Inside eRA, June 24, 2004 (Volume 5, Issue 3)

Third e-Application Pilot Begins This Month

eRA is conducting its third e-application pilot by accepting submissions for the January 2005 council round. NIH received approximately 15 electronic, new (Type 1), competing applications for the June 1 due date. The deadline is July 1 for revised and competing continuation (Type 2) applications. See the project schedule for details.

Thus far, all applications for the production pilots have been submitted by authorized Service Providers on behalf of grantee institutions. Currently, Service Providers comprise commercial companies with NIH awards to develop submission vehicles for e-grants.

Description of June/July Pilot

For the June/July pilot, only R01 (research grant), R03 (small grant), and R21 (exploratory/developmental research grant) mechanisms are eligible for electronic submission.  Program Announcements (PAs) for the standing submission dates also are acceptable. Responses to Requests for Applications (RFAs), Subprojects, Program Project and Center grants, Supplements, Research Career Awards, Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants, Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants, Training grants, Fellowships, and AREA grants are NOT eligible for the June/July pilot. Additionally, submissions involving a change of Principal Investigator (PI) or institution still must be submitted on paper.

NIH only accepted applications with modular budgets for the June 1 receipt date. Service Providers may submit a limited number of applications with full budgets (excluding consortia) for the July 1 receipt date. This is the first full-budget pilot.

No paper copies of electronic applications are submitted to NIH. The input data is reconstituted into an electronic application image and stored in the eRA database. From receipt and referral to potential award, these applications will be handled electronically by NIH staff.

Future Plans

For the October/November 2004 receipt dates, eRA plans to conduct its fourth and final pilot for electronic modular R01, R03 and R21 grant applications. At the same time, eRA will accept a controlled number of full-budget applications. If the project schedule remains on track, NIH also will receive its first applications through Grants.gov.

eRA will achieve a major milestone in January 2005 when receipt of simple, modular grants (new, competing continuation and revised) goes into full production.

Although the CGAP project is making excellent progress, a great deal of work remains to be done. In the upcoming months, the team will turn its attention to these outstanding issues.

Technical, Policy and Coordination Issues

• Electronic Signatures –– Establish a method of validating a “signed” application for a system-to-system transmission. There must be a formal way for the institution to delegate submission authority to a Service Provider.  
• Service Provider Certification –– Formalize the certification process for Service Providers at the transaction-type level.  
• Support for Service Providers –– Provide a stable test environment and adequate technical assistance for Service Providers.  
• Support for Standard Form (SF) 424, Application for Federal Assistance –– Prepare to accept applications submitted through Grants.gov, where the SF 424 is available for download. eRA currently is waiting for the final 424 schema from Grants.gov.  
• Business Rule Validation ––Validate business rules, issue error messages, and restrict application types for applications received through Grants.gov, whose system does not perform business-rule checking.  
• Communications Protocol –– Work with Grants.gov to adopt standards for electronic business XML (ebXML) communications.

Preparing for the Future

eRA recently created two task orders to hasten CGAP development in preparation for upcoming pilots. The Statement-of-Work for the first task order, to be performed by Science Application International Corporation (SAIC), will expand electronic grant receipt capabilities by enabling additional transactions, implementing an interface with Grants.gov, assisting with future pilots, and supporting more types of grant mechanisms.

The second task order, not yet awarded, will provide NIH with a technical evaluation of software and approaches for implementing additional ebXML capabilities. ebXML Message Service enables the exchange of e-business information reliably and securely. The contractor will install and compare three off-the shelf software packages with the current eRA solution. After running test scenarios, the contractor will recommend the best choice for eRA.

eSNAP Slated for Full Production This Summer

NIH plans to open the electronic Streamlined Non-competing Award Process (eSNAP) to all Commons users this summer. The release date and detailed instructions will be announced through an NIH Guide Notice.

eSNAP currently is in pilot mode, accepting progress reports primarily from Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) members. Pilot participants are able to submit an electronic version of the SNAP Type 5 (non-competing) progress report through the Commons Web interface. 

