Inside eRA, July 9, 2002 (Volume 3, Issue 8)

eRA Facilitates Scanning of Legacy Applications and Progress Reports

As requested by the Steering Committee, eRA has established a contract through which Institutes and Centers (ICs) can purchase scanning services for legacy grant applications and all progress reports. The eRA Project began scanning applications received by the Center for Scientific Review (CSR) in January 2002; by mid-June, 21,797 applications had been scanned. These grant images, converted to Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), are accessible via the IMPAC II grant folder and by authorized IC extension systems.

There are many advantages to converting applications to electronic format at this time.

• Scanning will provide relief from the burgeoning volume of paper. The NIH received 51,000 applications and managed a collective portfolio of 80,000 active grants in 2001. Scanning will free space in IC file rooms and in the offices of Program staff.

• NIH will pilot electronic SNAP T-5 progress reports by the end of this year (see article in this issue) and electronic competitive applications in late 2003. Scanning will enable ICs to normalize procedures for grant processing instead of maintaining separate procedures for digital and paper.

•  Scanning will allow faster retrieval and concurrent access by multiple users.

•  The loss of paperwork will be minimized, if not eliminated since after scanning, the paper document is no longer handled.

Interested ICs should contact Scott Swidersky of Quality Associates Incorporated (QAI) at 410-884-9100 or sswidersky@qualityassociatesinc.com. All arrangements for scanning of legacy applications and progress reports (e.g., pickup and return of documents) will be negotiated between the IC and the contractor. This includes establishing quality-control procedures for source documents such as checking for missing or out-of-order pages. eRA will be responsible for uploading the output PDF files into the IMPAC II system.

The same standards implemented for current applications will apply to legacy applications. For example, appendices will not be scanned. Likewise, for consistent functionality, ICs should purchase the same services (such as indexing). Bookmarking, however, may be too expensive for the value received, depending on the anticipated frequency of usage.

Rough cost estimates, based on a 200-page paper grant folder (consisting of application and progress reports only), are as follows: $370,500 for 5,000 grants; $179,000 for 2,200 grants; and $87,000 for 900 grants. The contractor will prepare detailed cost estimates on an IC-by-IC basis.

ICs Prepare to Receive Electronic T-5 SNAP Progress Reports

The Commons Working Group (CWG) will be the first grantees to pilot the new electronic submission of Streamlined Non-competing Award Process (SNAP) T-5 progress reports through a new Commons Web interface application called e-SNAP. Initial pilot testing is anticipated to begin in late 2002, with the expectation that all grantees will have the opportunity to submit their SNAP progress reports electronically through this Web interface sometime in calendar year (CY) 2003. Currently, almost 50 percent of NIH awards (over 24,000 annually) are eligible for SNAP.

Although basic reporting requirements will be the same as paper SNAP progress reports, some incentives will be introduced to encourage electronic submission. These changes will be evaluated and may result in new business practices for all SNAP and/or all non-competing progress reports.

• e-SNAPs will be due 45 days before budget start date (instead of 60 days for paper).

• Research accomplishments/significant changes also can be submitted throughout the year. 

• Links to citations will be accepted in lieu of hard copy.

• Some human and animal subjects assurances will be stored in the Commons Institutional Profile (IPF). The monitoring of Institutional Review Board/Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IRB/IACUC) approval will be shifted to a monitoring of grantee systems. As a result, IRB/IACUC approval will not be required on a grant-by-grant basis. Grantees will continue to assure compliance before drawing down any funds. In addition, grantees participating in the pilot will agree to provide a retrospective list of these approvals to be used in monitoring compliance.

• Some assurance and certification information (including date assured) will be incorporated into the IPF. This eliminates the need to certify compliance with every submission. 

• Institutions may delegate submission authority to Principal Investigators (PIs). 

In preparation for e-SNAP, there will be several IMPAC II system changes to accommodate electronic progress reports. Online SNAP T-5s will be accessible via the “View e-APP” button on the Grants Management (GM) award screen or via the grant folder. The system automatically will populate the receipt date field on the T-5 GM receipt screen and will notify staff electronically when e-SNAP data becomes available. 

