Inside eRA, September 5, 2002 (Volume 3, Issue 10)

Grants Closeout Module Now Open to All Users

The IMPAC II Grants Closeout Module (GCM) is now open to all users. GCM can be accessed through the IMPAC II Web page at http://impacii.nih.gov/. Because this is a J2EE application, the ICs do not need to install any software to run GCM. 

Several important notes about using the Grants Closeout Module:

Before staff can access GCM, IMPAC II Coordinators will need to grant users one of two GM business area roles (gm_closeout_update_role OR gm_closeout_admin_role) via the User Admin module. The gm_closeout_update_role enables users to indicate whether they have received closeout documentation for a grant, see the PI’s other involvement, send email letters to the PI and Business Official, and generate a checklist. The gm_closeout_admin_role enables users to do all of these functions as well as to select grants for closeout, assign them to specialists, delete grants from the system, and run termination reports.

GCM users should make sure they complete their ‘WRK’ addresses. Because GCM will generate emails to PIs and Business Officials requesting missing closeout items, GCM users must have a correct email address in the ‘WRK’ address to ensure any “bounced back” emails are returned to them. In addition, other fields in the ‘WRK’ address of GCM users are now used in the signature block of the email.

GCM will function correctly in either Internet Explorer or Netscape. However, there are some cosmetic screen differences in Netscape.

GCM user sessions expire after 20 minutes of inactivity. It is recommended that users close their browser to log out of GCM if they won’t be using the system for 20 minutes or more.

For more information, contact the eRA Helpdesk (helpdesk@od.nih.gov).

IMPAC I Bridge Closed for FY 2003 Records

As of August 12, the bridge between IMPAC I and IMPAC II was turned off for ALL Fiscal Year (FY) 2003 records.  

Why?

There were a number of problems with the bridge because of the July deployment of the new Institutional Profile File (IPF) module that is used by OER and eRA staff. As reported in the August 1 edition of Inside eRA (http://era.nih.gov/eranews/eraArticle.cfm?news=22DA0AF6-88A2-4DD7-885A1ECB95B2BFC2), the number of digits in IPF numbers was increased to eight digits. However, IMPAC I was not modified to accept these larger numbers as they were not expected to be used immediately. Unfortunately, several of the 8-digit IPF numbers had already been assigned to FY 2003 records. 

This change was scheduled to be implemented at the start of FY 2003 on October 1, and is being moved up two months to correct the data problems that have been encountered with FY 2003 applications.

What does this mean to you?

o For FY 2003 application records, IMPAC II will replace IMPAC I as the system of record. 

o This change does NOT affect any awards or applications for this Fiscal Year or any prior year. These records will continue to be bridged back to IMPAC I.

Other Effects of the Upcoming Sunset of IMPAC I 

o Streamlined maintenance of IMPAC II, since there are no longer data-quality issues associated with the forward and reverse bridges.

o An opportunity to redefine business processes that were constrained by outdated legacy system processing.

o Fewer limitations in IMPAC II. Restriction in the legacy system (IMPAC I) also limited flexibility in IMPAC II. For example—IMPAC I has not been able to process either 8-digit IPF codes or 6-digit serial numbers. Special processing had to be put into IMPAC II so that neither one would be bridged back to IMPAC I.

o A psychological turn forward to the new, leaving behind the old.

For more information about the IMPAC I/II bridge, contact Chip Groh (ng12n@nih.gov).

IRDB Listserv Created

An IMPAC II Reporting Database (IRDB) listserv has been created to provide a forum for IRDB users to exchange information ideas, and to receive help with specific questions from other users. The listserv has been pre-populated with all users subscribed to the IMPAC II Tech Group listserv (IMPAC2TECH-L). Anyone from the NIH can subscribe to the IRDB listserv.

To subscribe to the listserv, users should send an email to listserv@list.nih.gov with the following text in the message body: subscribe IRDB-L your name (insert the user’s name). The listserv will get the user’s email address from the “From:” field in the email message. Therefore, it is necessary for the user to send the email from the account requesting to be on the listserv.

To post a message to the listserv, send an email to IRDB-L@list.nih.gov. All messages that are sent to the IRDB listserv are archived automatically and can be retrieved by sending an INDEX IRDB-L command to listserv@list.nih.gov. The IRDB listserv is also available in digest form.

To unsubscribe from the list, users should send an email to listserv@list.nih.gov with the following text in the message body: unsubscribe IRDB-L.

For more information about the IRDB listserv, see http://list.nih.gov or contact Carol S. Martin (cm91w@nih.gov).

PI Change of Institution Process Streamlined

The impending retirement of IMPAC I provides the opportunity to streamline the process for changing the institution name for unfunded Type 1 (new competing) grant applications. Starting in October, when a PI sends a change of institution request, the institution name will be changed in the grant record itself. The Receipt and Referral module will display the old institution name along with a flag to indicate the institution has changed.