After the opening of the pilot to the FDP in January, eSNAP usage has steadily risen. As of June 1, 88 institutions have signed up to use eSNAP. Since the start of the first eSNAP pilot in November 2002, users have transmitted more than 2,000 eSNAPs to the NIH.

eRA would like to remind NIH extramural staff about three important differences between paper and electronic submissions:

• In the electronic process, Institutional Review Board (IRB) and vertebrate animal Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) approval dates are not captured at the time of submission. Instead, participating grantees agree to provide this data on a retrospective quarterly basis. NIH has established a process whereby each participating institution is sent a quarterly spreadsheet listing all eSNAP progress reports that involve human or animal subjects. The institution is responsible for entering the approval date for each project and returning the spreadsheet to NIH by the specified due date. The Compliance Education Review Team (a subcommittee of the Grants Management Advisory Vision Committee) is coordinating the request and review of the retrospective approval date data. It is hoped that the data will support a permanent business process change, i.e., eliminating routine reporting of approval dates for SNAP progress reports.   
• The eSNAP system allows grantee institutions to delegate eSNAP submission authority to principal investigators (PIs). When an authorized PI submits an eSNAP, the PI's name appears in the Signing Official block of the face page (Item #14). This is acceptable and documents the execution of the delegation feature. IC staff should not request additional signatures.   
• Grantees using the eSNAP system are permitted two additional weeks for submission. Therefore, eSNAPs technically are not “due” until six weeks before the budget start date. The eRA notification for late progress reports is designed to accommodate this difference; however, if ICs have their own process for tracking “missing” progress reports, they should be mindful of the later due date for electronic progress reports.

NIH extramural staff are welcome to visit the eRA Commons demonstration site at https://commonsdemo.era.nih.gov/commons-demo/index.jsp to simulate the entire eSNAP process from initiation through final submission. An eSNAP users guide also is available online. Check out the Commons Web tools at http://impacii.nih.gov/tools/index.cfm for current statistics on eSNAP usage.

Charles Havekost Appointed HHS Chief Information Officer

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson named Charles Havekost as the Department's chief information officer (CIO), a position within the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Budget, Technology and Finance. Havekost also will hold the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information Resources Management.

Secretary Thompson’s press release on April 24 cited Havekost’s wide experience in both the federal and private sectors. According to Thompson, “[Charlie’s] previous work…at the Department, in particular on Grants.gov, demonstrates his deep understanding of the importance of information technology and how it can better serve our citizens."

Havekost has been the program manager for "Grants.gov," one of the 25 federal E-Gov initiatives outlined in the President's Management Agenda. Eleven departments and agencies are working together to develop a one-stop electronic grant portal where potential grant recipients will receive full-service electronic grant administration. HHS is the designated managing partner for this project; the NIH eRA has been at the forefront of e-grant activities.

Throughout NIH electronic Competing Grants Application Process (CGAP) development, eRA has coordinated efforts with the federal Grants.gov initiative, and the two teams have met regularly. Mr. Havekost has been supportive of eRA, especially the awarding of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants to develop electronic transmission methods. He was the keynote speaker at the 2002 eRA Project Team retreat in Warrenton, Virginia.

Rebecca Spitzgo will replace Mr. Havekost as the Grants.gov program manager. She is the former project manager for the Department of Education’s Grants Administration and Payment System (GAPS) and currently serves as Mr. Havekost's deputy.

eRA Requests $45 Million to Fund Program in FY2005

To achieve its four major goals for FY2005, eRA presented a $45 million funding request early this spring to the new NIH Information Technology Working Group (ITWG).

In making his case to the ITWG, Acting Program Manager Dr. Israel Lederhendler argued that eRA requires additional dollars “to keep up with the demand for its services…maintain momentum on current initiatives, satisfy departmental and federal mandates on schedule, and undertake new challenges.” The growth in client usage and expectations, the NIH Roadmap initiative, the consolidation of all HHS research grant processing under eRA, and coordination with Grants.gov are some of the factors driving eRA costs steadily upward.

