Inside eRA, August 18, 2003 (Volume 4, Issue 9)

eRA to Become All-DHHS Research Grants Administration System

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has determined that eRA has the technology and business process capability to become the DHHS enterprise system for research grants management. Dr. Ed Sontag, Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management, announced this decision on August 11, 2003 in a memorandum to the heads of all Operating Divisions (OPDIVs). The GATES system, developed by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), will become the central system for service delivery grants, formula grants, entitlement grants, and block grants.

By using the NIH and ACF systems as service providers for the entire Department, HHS will be able to:

• streamline work processes to provide improved services to citizens   
• capitalize on existing advanced technology and best practices   
• create an opportunity for cost-effective, intra-agency sharing and elimination of redundant spending   
• provide a single point of interface with Grants.gov and the HHS Unified Financial Management System   
• maintain reliable and common data across OPDIVs   
• simplify the implementation of new policies and regulations

As a first step in achieving the consolidation, each grant-making OPDIV must prepare a system migration plan by October 31, 2003. The plans are to identify the systems that will migrate to eRA and those that will migrate to GATES. In addition, the OPDIVs need to provide dates and schedules as well as a detailed requirements analysis. Since the Department goal is to retire the existing OPDIV systems, no further development dollars may be invested in migrating systems.

Sontag’s memorandum also stipulates that all OPDIV/STAFFDIV grant award data (award number, project title, abstract, etc.) must be posted to the NIH CRISP database. Research grant award posting will begin in October 2003, service grant award posting in October 2004, and all DHHS grant award posting in FY 2005.

The acting director of the Office of Grants Management and Policy will be responsible for facilitating discussions between eRA/GATES and the OPDIV/STAFFDIVs regarding requirements, business process changes, eRA/GATES accommodations, priorities, timetables and other issues.

Planning Continues for CDC Integration

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the NIH are partnering to consolidate the processing of all CDC research grants under eRA in FY 2004. This collaboration is in concert with a recent decision by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to centralize all research grants processing under the eRA system.

Integration planning is proceeding smoothly, and eRA expects to begin entering CDC pre-award data into the eRA database in October. The target date for live processing on the eRA system is January 2004.

NIH and CDC technical teams, under the respective leadership of Penelope Colbert and Teresa Kinley, have been meeting to gather and analyze requirements. Some CDC requirements will necessitate eRA system-level changes. Planners propose to phase in the CDC workload, beginning with pre-award processing and culminating in complete lifecycle processing of CDC research grants under the eRA system.

CGAP and Grants.gov Pilot Testing Underway

The first phase of the Grants.gov (formerly E-Grants) pilot began in July. The primary objective is to test the grantee’s ability to download, fill in and submit SF424 applications electronically. Over the course of the summer, NIH will conduct similar tests with several commercial service providers, funded through the NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to create mechanisms for the electronic submission of the PHS 398 application. Throughout the planning and development, eRA has been working closely with the Grants.gov team to ensure that the new federal grant submission process and the NIH eRA electronic Competitive Grant Application Process (CGAP) remain completely compatible.

Grants.gov, the “Trusted Broker”

Grants.gov will be the central storefront on the Web for customers of federal grants to find funding opportunities and to download and submit applications. The goal of Grants.gov is to improve the coordination, quality and efficiency of electronic grant administration operations for both grantors and grantees. To do business at Grants.gov, users must register according to instructions at http://grants.gov under the “Apply Pilot” link. Furthermore, to apply for grants at the NIH, grantee institutions and applicants must register in the NIH eRA Commons.

Preparing and Submitting an Electronic Grant Application (See Diagram)

There will be three methods for preparing and submitting an electronic application:

Method 1 –– Obtain application preparation support from a commercial vendor

Several commercial service providers have been awarded SBIR grants to develop systems for preparing electronic grant applications. The SBIR solutions may include downloadable forms, Web-based interactive forms, word processing forms and others. After receiving application data and attachments from the grantee institution, the service provider will format the application as an XML file with attachments for submission through Grants.gov.

Method 2 –– Develop a system to submit XML data streams to Grants.gov

A grantee institution may choose to develop its own system to create XML data streams using published XML schemas for computer-to-computer transmission to Grants.gov.

