eRA Project Team Meeting
Date: June 12, 2001
Time: 9:00 am
Location: 6700B Rockledge, Room 1202
Chair: John McGowan

Next Meeting: June 26, 2001, 6700B Rockledge, Room 1205, 9:00 am

1. Project Team Retreat (All) - Email Madeline Monheit (monheitm@od.nih.gov ) by Thursday, June 21 to confirm your availability to attend on November 1 and 2.

2. Hummingbird Software License (Pete Morton) - Check to see if CIT has an NIH site license.

3. Ad Hoc Reporting Tool Selection (All) - Contact Carol Martin if you would like to participate.

4. New Advocate Briefing (John McGowan) - Brief Nancy Vess and Earl Hodgkins on their role.

Presentations and Discussion Topics

1. Ad Hoc Query and Reporting - Krishna Collie

Krishna reported on the progress of Carol Martin's team toward recommending a robust ad hoc query and reporting (Q&R) tool for the IMPAC II user community. The team has just completed the requirements analysis and is about to begin comparing the products of four leaders in the business intelligence field: Oracle, Cognos, Business Objects and Hummingbird. The Q&R group has already established evaluation criteria; with vendor support, testing areas are being set up at OER and Logicon. According to Krishna, they are on schedule to recommend a tool and implement a pilot this coming fall.

The products will be considered from two perspectives: 1) their pre-programmed reporting facility and accommodation of standard report manipulation by business users; and 2) their support for the execution of queries and reports against the OLTP and IRDB by more knowledgeable "power users". The products will also be evaluated as decision support tools.

As an example, Krishna demonstrated the generation of a standard report using Hummingbird. He then showed how the output format can be manipulated to change column order, headers, font and borders and how these formatting specifications can be saved for future use. He also explained the way data can be exported to Excel. See Attachment A for screen shots.

Following are the highlights of the group discussion:

• In response to John McGowan's question about comparative cost, Krishna said that whether by seat or by server, the prices are very similar.
• George Stone asked about existing site licenses. Pete Morton will check with CIT about Hummingbird.
• Bob Moore had questions about the setup and maintenance of the metalayer (between the raw database and the end-user tool). Andy Greenleaf stated that the metalayer will be created by the development team. Both this layer and report templates will require customization for the business areas and ICs. Jim Cain asked how many metalayers we can maintain.
• As an evaluation aid, Jim Cain suggested that the Q&R team set up a matrix of product features and required level of support.
• Bud Erickson inquired whether there was a report preview function. Earl Hodgkins said that in Hummingbird, the magnifying glass icon can be used for this purpose.
• When John McGowan suggested that Program provide a list of desired canned reports, Carol Martin said it was too early in the process to collect this information.
• Bud Erickson thought the team should poll the ICs to determine the products already in use. For example, NCI uses Oracle Discoverer.
• John McGowan emphasized the importance of this endeavor; reporting is at the top of the eRA priority list. Implementation of Son of Shelby (the final OMB document is expected this month) makes having an intelligent reporting tool even more crucial. This policy states that citizens have a right to access data that is cited publicly or used in policy making. Query and reporting is included on the agenda for the upcoming budget retreat for IC directors on June 25.

2. Report on Commons Working Group Meeting of May 16 (See Attachment B and C)

a. Morning Session - George Stone

• Existing Commons Interface. The results of the user survey were not surprising for a 2001 audience reviewing 1996 technology. Comments included: reduce size of icons and wasted space; flatten navigation; add context to help; improve sort and search capabilities.
• Institutional Hierarchy. The CWG requested greater latitude in defining institutional structure to the school and department level. As an action item, CWG members were given the assignment of identifying an acceptable level of hierarchy for the Commons. John McGowan inquired if switching to DUNS identifiers would help since the 4-digit extension can be used to designate institutional components. Belinda Seto emphasized that NIH's own reporting requirements need to be considered.
• Enhanced Reporting Capabilities. Ad hoc report functionality in a portal-type environment would be ideal. An action item for CWG attendees is to provide a list of reports needed by PIs and institutional administrators.
• Roles and Approvals. This issue will be revisited using MIT's COEUS roles and rights definitions as a starting point.
• Creating New User Accounts. Recommendations included improving speed and accuracy by limiting the person search to the applicant's institution and reconciling duplicates by manual selection.
• DUNS Number as Unique Identifier for Grantee Organizations. There was general support for the concept of using DUNS instead of IPF numbers.
• Single Point of Ownership of Professional Profiles. The CWG recommended use of a single point of ownership to ensure positive and unique identification of extramural users. Jim Cain explained the relationship between the parent profile record (which contains the most current information) and the child role records (which are frozen in time).

