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This news update from the NIH Office of Research Information Systems (ORIS), provides the Department of Health
and Human Services (DHHS) and its partners with pertinent information about the plans and progress of the NIH
Electronic Research Administration (eRA). Through its eRA and information services, ORIS supports the Department's
research grants programs by using technology to reduce the costs of grants administration, to analyze and report on
grant data, and to synthesize grant information into knowledge for guiding the NIH research portfolio and improving
the Nation's health.
Plans for IMPAC I Retirement Now Available
The eRA Steering Committee has approved plans to retire the IMPAC I system in October 2002. The retirement plans provide dates and a summary of the impact of each transition event on IC management, as well as on program, review and technical staff. Although the IMPAC I database will continue to be updated with IMPAC II data for the foreseeable future, the IMPAC I system will not be modified as new fields are added to IMPAC II. The impending retirement of the IMPAC I system has been discussed throughout the NIH extramural community for many years now. The sooner ICs move to the IMPAC II environment, the better. It is important that each IC transition smoothly to IMPAC II to ensure that key functions in the award and oversight process continue uninterrupted. The eRA project cannot sustain a campus-wide rush to make these critical transitions at the very last moment. Comments regarding retirement plans should be directed to Dr. John J. McGowan, at 301-496-7291 or by email at jmcgowan@niaid.nih.gov.
Status Update on 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. A link from IMPAC II to the DW would enable contract data to be downloaded along with any ADB data that IMPAC II users need. 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. We estimate that the interface will be available in the first quarter of FY 2002. In July 2001, IC contracting offices were given the go-ahead to enter FY 2001 contract data directly into the DCIS. This data can be made accessible to IMPAC II users by one of three means: by a link from IMPAC II to the DCIS, by provision of a username and password for anyone who requires access to the DCIS, or by making a request to the Data Management Office, OAMP. When the DW begins receiving nightly updates from DCIS, IMPAC II and other systems will have access to the data via a link from IMPAC II to the DW. During Phase I, standard reports defined by OAMP and ad hoc query capabilities will be provided. Ultimately, the Acquisition module of the New Business and Research Support System (NBRSS) will become the common point of entry for all R&D contract data. The New Business System (NBS) will then populate DCIS from which mandatory data will be uploaded to the FPDS.
eRA Taps NSF Experience in NIH Commons Development Efforts
Jerry Stuck joined the eRA project in July on a part-time basis to lend his experience and advice to the NIH Commons development efforts. Mr. Stuck, of the National Science Foundation (NSF), spearheaded the development of FastLane, the NSF system for electronic receipt of grant applications. He also works closely with the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) to coordinate the interaction between various federal agencies and participating FDP institutions, with particular emphasis on electronic grants administration issues. Mr. Stuck and the NSF have a long history of partnering with NIH on NIH and Federal Commons efforts.
Scanning Update
eRA is moving ahead with plans to implement full scanning of all grant applications within the next 13 months. The Project Team is currently exploring the optimal technology for accomplishing this goal. Approximately 500 grant applications will be scanned this summer as eRA collaborates in pilot projects with NIMH, NIA, NINDS, NINR and the NIH Biomedical Engineering (BECON) and BioInformatics (BISTI) consortia. Scanning represents an interim step on the path to accepting electronic grant applications by FY 2003 as mandated by federal law. Taking advantage of scanning technology now will facilitate the development of business practices for receiving e-grants in the future and will promote a culture change as NIH staff members become more familiar with working with electronic documents instead of paper. See Scanning: An Essential Step toward Handling e-Grants (published on 11/22/2000) for background on the eRA scanning initiative. The main objective is to have scanning as an option for any paper grants that we receive in the future. Dr. Steven J. Hausman, Group Advocate for Scanning, is working with OER staff to implement a number of pilots to determine how scanned or electronic grant applications might be used. The purpose of the pilots is to explore what can work now, what gaps exist in current modules, and what changes need to be made to policy and business practices to better utilize the digital grant. Pilots are underway to evaluate the use of scanned applications to create CDs for peer reviewers. This has been successfully accomplished with the BECON grant applications for several years under the direction of Dr. Eileen Bradley of CSR and has been recently expanded to BISTI. According to Dr. Bradley, reviewers have responded very positively to the CDs. She also noted the potential for cost savings and improvement in the use of human resources. In May and June of this year, CDs with all grant applications were distributed to 35 study sections. Feedback from these pilots is being collected at this time. One issue identified thus far regards conflicts of interest and the need to provide CDs tailored to individual reviewers. Programming efforts are currently being directed to this end. Later this year, we plan to build the functionality of the NIAID Internet-assisted review system into IMPAC II. The NIAID system prevents reviewers from accessing applications for which they have a conflict. When we integrate electronic review into IMPAC II, we will build in capability for SRAs and GTAs to burn CDs specific to each reviewer. At the present time, applications scanned in the pilots are available for viewing online in the IMPAC II Grant Folder. This feature was implemented in the May 18 releases of Grants Management, Peer Review, QuickView, Receipt and Referral, and ICO. The majority of NIAID AIDS applications from the last Council round may be viewed through the Grant Folder available in the modules above. These applications were scanned by the Office of Research Services (ORS) in collaboration with CSR and eRA. See the June 7 issue for more information on the Grant Folder. At this point, we are looking for other ICs to participate in pilots to explore current modules, policy and practice, and to help us incorporate design features to improve quality and expedite our business process. If you have questions, suggestions or would like to participate in a pilot, please contact Dr. Hausman at sh41g@nih.gov.
