Inside eRA for Partners, March 11, 2003 (Volume 3, Issue 2)

BOG Approves eRA Budget Increase for FY 2003

The NIH IT Board of Governors (BOG) has approved the increase in funding requested by eRA Project Manager John McGowan on January 29. For FY 2003, eRA will receive an increment of $6.56 million to raise its approved budget to a total of $40.960 million. 

The original five-year eRA budget, established in 2000, provided the same level of support for each year. Until now, the project has managed to succeed with existing funding of approximately $34 million per year. At this point, however, it is evident that eRA cannot meet its obligations on schedule without additional dollars.

The BOG’s approval of additional resources is based on the fact that Information Technology (IT) is growing more complex each year. The cost of the migration to Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technology, now crucial to providing state-of-the art Web services, was not factored into the original estimate.

eRA’s workload has experienced significant growth. For example, over the past three years, the number of grant applications received by the NIH has increased by about 30 percent; over the past three months, the number of eRA user sessions has risen from a conservative estimate of 42,000 in December 2002 to 60,000 in February 2003.

While overall, NIH and NIH extramural budgets have grown dramatically since FY 2001, eRA’s budget has remained static. eRA has lost 10-15 percent of its purchasing power because its funding has been flat relative to the rate of inflation.

For FY 2004, eRA will request an additional $6 million, which will bring eRA’s allocation to $39.086 million. For FY 2005, eRA will seek a permanent adjustment of $6.865 million to its base budget plus $4.123 million in contingency funds. If approved, these increases will result in total funding of $45.037 million for FY 2005.

Direct questions about the eRA budget to Zoe-Ann Copeland, eRA Budget Officer and Chief, Administrative Services Branch, Office of Extramural Research (OER).

Enhancements to NIH eRA Commons 2 Planned for March

The next quarterly eRA deployment, scheduled for March 22, will implement new capabilities in NIH eRA Commons 2 and associated Web-based applications. Thus far, approximately 150 active grantee organizations and 1,600 individuals have registered for the new NIH eRA Commons system, which is moving toward full production. Over the past three months, the number of eRA user sessions has grown from a conservative estimate of 42,000 in December to 60,000 in February. To assist with the migration, eRA has contacted former users of Commons 1 and the now defunct mainframe Financial Status Report (FSR) system.

Highlights of the March Deployment

• NIH eRA Commons 2 is a virtual meeting place on the Internet where the NIH and its grantees exchange information pertinent to the administration of biomedical and behavioral science research. Version 2.2.2.0 will support:

--Ability for Principal Investigators (PIs) to delegate Personal Profile (PPF) update authority to another individual. For more information on the concept of single point of ownership, see the May 2002 issue.

--Ability for PIs to display an electronic version of the grant application in the Status module. Since January 2002, when eRA began scanning all incoming grant applications received by the Center for Scientific Review (CSR), grant images have been stored in the eRA database.

--A more robust demonstration/training facility, which will include account creation and maintenance and the submission of eSNAPs and FSRs. For more information, see article in this issue.

--A more streamlined account-creation process, allowing an extramural administrator to specify an individual to create an account for which NIH support previously existed. This feature will be available to extramural administrators as an Administration/Accounts/ Maintain Accounts menu item.

• eSNAP is a Web interface for the submission of electronic Simplified Non-competing Application Process Type-5 progress reports. Eleven institutions (Cornell, Dartmouth, Emory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Stanford, and the Universities of California, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Washington) are participating in a “production pilot.” During February, there were about 5,000 sessions, and more than 40 eSNAPs were processed. eRA expects to achieve full eSNAP deployment in 2004, but will continue to support paper submissions for several years. The March upgrade will enable:

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--Significant user interface and usability upgrades.

•  FSR enables the electronic submission of Financial Status Reports. The new Web-based FSR system replaces the IMPAC I dial-up/terminal-based program, which recently was turned off. More than 800 electronic FSRs already have been processed, and records from the old system have been uploaded to the Web system. The new FSR interface is open to all registered NIH eRA Commons 2 users. The March deployment will support:

--Improved indirect cost entry.

