilot phase to take place this summer; if pilot is successful, eFFR will be released to all users in October and NIH will move towards mandating the use of the FFR.

Now it’s time to find out…

How Well

Do You Know

eRA Commons?

29

100 100

200 200

400 400

300

400

eSubmissionCommons Knowledge

Commons-ality Commons Features

300 300 300

200

400

200

100

500 500500 500500 500500

100100 100100

200200

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These general funding opportunity announcements are used for investigator-initiated applications.• What is a parent announcement?– E.g., Use PA-08-071 for R01

Research Project Grants

– http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/parent_announcements.htm eSubmission - 100

31

These documents, when requested, are submitted directly to Commons and later linked to an electronic application.• What are reference letters?

– Note: Reference letters may be submitted in Commons before an application is complete.

eSubmission - 200

32

The number of SO/AOR accounts an organization should have.• What is more than one?

– Every organization should have multiple Signing Official (SO) and Authorized Organization Rep. (AOR) accounts.

– Certain tasks can only be performed by users with these roles – need back-up.

eSubmission - 300

33

The length of time available to view an assembled application image in eRA Commons before the application moves forward for further processing .

• What is 2 business days?– Referred to as application-

viewing window

– Begins the day after error-free application is processed

eSubmission - 400

34

These two fields on the SF424 R&R Sr./Key Person Profile form are required by NIH but not marked required on the federal-wide form.• What are the Credential and

Organization fields?• Need Credential to place

application image and Organization for FCOI

eSubmission - 500

35

This is the number of Commons accounts with a PI role that a registered user should have.

• What is 1 account?

Commons Knowledge - 100

PIs should maintain one account throughout their careers, even if they

change institutions or forget their Commons password.

36

These two roles should not be combined in a single eRA Commons account.• What are SO & PI?

– If both roles are needed by the same user, they must have two separate accounts (one with each role).

Commons Knowledge - 200

37

A PI can delegate these actions to other Commons users (name at least 2].

• What are:– Complete eSNAP info (Delegate PI)– Update Personal Profile (Delegate PPF

Edit)– View application errors/warnings,

assembled application and most other status information (Delegate Status)

– Perform all xTrain functions except ability to submit appointments (Delegate xTrain Authority)

Commons Knowledge - 300

38

My NCBI data appears in these screens in eRA Commons.• What are PPF Publications

and eSNAP Upload Science screens?– Users must link their accounts

for My NCBI data to automatically populate in Commons.

Commons Knowledge - 400

39

This type of eligibility allows an applicant to submit an application on a rolling deadline.• What is continuous

submission?• Available to those who have

performed substantial review service in support of NIH

• IAR users can view eligibility in Commons

Commons Knowledge - 500

40

These items have something in common: Preferred institution name & contact info DUNS Number Human Subjects Assurance Number Type of Organization Signing Official info Certifications & Assurances• What is information

contained in the Institution Profile?

Commons-ality - 100

41

These items have something in common: Registers institution Maintains Institution Profile Account administration Performs functions requiring signature authority Tracks status of all institution grants …and more!• What are responsibilities of

the SO?

Commons-ality - 200

42

These items have something in common: General instructions for preparing/ submitting application Form-by-form, field-by-field application requirements Guidelines for determining which optional forms should be submitted Assurance & Certification info• What are items you can find in

the Application Guide you download with electronic forms?

Commons-ality - 300

43

These items have something in common: Grant folder documents Review outcome info (if PI) Key NIH contacts Action history Application NI & ESI eligibility indicator

• What are items you find in the detailed Status Information screen?

Commons-ality - 400

44

These items have something in common: Ensures NI & ESI consideration Ensures proper routing of e-mail notifications Ensures correct information is available to pre-populate and/or validate electronic forms Ensures accurate data for federal reporting• What are good reasons to

keep your profile updated?

Commons-ality - 500

45

Using this Commons feature, an applicant is able to submit last-minute information requested by NIH.• What is Just-in-time (JIT)?

– Only submit JIT if asked to by NIH

– Not an indication that a grant application will be funded

Commons Features - 100

46

R25, R90 & KM1 are new activity codes that are supported in this Commons application.

• What is xTrain?– Use of xTrain will be required in

Jan. 2011; paper appointment forms and termination notices will no longer be accepted by NIH.

Commons Features - 200

47

The Financial Status Report (FSR) is NIH’s version of this federal report.• What is FFR (Federal

Financial Report)?

• NIH is preparing to transition to the use of the federally mandated FFR form in 2011.

Commons Features – 300

48

A Business Official is a role used with this Commons application.

• What is xTrain?

• The BO has signature or other authority related to administering Training grants.

Commons Features – 400

49

Closeout allows you to submit these three reports.

• What are:– Final Financial Status Report (FSR)– Final Progress Report– Final Inventions Statement?

• Each required report can be submitted independently

• Interfaces with the Closeout system used by NIH staff

Commons Features – 500

50

These items have something in common: MARIOCAPECCHI MELLOC OLIVER_SMITHIES LBBUCK KORNBERG.ROGER GRUBBSRH FIRE.ANDREW RSCHROCK AXELRICHARD• HINT: Mario R. Capecchi & Oliver Smithie

were recognized in 2007 "for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells."

• What are the Commons IDs of Nobel Laureates that received NIH support?

51

At the end of the day…it’s about the science.

Laureate Year & Science NIH Support

Mario R. CapecchiOliver Smithies

2007 - "for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells"

NIGMS, NHLBI, NIDDK, NCI,NICHD

Roger D. Kornberg 2006 - "for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription"

NIGMS, NIAID, NCI

Andrew Z. Fire Craig C. Mello

2006 - "for their discovery of RNA interference - gene silencing by double-stranded RNA"

NIGMS, NICHD

Robert H. GrubbsRichard R. Schrock

2005 - "for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis"

NIGMS

Richard AxelLinda B. Buck

2004 - "for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system"

NIDCD, NCI, NIAID, NIMH,NINDS, NIDDK