During the coming months, it is expected that ICs will begin evaluating their SNAP business practices to take advantage of electronic submissions. Some may consider scanning paper SNAPs so that all SNAP data can be housed in the IMPAC II system (see article in this issue). Program Officials are encouraged to use the Institute and Center Operations (ICO) module for reviewing electronically submitted SNAPs and for documenting all their T-5 progress reports. Last winter, ICO was revised to incorporate the eight mandatory NIH questions that policy requires for project monitoring (see NIH Manual Chapter 4444).  

eRA Moves toward Single Point of Ownership

eRA is progressing on schedule with steps to implement single point of ownership as a means of improving the quality of NIH information about its grantees. Effective with the July 19 release of the Shared Persons module, eRA will lock the validated profiles of approximately 2000 Principal Investigators (PIs) whose accounts are being converted from Commons Version 1 to Version 2.

When the new Commons Profile Administration Web interface is deployed to external users in late August, only these PIs or their delegates and a limited number of internal NIH users will be able to modify certain profile-level data.

In the period from July 19 until the general release of Commons Version 2, registered PIs will not have a means to modify their personal data. Only the System Quality Assurance and Interfaces Branch (SQAIB), Institute and Center (IC) data quality control contacts, and a small number of IC technical staff will be authorized to update locked profiles. IC designees, however, will not be permitted to type over names or collapse profiles.

Following the reopening of registration in late August, once a PI establishes a new, valid Commons account, the same single-point-of-ownership rules will apply. That is, only the PI or his/her delegate, SQAIB and IC designees will be able to update the following profile-level data:

• Most demographic and sensitive data
• Degree information
• Employment information
• Addresses of types ‘HOM’ and ‘RES’

Note that NIH users can update expertise information, addresses of other types, checklist and federal debt. If the Social Security Number (SSN) is blank or all zeroes, Scientific Review and Evaluation Award (SREA) staff will be able to modify it. Trainee/Payback users can change ‘RES’ address.

Thus far, 18 ICs have designated data quality control contacts. Extramural Program Management Committee (EPMC) representatives for the remaining ICs should send the name of their designee(s) to Dr. John McGowan at jmcgowan@niaid.nih.gov with a copy to Carla Flora at florac@od.nih.gov. Please direct questions about profile-update restrictions to the Helpdesk at 301-402-7469 or by email at helpdesk@od.nih.gov.

Update on the eRA Budget

The eRA Project Team and Steering Committee have been meeting to review the overall eRA budget for fiscal year (FY) 2002. They are devoting particular attention to system design, development and maintenance, which constitute Box 9 of the eRA planning and tracking cost model. These costs account for 27.4 percent of eRA’s $35.4 million budget for this year. A high-level view of all cost categories is available online.

Since development costs exceed eRA funding by over $6 million (see table for details), the Project Team and Steering Committee are evaluating priorities and allocation levels for the remainder of FY 2002 and for FY 2003. There have been significant changes to requirements since original cost estimates were made in FY 2000.

Three New Members Join eRA Steering Committee

The eRA Steering Committee, providing broad oversight and advice to the eRA project, welcomes new chair, Dr. Paul Sieving, and two new members, Mr. Joseph Ellis and Dr. Louise Ramm.

Dr. Paul Sieving, M.D., Ph.D. (paulsieving@nei.nih.gov) succeeds Dr. Marvin Cassman as chair of the Steering Committee. Dr. Sieving joined NIH in 2001 as director of the National Eye Institute (NEI). Prior to coming to NIH, Dr. Sieving served as the Paul R. Lichter Professor of Ophthalmic Genetics and director of the Center for Retinal and Macular Degeneration at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center, Ann Arbor.

Dr. Sieving, an honors graduate of Valparaiso University, completed an M.S. in physics at Yale University; he then went on to earn an M.D. from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Illinois. He completed his post-doctoral fellowship in retinal physiology at the University of California, San Francisco, and his medical fellowship in inherited retinal degenerations at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School.

Mr. Joe Ellis (je14j@nih.gov), a CPA, has been with NIH for over 20 years. He recently joined the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) as chief of the Grants Administration Branch, after serving as chief of the Grants and Contracts Management Office of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) for more than 10 years. Previously, he worked as a supervisory grants management specialist at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and as an accountant and auditor in the Office of Contracts Management, NIH.

NIH Data Warehouse Stores Y Grant Data

In preparation for the retirement of IMPAC I, Institutes and Centers (ICs) are reminded to obtain Y grant data from the NIH Data Warehouse instead of IMPAC I.

Y grants are those interagency and intra-agency agreements designated by an Activity Code of Y01 or Y02. Information previously captured in IMPAC I resides in the Data Warehouse. Y grant data has not been recorded in IMPAC I since FY 2001 and does not exist IMPAC II.