--Unexpended balances on grants with future funding.

• IAR facilitates the scientific review of grant applications by standardizing the electronic submission of critiques and initial priority scores and enabling reviewers to examine each other’s critiques online prior to meetings. For more information on the IAR pilot, which began on December 9, see full article in this issue. The upcoming deployment will:

--Ensure that enabled telephone reviewers see all meeting critiques. This enhancement is consistent with NIH Review policy. 

--Display “Teleconference” with the meeting title if a telephone conference.

--Implement context-sensitive online help that focuses on specific screens and features.

--Allow the Scientific Review Administrator (SRA) and Grants Technical Assistant (GTA) to set meeting-wide options for allowing unassigned critiques to be submitted for the Edit and/or Submit phases.

--Add Sort options to the List of Applications screen to allow the SRA/GTA to better monitor the status of reviewer critique submissions. The SRA/GTA will be able to sort by PI Name, Reviewer Role and Critique Submitted Date.

--Add ability to view all critiques submitted by a reviewer as a merged Adobe PDF file.

For the latest news on Web-based applications, visit the NIH eRA Commons Support page. For more information about NIH eRA Commons 2, contact the NIH eRA Commons Helpdesk at commons@od.nih.gov or 866-504-9552.

eRA to Launch Improved NIH eRA Commons Training Site

On March 22, eRA will deploy an improved NIH eRA Commons 2 demonstration site, which will provide a much more realistic user experience. The demo will be accessible from the NIH eRA Commons home page at http://commons.era.nih.gov.

After logging on, the user will create a unique training ID and password, and select a role (PI, SO, AA or AO) to emulate. During account creation, data for the IPF, PPF, FSR and several grants will be populated with seed data stored in the system. At this point, the user can perform all actions permissible for the chosen role, such as creating other accounts, editing the IPF and PPF, and creating FSRs and eSNAPs. It will be possible to simulate the entire eSNAP process, from initiation through final submission by an SO (Signing Official).

The training account will remain active for at least 90 days, after which time it will be deleted. The demo system was specifically designed to accommodate hands-on training sessions. Each account is unique, but all accounts are populated with copies of the same data. As a result, if an instructor walks a class through a training exercise, each student should see the same data on his/her screen. The system also allows individuals to update the data without impacting other users or corrupting the seed data.

Address questions and comments to David Wright, eRA liaison to the extramural community.

Commons Working Group Provides Feedback on NIH eRA Progress

Representatives from 18 grantee institutions met with eRA staff to discuss the NIH eRA Commons 2 deployment, the development of an electronic Competitive Grant Application Process (CGAP), and the formulation of standards for clinical research reporting at the January 8 meeting of the Commons Working Group (CWG) in Irvine, CA. For the past two years, the CWG has been meeting quarterly to communicate business requirements, assist with NIH eRA testing and deployment activities, participate in outreach efforts, and otherwise contribute to the progress of the NIH eRA Commons Project.

The January meeting was a forum for CWG members to share their experiences over the past two months as NIH eRA Commons 2 pilot users. According to David Wright, eRA liaison to the extramural community, most participants seemed satisfied with the new NIH eRA Commons software, but were disappointed by the perceived lack of new functionality. The recent opening of the eSNAP pilot to the entire group may change this perception. Users of the new Web-based Financial Status Report (FSR) system appeared pleased now that most of the major bugs have been eliminated.

Also on the agenda, eRA architect JJ Maurer gave an update on the progress of the eRA electronic competitive grant application process. Previously, the CWG had devoted three meetings to formulating recommendations for CGAP business process reengineering. CWG members reacted to the CGAP project plan with great enthusiasm, especially to the proposed technical solution to the “deadline dilemma”, caused by 99 percent of applications arriving within 12 hours of the deadline. See the next issue of Inside eRA for Partners for a comprehensive CGAP update.

On January 9, Mr. Maurer presented the eRA CGAP plan to more than 50 members of the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP). Representatives from UCLA and the University of Minnesota were especially supportive. 