Proposed FY2005 Budget Breakdown

The largest share of the proposed budget ($30 million) is earmarked for system maintenance, performance and data quality. Support for electronic applications, eRA priority #2, will cost an estimated $4.6 million. This budget category finances production acceptance of modular, R01 competing grant applications beginning in January 2005, and early-adopter pilot acceptance of electronic Non-competing Application Process (eNAP) progress reports as well as electronic competing grant applications for a wide range of research grant mechanisms.

eRA can achieve its top two priorities with FY2004 levels of funding; however, without proposed increases, eRA will have to sacrifice other critical goals (see graph). End-to-end processing, priority #3, will cost an estimated $6.3 million to develop electronic document management, flexible permissions architecture, system-wide workflow and other capabilities to automate and integrate Program, Budget and Grants Management activities.

Implementation of Knowledge Management (KM) tools, priority #4, requires $4.04 million. These dollars will fund the creation of a KM data archive, production support for KM-assisted reviewer selection, and piloting of disease-coding and other new prototypes.

OMB 300 Draft Preparation

The eRA Program Management Office (PMO), under Dr. Lederhendler’s leadership, has just prepared its FY2006 “Capital Asset Plan and Business Case” for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The first draft of this document, a.k.a. OMB 300, was due to NIH on June 21. The final document, which includes FY2004 eRA results, must be submitted to OMB in August.

The purpose of OMB 300 reporting is to ensure that federal agencies invest public resources wisely. Efficient planning, acquisition and management of capital assets must inform the budget decision-making process, and agencies need to comply with the results-oriented requirements of federal legislation including the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993, the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 and others.

eRA received a good score for its FY2005 OMB 300 submission. As eRA strives to improve its value as the enterprise extramural system, we believe that this can be reflected in a stronger justification for FY2006. The PMO will be updating eRA goals to better reflect eRA’s expanded vision. Alternative analysis will address implementation of an eRA data mart (see article in this issue) and the use of KM tools. Regarding acquisition strategy, the PMO will improve measurements to confirm that eRA’s contractors are getting the work done on time and within budget. eRA also expects to complete its security Certification and Accreditation (C&A) in the near future, which will ensure a higher OMB 300 rating for security.

Work Continues on Data Mart Proof-of-Concept

eRA architects, with contractual support from SAIC, are in the midst of creating a prototype data mart designed to satisfy the executive reporting and analytical requirements of specific eRA clients. Using the existing National Cancer Institute (NCI) data mart as a model, the project team has two short-term goals: first, to determine the viability of providing the same functionality to other eRA users, and second, to understand the necessary level of interaction with Institutes and Centers and HHS Operating Divisions to include their specific information. 

A data mart is a source of related, periodically updated data collected from one or more systems. Generally, data mart software creates versions on a periodic basis (e.g., monthly). Each version contains data captured from each system (e.g., eRA and the Central Accounting System (CAS)) at the same time or during the same process. In this way, versioning establishes a consistent view of the data across multiple systems.

The primary clients of a data mart are people using a Decision Support System (DSS), an Executive Information System (EIS) or those performing ad hoc queries. DSS users seek data to support business decisions, usually in conjunction with planning information that can be substantiated by actual data from the DSS. EIS users typically are upper-level managers who require a quick metric on the health of the organization. Ad hoc reporting is the basic method used by most personnel to manage and track the day-to-day activities of the organization. The data mart provides a consistent, reliable and high-performance way for them to access this crucial data. 

A data mart is built by gathering key information on a periodic basis from one or more systems. For example, NIH extramural users would benefit by having a grant information data mart with administrative data collected from eRA and funding obligations from the HHS Unified Financial Management System (UFMS). Together this information would form a more complete picture of the status of a grant application.

Data mart developers will construct a metalayer between the data and the end user. This middleware technology assists users by establishing relationships among the data elements, organizing views of subject-area information and predefining common queries and reports.

