eSubmission News and Updates
NIH eSubmission Items of Interest — July 17, 2006
Forms Changes and Grants.gov Automated Emails - No, NIH did not just close 200 FOAs over the weekend! Research & Related Senior/Key Person Profile - Adding the Ninth Person Forms Changes and Grants.gov Automated Emails – No, NIH did not just close 200 FOAs over the weekend!
Receiving automated emails from Grants.gov when a particular Funding Opportunity
Announcement (FOA) that you are interested in changes is a good concept. We
still encourage you to provide your email address and sign up for these kinds
of notification whenever you download applications from Grants.gov.
However, the content of the automated emails sent by Grants.gov during our
form package updates have left many applicants confused. The emails only included
the Opening and Closing dates of the initial application package and do not
reflect the Opening and Closing dates of the entire FOA. Looking at the emails
would leave one to believe that we have just closed over 200 FOAs?I assure
you this is not the case. Further, the emails instruct users to pick up the
new application package and include a link to the initial application package
(the Version 1 application package that we are phasing out). Yikes!!
The best advice I can give is to always go back to the FOA itself to download
current application packages. In doing so, you will see the complete announcement
and have access to ALL available application packages.
Here is a sample automated message (just in case you don’t have enough
examples in your Inbox):
From: support@grants.gov [mailto:support@grants.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 3:12 PM
To:
Subject: Federal Grant Opportunity with Shared Neurobiology of Fragile X Syndrome and Autism (R21) has changed
A grant opportunity you have previously downloaded from Grants.gov has been changed.
The grant opportunity for National Institutes of Health with Shared Neurobiology of Fragile X Syndrome and Autism (R21) has been changed. It now has the following:
Opportunity Number: PA-06-430
Opportunity Title: Shared Neurobiology of Fragile X Syndrome and Autism (R21)
Opening Date: 05/24/2006
Closing Date: 07/16/2006
You can download the new application package from http://apply.grants.gov/opportunities/packages/oppPA-06-430.xfd (XFD - 2.49 MB)
Thank you
- The Grants.gov Team
We are working with Grants.gov on potential changes to the automated messages
to avoid similar confusion in the future. It is a good system and with a little
tweaking it will serve as an effective communications tool.
Research & Related Senior/Key Person Profile – Adding the Ninth Person
We have identified an issue with the Research & Related Senior/Key Person
Profile component included in the Version 2 packages. The section of the PureEdge
form that allows attachments for Additional Senior/Key Person Profiles, Biographical
Sketches and Current and Pending Support is missing. Yep, missing….gone…not
there anymore! Grants.gov is investigating the cause and is working to quickly
address the issue. Without this section or a suitable workaround, applications
are limited to eight Senior Key Persons. As soon as we have a solution, we’ll
pass it on. In the meantime, we wanted to give you an early heads-up that
NIH and Grants.gov are aware of the issue and are working on a resolution.
Note that institutions that have created system-to-system solutions or that
work with a commercial service provider to submit applications to Grants.gov
should not be affected by this issue (i.e., XML schema is complete). This
is only an issue for applications submitted using the PureEdge forms.
We’ll keep you posted.
Welcome to Monday!
Hopefully things will settle down soon and you’ll hear from me less
frequently.