Regarding eRA’s plans to add clinical research-related functionality, the group was pleased about NIH’s willingness to play a role in developing standards by which clinical data (such as human subject protocols and clinical trial adverse events) could be reported. To this end, NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni recently convened a clinical research informatics working group. Both the NIH and the extramural community want to see active FDA involvement to ensure that all major parties are represented during the formulation of standards.

CWG meetings are open to all interested persons. The next session, scheduled in conjunction with the upcoming general meeting of the FDP, will be held on Wednesday, April 30 at 1:00 p.m. in Washington, D.C. For information, contact George Stone or David Wright.

Internet Assisted Review Pilot Expanded

Eleven NIH Scientific Review Administrators (SRAs) from CSR, NIAID, NIDDK, NINR, and NLM, their 22 study sections and more than 250 reviewers currently are participating in the eRA Internet Assisted Review (IAR) pilot, which began in December 2002. Additional members of the Review Users Group (RUG) may join the pilot after the March deployment; full production is planned for July 2003.

Both internal staff (SRAs and Grants Technical Assistants (GTAs)) and peer reviewers use IAR to expedite the scientific review of grant applications. This software provides a standard process for the electronic submission of critiques and initial priority scores prior to the review meeting. More productive meetings will result when reviewers have the opportunity to examine others’ critiques online prior to meetings and to modify their own critiques after meetings.

IAR also accelerates the grants approval and funding process by enabling easier, more efficient administration of reviews. Critiques are available immediately after review meetings, and IAR generates a preliminary summary statement comprising all critiques for an application. As a result, summary statements can be released more quickly. 

Reviewers access the IAR Web interface through the NIH eRA Commons 2. To do so, reviewers require an NIH eRA Commons account. At the beginning of the pilot, approximately 10 percent of the reviewers already had NIH eRA Commons accounts. After being invited to register by an SRA, the other 90 percent subsequently enrolled and received NIH eRA Commons accounts with the Reviewer role. Participants come from a variety of institutions, including Yale School of Nursing, Harvard Medical School, Duke University, the University of Colorado, and the University of Southern California. Thus far, response from both NIH staff and grantees has been positive, and interest in IAR is growing in the Review community.

Original IAR functionality includes:

• A Control Center for the SRA and GTA to manage aspects of a reviewer’s access during all IAR phases (SUBMIT, READ and optional EDIT).     
• Ability to submit critiques in Word or text format; ability to view critiques in Adobe PDF format.     
• Ability to view a matrix of initial scores with the option to designate certain applications as lower half.     
• After the meeting, ability for the SRA/GTA to view and download a Word document to be used as the preliminary summary statement body.

For information about upgrades planned for March, see the NIH eRA Commons deployment article in this issue. The July release, which will open IAR to all SRAs, is expected to implement the following enhancements:

• Ability for reviewers and SRA/GTAs to view the scanned grant application image within IAR.     
• Option of including Reviewer Names in the preliminary summary statement.     
• Improvements to Score Matrix sorting.     
• Ability to view all critiques for a PI in one Adobe PDF file.     
• Ability for all SRAs and GTAs on the roster to have access to the meeting in IAR.

eRA has sponsored several training sessions and demonstrations for Review staff. A tutorial  and user guide for reviewers are available online. For more information about IAR, contact the NIH eRA Commons Helpdesk at commons@od.nih.gov or 866-504-9552.

Project Manager Shares eRA Vision at February 13 Workshop

As 175 NIH staff attended in person, more than 1,000 others tuned into the videocast of the NIH eRA Commons orientation session held on February 13 in the Natcher Building. Sponsored by the Office of Extramural Research (OER), the internal training demonstrated current eRA capabilities and revealed future plans. 

In his address to NIH staff, John McGowan, eRA Project Manager, emphasized that the NIH eRA Commons now is a reality, with usage expected to grow dramatically over the next few years as capabilities are added. See utilization projections at http://era.nih.gov/docs/Commons Usage Graph.pdf. It is therefore incumbent on NIH extramural staff to become familiar with the NIH eRA Commons to interact effectively with the grantee community and to perform grants administrative tasks in the new electronic environment.