b. Afternoon Session - Marcia Hahn

This session was dedicated to the SNAP Noncompeting Award process. Following an historical perspective of streamlining efforts, there was a discussion of each area of science reporting (abstract, progress report, research accomplishments, citations etc.). CWG recommendations (see Attachment C, pages 15-17) were floated to EPUG and POPOF and will be presented to GMAC next week and to EPMC on July 9. Marcia will report back to the Project Team later in July.

John McGowan asked Bud Erickson if there was consensus at the EPUG meeting. Bud replied that there was a difference of opinion regarding new questions to ask the PI, and a sub-group has been established to consider this matter. Program is very excited about redesigning the SNAP process. Sherry Zucker added that her group is working on a customizable checklist for ICO. Carlos Caban inquired how the scientific reporting aspects SNAP can be captured on a checklist. Sherry replied that signoff can be based on the comments in Program notes. Krishna suggested that portals be used to link science reporting with IMPAC II administrative data.

Marcia stressed the need to better educate PIs about what NIH does with the information in their reports. They should know that the reports are used in appropriations hearings and to help make "better science". Carlos suggested that we provide feedback to PIs on their first progress report.

John McGowan asked how we can proceed to grants involving clinical trials. Carlos, who is also a member of the Human Subjects Liaison Committee, suggested that a new eRA functional group be set up to deal with this area.
Both the Commons Interface Specifications Subgroup and the SNAP Subgroup will continue discussion at the NCURA eRA VI conference in Portland in August.

Announcements and Status Reports

1. New Advocates - John McGowan introduced Earl Hodgkins and Nancy Vess, the new Group Advocates for Budget.

2. HHS Memorandum - John McGowan announced a memo from Tommy Thompson concerning his plan to administer the Department's information technologies on an "enterprise" basis. According to the memo, administrative systems (including grants management) will be consolidated. We will be required to submit an annual plan toward the achievement of this objective (the first is due this August). See Attachment D.

3. IMPAC I IAS Module - John McGowan proposed a change of strategy regarding AHRQ and its legacy system Interactive Award System (IAS). The business processes need to be analyzed for possible inclusion into IMPAC II or the Federal Commons. Paul Markovitz needs to become involved.

4. ECB/QVR Meeting - Thor Fjellstedt announced a meeting of the ECB/QVR Steering Committee on June 13 at 1:00 pm.

5. Portals - George Stone inquired about the status of portals vis-à-vis the established priorities. John McGowan sees the integration of portals into ICO as a way to engage Program. Bud Erickson agrees. Like QVR, portals are a way to achieve PO "buy in". The plan to repackage existing ICO functionality into a portal interface (Phase 1 of the ICO redesign) is a safe way to introduce the new technology. Jim Cain commented that portals are part of the of the 9iAS stack of tools and do not represent an additional investment. Furthermore, Oracle has agreed to provide a portal expert at no extra charge. Pete Morton suggested that portals be viewed as a solution to funded areas rather than as an independent objective requiring prioritization.

6. Retreat - Unless the majority disapproves, the eRA Project Team retreat will be held on November 1 and 2, 2001 at Westfield in Chantilly, VA. We need to confirm with the hotel by Thursday, June 21.

7. Contract Information - Bob Moore inquired about the timetable for incorporating FY2001 contract data into IMPAC II. Since CIT has not created the planned bridge from ADB to DCIS, dual entry of the data is required. Diane Frasier will write an article for the July issue of Inside eRA informing the community how to run extramural reports that include R&D contracts.

8. IMPAC II Release Schedule - Sherry Zucker distributed a detailed schedule (to end of CY 2001). The list is sorted by release date and also by business area. Sherry thanked Mike Cox for a great job. See Attachment E.

9. IV & V Contract - Our proposal to tap into the NIH 1% fund has been evaluated. If approved, the eRA dollars earmarked for the IV&V contract can be used for other purposes.

10. NBS Changes - Tim Twomey reported that "cans" will not be part of the new NBS general ledger. To accommodate this change in IMPAC II will require considerable effort. Tim suggested that this item be included in the FY2002 eRA budget.

Attachments