Database Changes Support Additional Levels of Institutional Hierarchy

To support the implementation of a new Institutional Profile (IPF) module, there will be several schema changes to the Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) database and the IMPAC II Reporting database (IRDB). The upgrade includes new tables and views, modifications to selected PowerViews and replication of certain OLTP data to the IRDB.

Commons Version 2.0, which is scheduled for general release at the end of August, will accommodate four levels of hierarchy in the institutional profile: institution, school, division and department. This expanded hierarchy will enable an institution to accurately and fully represent its unique organization for internal approval, auditing and reporting purposes. Currently, only the institution and organization type (school) are standardized in IMPAC II. Major subdivision and department, gleaned from entries on the application face page, now are stored as open text.

Once the new system is in place, legacy system “department” information will be frozen and no longer maintained by IMPAC II applications. The data will be kept in the IRDB database for historical purposes.

Operations Team Oversees eRA Engines

The eRA Operations (Ops) team, headed by Mr. Ali Ghassemzadeh, is responsible for managing the complex technical infrastructure that enables NIH to process extramural grants. Ops System Administrators (SAs) and Database Administrators (DBAs) work behind the scenes to maintain more than 30 servers and 25 Oracle databases.

In addition to the daily pressures of keeping all eRA systems up and running at peak efficiency, the Ops team provides support for networking, security, architectural design, hardware configuration, testing, application deployments, problem resolution, and capacity planning. The team works closely with users, developers, testers, analysts, the Center for Information Technology (CIT), and Institute and Center (IC) technical staff to ensure that eRA systems work properly and continue to meet the needs of the NIH community.

IMPAC II Releases as of July 9, 2002

The next IMPAC II deployment is scheduled for July 19. Release highlights for each application are listed below. After the deployment, check the IMPAC II website for release notes. 

For more information about the upcoming releases, contact the Helpdesk at 301-402-7469 or by email at  helpdesk@od.nih.gov. 

IMPAC II Training Schedule as of July 9, 2002

Peer Review Demonstrations
eRA has scheduled the following free sessions for NIH staff who are interested in learning about using the Peer Review module. This series of demonstrations will be most useful to SRAs and GTAs with at least four months of experience working in extramural review offices.

To register, please contact the IMPAC II Helpdesk at helpdesk@od.nih.gov with your name, e-mail address, IC and desired session number(s). Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. Attendees are eligible for ESA credit.

All sessions will be held in Rockledge II, Conference Room 9100. If you need sign language interpretation or other accommodation, please contact Patty Austin at 301-435-0690 ext. 617 or pa5s@nih.gov.

Session	Date	Time	Focus
Session 1	7/9/02	1:00-3:30 pm	Grand tour and assignment of reviewers
Session 2	7/18/02	1:00-3:30 pm	Preparation of summary statements
Session 3	7/25/02	1:00-3:30 pm	Scoring, percentiles, mailer maintenance
Session 4	7/30/02	1:00-3:30 pm	ICSTORe for Review

Hands-on Training in the New Population Tracking Module
Following the Population Tracking demonstrations in May and June, there were numerous requests for hands-on training. The Human Resource Development Division (HRDD) will offer this type of training. Sessions will begin on July 23, with two 3-hour sessions offered each week through August 12. See the table below and the HRDD website for details. The HRDD courses require a training nomination through your IC using the NIH Integrated Training System (NIHITS). Additional classes will be scheduled based on need and interest.

IMPAC II Courses Offered by HRDD
HRDD has scheduled the following IMPAC II courses. Unless otherwise noted, all classes are held at Executive Plaza South.

Course Title	Number	Date	Time	Tuition
Population Tracking Module	5836	07/23/02	9 am–12 pm	$151
Population Tracking Module	5836	07/23/02	1 pm–4 pm	$151
Population Tracking Module	5836	07/30/02	9 am–12 pm	$151
Population Tracking Module	5836	07/30/02	1 pm–4 pm	$151
Population Tracking Module	5836	08/05/02	9 am–12 pm	$151
Population Tracking Module	5836	08/05/02	1 pm–4 pm	$151
Committee Management for GTAs & Review Staff	5833	08/07/02	9 am–4 pm	$221
Population Tracking Module	5836	08/12/02	9 am–12 pm	$151
Population Tracking Module	5836	08/12/02	1 pm–4 pm	$151
Peer Review	5825	08/21/02	9 am–4 pm	$221
Committee Management for SREA Staff	5835	08/28/02	9 am–12 pm	$184

The following courses are also offered; however, there are no scheduled sessions at this time or scheduled classes are full. For more information or to request a class, visit the HRDD website at http://learningsource.od.nih.gov/ or call 301-496-6211.