eSubmission News and Updates
NIH eSubmission Items of Interest — April 10, 2006
Applicant community,
Thank you for joining our e-Submission listservs. Electronic submission of grant applications is an evolving process. We already have made significant improvements based on lessons learned from early submission dates. With each passing milestone, we continue to analyze results, review feedback and implement improvements. We will be providing periodic updates on relevant e-Submission activities, process and policy changes through these listservs and on our electronic submission website <http://era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt/> . We also will use the listservs to notify you of significant system issues and steps taken by NIH to minimize their impact on your submissions-- let's hope we don't need to do that too often!
Remember, we do have a Comments & Feedback <http://era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt/feedback.htm> page on our website. Although we can't respond to each individual suggestion, we do read them all and value your input. Many of the improvements we've made to date are a direct result of applicant feedback.
Thank you,
Electronic Submission Team
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eRA Commons Support via the Web
We encourage you to take advantage of our new web support at http://ithelpdesk.nih.gov/eRA/. When requesting support please provide your eRA Commons username and contact information, Grants.gov tracking number and your specific questions.
Recent NIH Guide notices related to e-Submission
**IMPORTANT** Change in Business Process Concerning eRA Commons Verification of Electronically Submitted Applications - Effective for applications submitted for May 10, 2006 and beyond, NIH will no longer require the verification of the grant application by the AOR/SO and PD/PI. The verification step will be replaced with a two business day period for checking the assembled application in eRA Commons, after which the submission process will be complete and the application will automatically move forward to the Division of Receipt and Referral, Center for Scientific Review. Within the two day period, the AOR/SO will have the ability to "Reject" the application and stop further processing. PD/PIs must work through the AOR/SO to "Reject" an application. Note: After May 10 this process will require that applicants reject their application in order to address any warnings. Additional details can be found in the April 7, 2006, NOT-OD-06-055 Guide notice <http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-055.html> .
* Interim Changes to the SF424 (R&R) Instructions - Includes latest policy changes and clarifications, including change in verification requirement, publications as appendix material, implementing multi-PI, how to include select agents information, change in submission deadline, and more. See April 7, 2006, NOT-OD-06-057 Guide notice <http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-057.html> .
* New Electronic Application Deadline - Life in the electronic lane just got a little easier. Now your deadline for submitting your application to Grants.gov <http://grants.gov/> is 5:00 p.m. your local time, NOT 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. Read the official scoop in the March 16, 2006, Guide notice <http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-050.html> .
* How to send electronic appendices - Whether your application is paper or electronic, rules for appendices have changed starting with the May 10, 2006, submission date. Here are the key points:
o Publications in press. Do not include entire articles. Make a list and link to the online journal articles or NIH PubMed Central <http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/> identification numbers.
o Manuscripts accepted for publication but not yet published. You may submit entire articles as a PDF attachment.
o Published manuscripts without an online journal link. Same as above -- attach a PDF.
For more information, read the full March 16, 2006, Guide notice <http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-051.html> .
Importance of using the correct application package:
Only the specific application package associated with a Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) can be used to apply to that FOA. Although Grants.gov is working to provide portability of applications in the future, the current Grants.gov solution does not accommodate the re-use of application components between FOAs. Some SBIR/STTR applicant organizations are learning the importance of using the correct application package the hard way. The SBIR and STTR FOAs posted for the December 1 submission date expired and new SBIR and STTR FOAs were posted for the April 1 submission date. Some applicants that began but were unable to complete their applications for December 1 have tried to submit those applications for April 1. Since the applications are based on an expired FOA, Grants.gov has not allowed the submissions. To correct the situation, application content must be re-entered into the appropriate application. It doesn't take to long to cut and paste the fields, but it is tedious.
SBIR/STTR April 3 submission date status:
The load on the Grants.gov and eRA Commons systems was high during SBIR/STTR April 3, 2006 submission deadline and subsequent one-week error correction window. Although eRA Commons continues to respond to most applications quickly we noticed Grants.gov delays on some applications and posted the following alert on eRA Commons. We have been monitoring the situation with Grants.gov to ensure all applications are processed and tracked through to verification.
Electronic Submission Alert (4/4/2006): We have noticed that Grants.gov is taking a little longer than usual to process some applications. Remember that it may take up to 2 business days to process a grant submission at Grants.gov. If you have not received email notifications from Grants.gov within 2 business days, please contact the Grants.gov Customer Support (800-518-4726 or support@grants.gov) to document the issue. Please refrain from additional submissions of the same application while you await the notifications. Applicants will not be penalized for eRA Commons or Grants.gov system issues.