This process replaces the rather convoluted IMPAC I process of creating a new grant record whenever there was a change of institution request, copying the score information from the old grant record into the new, assigning it a new number, and then deleting the old grant record.

The new process will be the same for Type 1 and Type 2 (competing continuation) grants, whether or not they have been reviewed. It will not apply to grants that have already been awarded.

For more information, contact Sara Silver (silvers@od.nih.gov).

DCIS Interface for R&D Contracting Data

From 1969 until the end of FY 2000, Research and Development (R&D) contract data was captured by IMPAC I, converted to Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) format, and transmitted to the FPDS via the department's Contract Information System (DCIS). When the NIH acquisition community was asked to find another venue for reporting contract data due to the pending retirement of IMPAC I, NIH management decided that IMPAC I would not be modified to accommodate additional data elements mandated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for FY 2001.

The Center for Information Technology (CIT) and the Office of Extramural Research (OER) jointly decided that a link from IMPAC II to the DCIS would not be made because the contract data could be reconciled and then merged with the Administrative Data Base (ADB) after it was downloaded from the DCIS to the NIH Data Warehouse (DW). Contract data previously was not reconciled. 

Although the Office of Acquisition Management and Policy (OAMP) has been working with CIT to provide this data to IMPAC II via the DW, the interface between DCIS and the DW is not yet in place. The interface between DCIS and the DW is scheduled to be in production by the end of September 2002. This is contingent upon the results seen in the pilot test currently being conducted. In July 2001, IC contracting offices were given the go-ahead to enter FY 2001 contract data directly into the DCIS. Due to resource issues, the IMPACII bridge to DW has not been constructed.  Recently, a decision was made for IMPACII not to bridge the data from the DW, but to construct an API so the data is populated from IC extension systems that capture the contracts data. An analysis of this effort will be underway beginning in early in FY 2003.   

Jerry Stuck Returns to NSF

For the past year, Jerry Stuck has been on detail from the National Science Foundation (NSF), and has participated on the eRA project as the NIH eRA Commons Coordinator. He joined the eRA project in July 2001 on a part-time basis, and on a full-time detail on October 1, 2002. Jerry ended his detail assignment to the eRA project on August 9 and resumed his duties as Senior Advisor for Electronic Commerce Initiatives at NSF.

 During his detail to eRA, Jerry lent his experience and advice to the NIH eRA Commons development efforts based on his background with the NSF FastLane system, Federal Demonstration Partnership, and interagency electronic grants activities. Although Mr. Stuck has ended his detail to the eRA project, he will continue to work closely with the NIH on eRA-related issues.

Paul Markovitz on Detail to E-Grants

As of July 15, Paul Markovitz has been working full-time for the E-Grants Program Management Office (PMO) under Charles Havekost. Previously, Mr. Markovitz served mainly as the task leader for the iEdision redesign project, while a small portion of his time was spent on the Federal Commons project. The Federal Commons project has since transitioned into the E-Grants initiative.

Mr. Markovitz currently serves as the E-Grants Solutions Architect. His role is to help direct the technical architectural design for the E-Grants initiative, with additional responsibility for requirements analysis and documentation, data analysis, and system modeling.

The eRA project, particularly iEdison, will miss Mr. Markovitz’ expertise while he is on detail to E-Grants.

(September 5, 2002) Did You Know….

Did you know… that tips on formatting summary statements for IMPAC II are available? A document called “IMPAC II Instructions for Creating Summary Statements” can be found at:  http://impacii.nih.gov/doc/pdf/ss_create_guide.pdf. This document covers issues such as margins, line spacing, justification, section breaks, headers and footers, Greek characters, file naming conventions, and more!

Did you also know… that a macro was developed in CSR that will handle a great many of these formatting issues for you automatically? Not only that, the macro can be used to clean up documents retrieved from the NIAID ER system, and includes a selectable template for assembling summary statements. To obtain a copy of the macro, go to www.csr.nih.gov/Sumstate/default.htm.

IMPAC II Releases as of September 5, 2002

The next IMPAC II deployment is scheduled for November 1, 2002. Release highlights for each IMPAC II module are listed below. After the deployment, check the IMPAC II Web Page for release notes.

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

IMPAC II Training Schedule as of September 5, 2002

Data Quality Control Contacts (DQCC) Training Information Session

A special information session for Data Quality Control Contacts (DQCC) will be held on Thursday, September 5, 2002, 6700 B Rockledge Drive, Room 1205 from 1:30-3:30 p.m. This session is designed to help the DQCCs understand their responsibilities in updating Person Profiles and acting as a point of contact for their ICs. This training session will also provide information about how the system works to make the changes to the IMPAC II profile level that is associated with an NIH Commons account.

If you are the point of contact in your IC with authority to update Persons data on “permanent” profiles and have not received a training notice, contact Patty Austin on 301-435-0690 x. 617 or via email at austinp@od.nih.gov. You must register for this course. Seating is limited.

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.