Inside eRA, February 15, 2001

Migration to Oracle 8i Scheduled for February 16th Weekend

All IMPAC II applications and databases will be shut down from 5:00 p.m. on Friday, February 16th through late Sunday (February 18th) in order to migrate the IMPAC II database to a new version (Oracle 8i) as well as to compile and release new versions of our COTS tools. The migration is prompted in part by Oracle's decision to suspend support of our current versions. All user workstations and server software must be upgraded to the latest versions of the IMPAC II software in order to function properly after the migration. Your IMPAC II Technical Representatives have been partners and active participants in the dialogue surrounding this migration effort. As with any major migration users can expect small adjustments may need to be made after the fact. eRA technical staff will be available on Monday (the holiday) and each day thereafter to answer installation questions and address any other concerns or problems.

IC Technical staff will be able to dial the new HelpDesk phone (301-402-7469) for the latest recorded deployment information over the weekend. We will not be staffed to answer phone calls over the weekend (though we will be checking voice mail regularly), but we will be covering the HelpDesk for e-mail. E-mail is the preferred method of communications over the weekend and holiday since it will be make it possible for a limited number of our staff to monitor help requests from multiple locations.

For additional details and the latest information see the most current technical notices and also check our IMPAC II WEB site for latest information. Additional information will be sent to the Tech Notice list as it becomes available. (You can subscribe to the Tech Notice list at the IMPAC II WEB site as well, if you are not already on it).

IMPAC II HelpDesk Moves -- New Phone Number (301) 402-7469

The first phase of the move of the IMPAC II HelpDesk from our contractor site to NIH is complete. Carol Fonseca, our lead HelpDesk person has now permanently moved her new location within the DEIS/User Support Branch area in the Rockledge One building. Rob Fay and another yet to be hired staff member will be moving over within the week. Along with the move we are introducing a new HelpDesk phone number. The new number is (301) 402-7469. From an NIH phone you will need to dial only 2-7469. We will continue to monitor the old number for some time while the change over is in process. Having the IMPAC II HelpDesk on site should further improve our ability to respond to user problems and questions in a timely manner. Over the next few months we will be installing a new phone system that will provide full "call center" support to users of IMPAC II, as well as all other eRA systems.

Budget Update

eRA will soon receive the budget to meet the needs that you help identify. The group advocates are now looking to engage you once again to help form teams to organize the priorities in a manner to begin their implementation. We encourage you to join with us in defining the requirements within your functional area. You can view a list of group advocates for each of the functional areas online.

Summary Statements from the User Perspective: A View from the Edge

Work is progressing on the summary statement preparation functions of the Review Module in IMPAC II. The REV Joint Application Development (JAD) team, especially Richard Panniers and Ev Sinnet in CSR, has been testing the screens for the past several months -- and SRAs and GTAs really have a lot to look forward to! This new functionality of REV should make life a lot easier for both Scientific Review Administrators (SRAs) and Grant GTAs in those hectic days when summary statement deadlines come up on us fast.

In addition to being able to use advanced versions of both Word and WordPerfect for summary statement preparation -- with advanced formatting features such as bolds, subscripts, superscripts, Greek letters, and equations -- we won't have to worry about removing those pesky "codes" from reviewers' critiques, or wonder what the final pagination will be after the text travels through the various "upload" functions that are currently needed. Within a few minutes of saving the text to the IMPAC II database from either a diskette or a network directory, we should be able to see just what the document will look like! And best of all, we will be able to print it out right away on our local printer. No more overnight waits for stacks of folded papers that may or may not arrive on time.

The JAD team worked hard to design easy-to-use screens in REV.... The main screen looks a lot like the familiar "List of Applications" screen. The applications can be sorted by activity code, grant number, PI, score, summary statement status (draft or final), date of last update, and release date, to make it really easy to keep track of what's already been done and what is still on the "to do" list. The top of the screen includes full "header" information about the highlighted application -- so it will be easy to make sure you get the right text attached to the right application. The system that compiles the "header" information with the text and all applicable rosters works in the background, so you can "upload" text as fast as your fingers can click that mouse!

It is also easy to navigate from the Summary Statement Preparation screen to other parts of REV, including the List of Applications screen, the screen for sweeping codes and releasing the meeting, or to QuickView and the Grant Update Module. Finally, when we get to full deployment of the system later this year, it will be easy to release summary statements -- either individually or in batches -- from the same screen.

We're sure you're going to really like it!

Olivia Preble Bartlett, Chief, Grants Review Branch, NCI and REV JAD member since 1997

Shared Design Team Encourages Technical Collaboration Between OER, CIT and ICs

The shared design team provides a forum for technical experts from the Office of Extramural Research (OER), the Center for Information Technology (CIT) and the Institutes and Centers (ICs) to come together to discuss information system design issues from a variety of perspectives. The shared design team strives to provide a collaborative environment where participants share information on development efforts and provide feedback on the ways systems might be designed for use by multiple organizations. This environment serves to reduce redundancy in development, which can help NIH maximize resources. The team also identifies IC solutions that might be suitable for enterprise wide adaptation, thereby benefiting the entire community. Membership on the shared design team is somewhat fluid, with varying IC representatives participating in meetings on topics of particular interest. Currently, the team is assessing a proposal for a NIH Commons Architecture Tool, which will be shared with the general community as soon as the proposal has been vetted through the appropriate technical advisory groups.

