Electronic Council Book
Downloadable
PDF Fact Sheet (435 KB)
What is the purpose?
The Electronic Council Book (ECB) is a web-based system that provides
a variety of services in support of the second level of review
of grant applications by a review group (hereafter referred to as the
Advisory Council) at the grantor agency.
The ECB system currently includes two functional modules:
- The ‘Council Member Query Interface’ of the ECB (often referred to as the ‘Council ECB’) is the front end tool used by Advisory Council members to create queries, view basic application data and summary statements and, when appropriate, vote on applications as part of the Early Concurrence process
- The Council Administration Module is the back end configuration tool used by Agency staff for managing all aspects of the council business process; including special assignments, conflicts of interest, Early Concurrence, Institute and Center (IC) specific web pages and documents, as well as council member user accounts
What are the features?
In preparation for Advisory Council meetings, the ECB can be configured by each organization (via the Council Administration Module), to provide some or all of the following services:
- Assign specific applications to one or more council members for follow up at the meeting
- Flag specific applications as discussion items for the entire council
- Identify institutional affiliations for each council member, which enables the system to automatically manage conflicts of interest (i.e., block applications from members with conflicts)
- Create custom, saved queries that members can use in the ECB to retrieve specific lists of applications
- A ‘Council Information Page’ feature that gives granting organizations the option of creating a custom web page, viewable in the Electronic Council Book, that contains documents, information and external links in support of the general council process as well as specific council meetings during the year
- A related feature permits documents containing supporting information to be attached to specific applications, then downloaded and viewed from ECB hit lists
- Setup and manage an Early Concurrence review process, whereby certain types of applications are identified as being eligible for council review in advance of the actual meeting. Successful Early Concurrence applications may be eligible for immediate award processing, depending on the guidelines established by each organization.
- Early Concurrence features available in the ECB include facilities for creating and managing special Early Concurrence panels, assigning members and applications to these panels, and creating custom business rules for managing the entire voting process, to name a few. The ECB Council Member interface includes a special voting tool as part of the Early Concurrence feature.
Online tutorials, as well as classroom training, are available for these tools.
What are the benefits?
- ECB serves as a single point of access for IC council members who need to obtain information about grant applications scheduled for review at their National Advisory Council meetings, including specific project assignments, summary statements, other supporting documents and meeting specific information
- ECB is extremely flexible, providing tools that allow ICs to customize system rules to accommodate their council business process
- ECB provides a variety of data display options that allow ICs to use only those system features they require
- ECB provides robust features for managing conflicts of interest between council members and grant applications
- ECB also provides a number of reporting tools that include both standard and custom report options
Who can use the ECB?
The ECB module can be used by Advisory Council members and staff as well as data administrators who are given access to the module.