The NCI data mart, which is serving as a model for eRA, was built to bring NCI systems-specific information together with NCI information in NIH Enterprise systems such as CAS and eRA. The data mart enables NCI executives, Program, Grants Management and Budget staff to produce a variety of reports and graphics that render a consistent picture of the status of the NCI grants program. Before the creation of the data mart, this reporting was inefficient and sometimes impossible. Performance degradation occurred when trying to relate all the systems, and it was impossible to capture a consistent point in time since the separate systems are not updated at the same intervals.

eRA chose the NCI model for four important reasons:

• The NCI system works with the eRA On-Line Transaction Processing (OLTP) production database. Therefore, it should be easy to expand the scope for other ICs.    
• NCI users have the same basic requirements as users in other ICs.    
• The NCI data mart was built using the same Oracle toolset in use by eRA.    
• The NCI data mart has the same customer base as eRA. 

If eRA succeeds in creating a viable prototype, next steps would include integrating more information sources, supporting custom data extensions, and incorporating enterprise data from the Grants Administration and Tracking System (GATES), the Payment Management System (PMS) and UFMS. Data mart developers also would work to accommodate multiple reporting tools such as eRA’s Web QT, commercial products such as Oracle Discoverer and Crystal, and EISs such as Dashboard.

eRA and NIOSH Enjoy Twenty Years of Partnership

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a user of NIH extramural information systems for 20 years, will begin processing all of its research grants under eRA by the end of FY2004 and all of its research training grants by the end of FY2005. Currently, NIOSH receives 400–500 research-grant applications per year and makes 200–300 awards.

“We are very enthusiastic about taking advantage of all eRA capabilities,” comments Dr. Michael Galvin, director of NIOSH’s Office of Extramural Programs (OEP). He recognizes that there will be a learning curve for NIOSH’s 30 internal users but is confident that they will adapt quickly. As lead program administrator for the Research Program Activity, Galvin especially looks forward to the new Program module and to eRA’s comprehensive and flexible reporting features.

NIOSH began using the original IMPAC mainframe system on a limited basis in the 1980s. The Institute also began announcing its extramural research programs in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts and relying on the Center for Scientific Review (formerly the Division of Research Grants) to handle receipt and referral activities for NIOSH applications.

In 1999, NIOSH successfully moved its research grants and cooperative agreements into the client-server IMPAC II system. According to Galvin, “the conversion five years ago enabled NIOSH to provide better service to the public.” eRA’s current migration to an Internet environment will further help NIOSH achieve its mission.

Part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NIOSH is the federal agency responsible for conducting research to reduce work-related illnesses and injuries, for promoting safe and healthy workplaces, and for enhancing global-worker well-being through international partnerships. Intervention and prevention are the main objectives of NIOSH’s extramural research program, which funds research grants and training grants as well as research and training cooperative agreements. These awards provide support for research efforts among federal, state, university, labor groups, and non-profit organizations.

Through the years, the NIOSH OEP and NIH’s Office of Extramural Research (OER) have worked together to accommodate NIOSH’s special processing requirements. For example, CDC requires Financial Management Officer (FMO) approval; therefore, eRA is adding “FMO Signature” to the signature block. CDC still needs a workaround to track multiple Institutional Review Board (IRB) approvals, since eRA stores only one site.

Updated eRA User Guides Available Online

eRA is making excellent progress in updating all user guides dated prior to November 2003. After achieving this goal, the documentation team plans to revise each guide after the posting of three release notes, but at least annually.

Of particular interest are new issues of the TechView manual, Volumes 1 and 2. The first volume contains the schema for the eRA production (IMPP) database; the second volume contains the schema for the reporting (IRDB) database. Both documents can be printed using the Center for Information Technology (CIT) central print service. There are links to the TechView manuals and to the “Print on Demand” function at http://impacii.nih.gov/techinfo/documentation.cfm. 

Following are revision dates and update plans for eRA user guides:

Send comments and questions about eRA user guides to Felicia Shingler, documentation team leader, at shinglef@mail.nih.gov.