Method 3 –– Download an electronic form from Grants.gov

Grants.gov will provide PureEdge™ downloadable electronic grant application forms. PureEdge supports off-line application preparation, including extensive data edit and validation at the user’s desktop and the automated propagation of data among forms. Work-in-progress can be stored and managed on the grantee’s network server or computer. Once complete, the application forms and attached files are submitted to Grants.gov.

Processing at Grants.gov

At the Grants.gov site, Northrop Grumman InFlowSuite™ software will authenticate the submitter, enforce role-based security rules, check for viruses, verify data format, send acknowledgement to the customer, and convert PureEdge XML-enabled forms into an XML data stream with included documents. Grants.gov then will package the XML stream as a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) message and notify the appropriate agency that the application is ready for retrieval.

Retrieval and Processing of Applications by NIH

eRA currently is engaged in a Competitive Grant Application Process (CGAP) project. The goal of this initiative is to enable NIH to receive electronic grant applications from external sources (such as Grants.gov) as XML streams with attached documents. Grantor agencies will retrieve their applications from the Grants.gov site using a number of methods specified in the Agency Integration Toolkit. Once received, NIH will process the electronic applications without printing or printing on demand only. NIH will review the grant proposal and consider it for funding according to established guidelines. All of the eRA internal systems for grants administration are being modified to support the electronic process.

Pilot Testing Schedule

Converting to electronic applications will introduce new technologies, new user interfaces, new policies, new business processes, and new workflows. To mitigate the risks of these changes, a number of gradually expanding tests and pilots will be conducted.

Grants.gov testing this summer

Beginning in July, Grants.gov began pilot testing the submission of SF424 “Core” data elements and attachments. The second phase of the pilot will include “Core Plus” (research and agency-specific) data elements such as those on the PHS 398 used by the NIH. eRA has participated in Grants.gov planning and will take part in both phases of the pilot, using test applications. 

NIH eRA testing this summer

During the course of the summer, NIH will conduct a test with several commercial service providers funded through the NIH SBIR program. The tests, which will not use actual data, will be iterative. Issues will be resolved by working jointly with the service providers. The purpose of the testing is to validate the technologies, gain experience in the process, and obtain preliminary feedback from the service providers.

NIH/Grants.gov collaborative testing this fall

NIH and Grants.gov plan to conduct a limited, live pilot in the October–November timeframe based on the full set of Core and Core Plus data for the PHS 398 application. NIH will work with volunteer institutions and applicants and will confine the test to R01 grants with modular budgets and competitive renewals.

Grants.gov will make a 398-based application package available on its Web site. To restrict participation in this test, NIH and Grants.gov will set up special funding opportunity numbers, which must be known to download an application.

During the fall tests, NIH also will pilot the internal NIH systems required to process electronic applications.

Future testing for the February 2004 NIH receipt cycle and beyond

The NIH CGAP pilot gradually will be expanded to add participants, application types and funding mechanisms.

eRA Operations Proposes System Resource Management Plan

eRA has begun testing the implementation of restrictions on system usage during peak hours as a means of identifying bottlenecks and providing more consistent and improved performance overall. Limiting the use of system resources is a best practice for large enterprise systems and will become increasingly important as eRA absorbs research grants processing for all Operating Divisions in the Department. (See article in this issue.)

Ali Ghassemzadeh, advocate for eRA Infrastructure and chief of the Systems Operations and Management Branch, presented a draft resource management plan to the eRA Project Team on July 8. The plan addresses performance issues from both a proactive and reactive perspective. Proactively setting resource parameters will help identify problem areas for tuning and will protect all users from the negative impact of runaway processes. In addition, these parameters direct the system to react to system contention in a pre-determined and calculated way. Finally, effective resource management saves dollars by efficiently supporting the workload and reducing the need to invest in new hardware.