The vision for the future includes combining the NIH eRA Commons (current external-facing system) with IMPAC II (current internal-facing system) into one integrated eRA system with a common database. Two of Dr. McGowan’s presentation slides show the interrelationships and flow of the NIH eRA Commons and IMPAC II modules from grant submission through close out. eRA’s objective is to combine these two systems into a single system with customized interfaces. All users (i.e., NIH grants management personnel, budget officers, program officials and external grantees) would share a system with a consistent look and feel that would be tailored according to their unique responsibilities. 

Dr. McGowan also encouraged Institute and Center (IC) leadership to take advantage of opportunities to reduce the need for paper. For example, this year, ICs should cease conventional mailing of summary statements since PIs can display these documents in the Status module of the NIH eRA Commons. Beginning in FY 2004, all progress reports should be submitted electronically.

The agenda also included:

Opening and Welcome	Patty Austin
Commons Working Group Update	George Stone
NIH eRA Commons 101	Dan Hall, Tim Twomey
Internet Assisted Review	Tracy Soto, Everett Sinnett, Scarlett Gibb

CDs for Reviewers Upgraded to Version 2

The software for creating CDs for reviewers was upgraded to Version 2 on February 10. The primary purpose of the new version is to overcome compatibility problems experienced with some PC and Mac configurations. CD functionality and look-and-feel remain unchanged.

Version 2 implements two internal changes to CD creation. First, the CD will use the reviewer’s Adobe Acrobat Reader, if installed; if not, the user still can install the reader from the CD. Second, grant image file names will be in grant-number format and not in accession-number format. This naming change will enable users to bypass the menus and navigate the CD directly (if necessary). The external label also will contain instructions on finding help in the UserGuide.pdf and InstallReader.htm files.

In February 2002, some Institutes and Centers (ICs) began ordering CDs for reviewers in place of conventional paper books of grant applications. The May 2002 release of the IMPAC II Peer Review module expedited the process by enabling ICs to place orders online. For more information, contact eRA Analyst Mike Cox.

Annual eRA Symposium to Focus on NIH Program Community

This year’s eRA symposium, planned for April 30 in the Natcher Auditorium, will be dedicated to updating NIH Program Officials (POs) on the progress of eRA and the impact of new NIH eRA Commons technology on Program business processes. The symposium also will introduce POs to the new Web-based Program module (PGM), which will debut later this month.

The vision for the PGM is to enable POs to conduct NIH research administration using the paperless processes mandated by Congress. To accomplish this goal, the PGM will serve as a gateway to biomedical research and eRA information. In addition, the PGM interface will allow POs to monitor and administer their assigned grant applications as they move through all phases of the grant lifecycle from pre-submission to post-award.

The PGM interface will be customized so that when a PO signs on, his/her current portfolio of work-in-progress grants in the Pending SRG, Pre-Council, Post-Council, Pre-Award, Post-Award and Withdrawn stages will display. Once eRA builds the architecture for this capability, it will be reused to build similar interfaces for members of other NIH internal and external user communities, enabling users to track and process their individual workloads.

To accommodate the responsibilities of Program staff, the PGM will have the following functions and features:

• Default PO Portfolios (Spring 2003 Release) -- The initial release will have four default portfolios at the Pending SRG, Pre-Council, Post-Council, and Post-Award/Pending Type 5 stages of the grant lifecycle. In July, default portfolios for Pre-Award and Withdrawn/Other will be added.   
• Review of eSNAP Progress Reports (Spring 2003 Release) -- Support for processing electronic progress reports.     
• Access to Scientific Resources (Spring 2003 Release)  -- Ability to select, search and save material from online journals and to do research on prospective PIs.    
• Portfolio Management (July 2003 Release) -- Support for functions such as adding and removing grants.    
• Customizable Checklists (July 2003 Release) -- There will be new modules for checklists and Program approval.    
• Integration with MS Outlook Calendar (Future Release) -- Ability to download eRA dates (SRG meeting dates, Council dates, etc.) to Microsoft Outlook.       
• Interface with Shared Systems (Future Release) -- Access to e-Notification, e-Requests and other modules.       
• Division of Extramural Activities (DEA) and Council Functions (Future Release) -- These functions will be part of a Program Administration module.