Why Normalize Council Data?

The IMPAC system will soon allow Insitutes to identify council action information on all funding Institutes and Centers (IC) rather than only two which is currently the case with the legacy IMPAC system. This has proven problematic for Institutes who are financial contributors but are not one of the first two Institutes. If the Institute is listed third or fourth or more on the award there is no automated way for to attribute those applications to a particular council date or flag those applications as requiring council review. This problem is being resolved in IMPAC II by normalizing, or restructuring, council data.

The object of normalizing council data is to lose the distinction between dual IC(s), tertiary ICs, etc. so that any interested IC may: 

• Take any application to council.  
• Retrieve the application under each interested IC's council date.  
• Store council results for any application reviewed at council.  
• Retain results for the original and new council meeting for applications deferred by council.

With council data normalized, there will be a clear association between each IC interested in a grant application and that IC's council meeting at which the application is to be reviewed. This will simplify selecting applications for council books, provide accurate council workload queries and reports, and will afford flexibility in meeting future council-related requirements.

Some of the problems with the way council information has been stored in IMPAC and IMPAC II that prompted IMPAC II to normalize council data are: 

• Only the primary and main dual IC can store council action, and priority (HPP, LPP).  
• In IMPAC II and ECB, only the primary ICs council date is used in queries by council round. If a dual IC has a different council date than the primary IC, (e.g., if the application was deferred by Council) the application will not be retrieved in the query. Council Books and portfolio listings are therefore incomplete.  
• The IMPAC II function in ICO of sweeping council results was available only for the primary and main dual ICs.  
• When Council defers an application, the council date is changed to the next round and the old council results are erased. The deferred application appears only under the new council round. Queries and reports (e.g., Council Resume) for the old council round wont include the deferred application.

Not only does restructuring IMPAC II council data resolve these problems, it will also provide greater flexibility for meeting future council-related requirements. .

NIH Commons Working Group Decides Next Steps

The first meeting of the NIH Commons Working Group convened in conjunction with the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) meeting held at the Beckman Center in Irvine, CA, on January 10-11, 2001. The Group serves as a conduit to conduct business process requirements assessments and gathering, help establish eRA priorities, participate in outreach efforts, and assist with NIH eRA testing and deployment activities. Below we provide a number of the short and long term recommendations that the Group identified as important for NIH.

Short Term Recommendations

The NIH Commons should continue development in a way that is complementary to what is being designed for the Federal Commons. Only by doing so will the NIH be able to meet the mandate in P.L. 106-107, as well as provide their grantee organizations with a plan that they can use as they further develop their respective eRA systems.

The NIH should maintain production systems, namely I-Edison and CRISP, and keep other existing interfaces without spending further funds or resources for enhancements or modifications. Registration of additional sites would not be encouraged. Key to NIH staff was the agreement that submission of non-competing applications via e-SNAP will be suspended until business practices redesign and new technology is available.

Long Term Recommendations

To complement these activities, the Working Group agreed to organize itself into two subgroups: The Interface Specifications subgroup will focus on the functionality in the existing NIH Commons to ensure that the existing Commons modules will serve the community adequately while the new architecture of the system is being developed. The information will form a basis for enhanced functionality to be included in version 2 of the Commons.

A second subgroup will be devoted to the grant application process. The first effort of this applications subgroup will be to conduct a thorough analysis of non-competing awards. Out of this analysis they expect to make recommendations for changing existing grants policy to streamline the non-competing applications; then they will turn to the R01 application process. Proposed changes will be reviewed for endorsement by NIH staff, and the changed policy and procedures will be incorporated into future eRA system iterations.

The next Commons Working Group meeting will be held in the late Spring, likely in conjunction with the FDP meeting to held in Washington, DC in May.

System Downtime Issues Being Addressed

January posed some challenges for eRA system stability, with three separate down time incidents on the IMPAC II production platforms during the month. An ongoing investigation so far has revealed that the problems were not related to the database, but were power and equipment issues. The Office of Extramural Research (OER) is working closely with the Center of Information Technology (CIT), where the servers are housed, to ensure the problems do not recur.

System reliability is of utmost importance to eRA. Maintenance is scheduled to be as least disruptive as possible. We try to work around Council, Review, and Grants Management calendars as much as possible. OER will continue to monitor the situation.

Staff Changes and Other Information

Two new offices have been established to help organize and monitor our efforts. The first, the Office of the Federal Commons, under Paul Markovitz, will coordinate NIH and Federal Commons activities.

The second, Office for Planning, Analysis and Evaluation (OPAE), under Megan Columbus, will coordinate outreach products, group advocate support and eRA reporting and documentation.

Steve Hausman, NIAMS, has volunteered to be the point of contact to help guide pilots and prototypes as we implement an enterprise scanning effort. In addition, he will help provide a focus and vision for how the different business areas can re-engineer their operations to best utilize scanned applications. He will work with OER, ROW, the Group Advocates and some of their contacts. He will also help perform a monitoring function for scanning implementation.