Understanding Professional Profiles and Role Records
Users who change records hold the key to personal data quality. As reported in the June edition, the eRA Steering Committee recently approved spending $6 million over the next three years to clean up existing People data anomalies. To ensure data integrity in the future, it is critical that those with the ability to modify records fully understand the consequences of changes to Profile and Role records. An incorrect change to a Profile record corrupts not only one user's data, but potentially many NIH records. A more thorough analysis is available in the eRA white paper, "Understanding Professional Profile and Role Records".Data quality improvement ranks third on eRA's list of top priorities. Cleaning up existing people data problems represents only the first step toward achieving this objective. The best way to prevent future errors is for users with update privileges to fully understand Role/Profile construction and the implications of changes they make to these records. Look for more information on updating People data in the next issue.
eRA Web Site to Undergo Major Redesign
This coming September, visitors to era.nih.gov can expect a remodeled, user-friendly repository for timely and comprehensive information about the Electronic Research Administration project. Major enhancements to the web site's form, content and functionality are designed to improve communication among the Project Team, NIH extramural staff and our partners in the grantee community. Macromedia Spectra software will provide the framework and tools for building and administering eRA's new Internet site. Chip Groh and his web development team are currently defining templates containing standard layout and look-and-feel elements for use throughout the site. New navigation bars will enable users to navigate quickly and easily to the information they seek. Site searching and retrieval will be supported by ColdFusion's built-in Verity search engine. In addition to updating interfaces for existing content areas, new pages will be established for each IMPAC II business community. Using a role-based model, Spectra's security services will empower Group Advocates to post and manage their group's documents including rosters, meeting minutes, white papers, implementation plans, wish lists, and policy and procedures. The software's "Anywhere Authoring" facility will enable Group Advocates to create and publish content on their eRA web page without the assistance of IT or HTML developers. Workflow and process automation will also facilitate the publication of project information as quickly and efficiently as possible. For example, automated task notification via email will be implemented to expedite the multi-step newsletter review and approval process. Future enhancements will also enable the eRA team to dynamically report on the status of each priority task. Implementation plans (now updated periodically) will ultimately draw from MS Project Central for a real-time view of project progress. Heat, the new Help Desk software, will also be accessible from the eRA web site. Users will be able to tap into a knowledge base of questions and answers as well as to query the database about the status of outstanding requests. We welcome your feedback on design and content as the new web site evolves. Please send comments to NIH eRA Support at nihera@od.nih.gov.
IMPAC II Software Release Schedule as of July 20, 2001
New versions were deployed on July 20 for the following business areas. Implementations originally planned for August 17 have been postponed until August 24. The complete IMPAC II Software Release Schedule for the next six months is now available on the IMPAC II web site. Please email questions about the schedule to the IMPAC II Helpdesk at helpdesk@od.nih.gov.
IMPAC II Training Opportunities
The Human Resource Development Division (HRDD) has scheduled the following IMPAC II courses for the 4th quarter of FY 2001. | Course Title | Number | Date | Time | Location | Tuition | | Peer Review | 5825 | 9/19/01 | 9 am - 4 pm | Executive Plaza South | $180 | | Institute Center Operations | 5828 | 8/15/01 | 9 am - 12 pm | Executive Plaza South | $138 | | Quick View | 5830 | 9/24/01 | 1 pm - 4 pm | Executive Plaza South | $110 | | Committee Management for GTAs and Review Staff | 5833 | 8/27/01 | 9 am - 4 pm | Executive Plaza South | $180 | | Committee Management for CMOs and CMAs | 5834 | 8/20/01 | 9 am - 4 pm | Executive Plaza South | $180 | | Committee Management for SREA Staff | 5835 | 8/30/01 | 9 am - 12 pm | Executive Plaza South | $140 |
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 or contact Mr. Ajoy Gadhok at gadhoka@od.nih.gov or 301-402-3384. | Course Title | Number | Duration | Tuition | | Grants Management | 5827 | 1 day | $180 | | Training Appointments | | ½ day | | | CRISP Plus | 5829 | 1 day | $110 | | Special Initiatives Tracking | | 1 day |
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