Address questions and comments about the PGM to eRA Advocate Bud Erickson.

Upcoming NIH eRA Commons Orientation Sessions

NCURA Interactive Learning Series

“Changes to the NIH eRA Commons” will be the topic of an interactive discussion on the Internet on March 18, 2–3 p.m. ET. As part of the NCURA Interactive Learning Series (ILS), Tim Twomey and David Wright will provide insight and answer questions about the NIH eRA Commons. Contact Joshua Lessin at 202-466-3894 or lessin@ncura.edu for information about this ILS.

NIH Regional Seminars

Are you looking forward to submitting grant applications electronically? David Wright will provide the status of NIH eRA initiatives and a demonstration of the NIH eRA Commons at the next NIH Regional Seminar on April 25. The April seminar will be hosted by Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA. For information about the program, on-line registration, cost and logistics, go to http://www.stanford.edu/dept/ORA/training/nihconf03/index.html.

David Wright will repeat his presentation on June 12 at the June NIH Regional Seminar, which will be hosted by the University of Maryland in Baltimore, MD. A Web site with program, registration, cost and logistical information is in development at http://www.ord.umaryland.edu/nih. If unable to access the Web site, please send a message to nih-conference@ordmail.umaryland.edu to be placed on a mailing list for further information.

The NIH eRA Commons Helpdesk is also available to answer user questions about how to register and use the system. Contact the Helpdesk at commons@od.nih.gov or toll free at 866-504-9552.

FAQs for Financial Status Report System Users

The Financial Status Report (FSR) Web interface is open to all grantees who have enrolled in the NIH eRA Commons 2. eRA representatives have been contacting former users of the now defunct mainframe FSR system to register and orient them to the Web version. The following list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) will acquaint other interested grantees with the new FSR system.

Where do I access the FSR system?

Log on to https://commons.era.nih.gov/commons/index.jsp. Once NIH eRA Commons access is granted, FSR appears as a menu item on the NIH eRA Commons home page.

Why can’t I see the FSR tab? 

You must have the FSR role assigned to your NIH eRA Commons account to use the FSR system. You will not see the FSR tab if you do not have this role. Contact your institution’s SO or AA to request the FSR role.

Who is the SO?

The grantee organization Signing Official (SO) has the institutional authority to execute legally binding grants administration actions, such as submitting grant applications to the NIH. Within the organization, the individual(s) filling this role is generally known as the “Business Official.” The NIH eRA Commons designation is "Signing Official." The SO can create and modify user accounts and Institutional Profiles (IPFs).

Who is the AA?

An SO designates an Accounts Administrator (AA) to facilitate the administration of NIH eRA Commons accounts. Although the AA will be able to create, modify and remove accounts, he/she will not be able to modify the IPF information. It is the responsibility of the primary AA to inform all account holders of any NIH eRA Commons messages sent through the NIH eRA Commons distribution list.

What is the format for the Grant Number on the FSR Search screen?

Can I use wildcards in the Grant Number?

Wildcards can be used in the IC and Activity Code fields. For example, enter R% to search for Activity Codes from R01 to R44.

How do I retrieve details about the grants on the query results list?

Click on each grant number link to display the FSR Details screen.

How do I display an existing FSR?

Select “View” from the FSR Details screen to open the download dialog box.

How do I create or update an FSR?

Once you have performed a query and selected a grant, click on the “Paper Entry” link to access the FSR Edit screen. All data stored in the database will appear in a format that resembles the paper report.

Why do I see only the FSR long form?

At this time, only the long form is available because everyone can use it. The short form will be added as a future enhancement.

Where do I find specific instructions for completing/submitting the form?

Instructions are included in the FSR User’s Guide for External Users located at http://era.nih.gov/Docs/FSR_EX_User_Guide_02-05-03.pdf.