Proposed proactive restrictions include:

• Limiting central processing unit (CPU) time per statement to 3 minutes for users and 13 minutes for links         
• Reducing idle time from 4 hours to 2 hours         
• Limiting disk reads per statement to 8 megabytes (MB) for users and 24 MB for links

Proposed reactive processing priorities when there is CPU contention include:

• Online external  users           50%      (grantees)         
• Online internal users             35%      (NIH staff)         
• Batch jobs                           10%         
• Other                                    5%

Historical analysis reveals that the vast majority of eRA requests fall well within the proposed thresholds. Nevertheless, eRA and its users will test the new limitations for about a month in the stage environment (IMPSTG). If problems emerge during the regression testing, eRA may perform additional tuning, adjust restrictions, or move processing to off-hours (8 p.m. to 8 a.m.).

iEdison Version 2 Fully Deployed

iEdison Version 2.0.1.2, deployed on June 14, enables grantee and contractor organizations to electronically manage extramural invention portfolios and report inventions that are made with NIH grant or contract funding. The same interface also can be used to report inventions funded by any of 18 other federal agencies. The original version of iEdison, in production since 1995, was used by more than 500 grantee/contractor organizations. 

The new software supports the same business processes as the original version; however, the technology upgrade provides for better performance and improved functionality. 

The new iEdison interface supports enhanced functionality in key areas of the invention-reporting business process. The software now accepts all reports in electronic format. Previously, several required documents had to be submitted in hard copy. Users of the new iEdison now are able to upload all documents as PDF, TIFF or text files. Furthermore, all documents submitted electronically using iEdison Version 2 can be recalled for viewing by users through their Internet browser.

For the benefit of institutional administrators, Version 2 also offers improved management of iEdison accounts and reports of system usage. Most importantly, iEdison can display a graphical representation of any invention in relation to associated patents that have been reported. 

A Web-based tutorial is available to assist current and prospective users of iEdison. The tutorial can be found on the new iEdison home page (http://www.iedison.gov/), as well as on the NIH eRA Web site (http://era.nih.gov/) under the "Interagency Edison (iEdison)" topic. There will be additional learning opportunities for grantees at a series of workshops. These workshops are designed to familiarize users with the look and feel, navigation, and enhancements of iEdison Version 2.

Internet Assisted Review Up and Available

eRA deployed Internet Assisted Review (IAR) in production mode on August 1 after extensive testing. Sixteen NIH Scientific Review Administrators (SRAs) from CSR, NCRR, NIAID, NIDDK, NINDS, NINR, and NLM, their 55 study sections, and more than 375 reviewers from a variety of institutions participated in the IAR pilot, which began in December 2002. Reviewers access the IAR Web interface through the eRA Commons.

NIH SRAs, 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 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 grant 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. 

Basic 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

The August release implemented 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 is offering IAR training for extramural staff on August 21 and September 8, September 18 and September 24. To register online, go to http://era.nih.gov/training/IAR/. Contact Sandy Seppala at 301-451-5957 for more information or for reasonable accommodation.

Della Hann Leaves Project to Assume New Role at NIMH

Dr. Della M. Hann, a key member of the eRA Project Team and senior policy advisor in the NIH Office of the Deputy Director for Extramural Research, became director, Office of Science Policy and Program Planning (OSPPP) at the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) on July 28. eRA acknowledges Dr. Hann’s dedication and valuable contribution to the project and wishes her continued success at NIMH. 

Dr. Hann served as eRA advocate for Population Tracking for two years and as advocate for Data Quality for the past six months. She also was a member of the electronic Program Users Group, the Workgroup on Extramural Training Systems, and several Joint Application Development teams. “During this time,” said Hann, “I have seen tremendous advances in the eRA project in terms of developing user-friendly and business-savvy products for the NIH community. Now as we move into fuller deployment of the Commons, we have a promising opportunity to develop an electronic means of doing business with the extramural community.”

In her role as advocate for Population Tracking, Dr. Hann oversaw the creation of a new eRA Population Tracking module that enables NIH to efficiently gather federally mandated data on the inclusion of women and minorities in NIH-supported clinical research. The new software replaced NIH COBOL systems that the General Accounting Office found deficient in satisfying the requirements of P.L. 103-43. According to Dr. John McGowan, eRA Project Manager, “Della’s leadership, knowledge and skills were critical in making the eRA Population Tracking System a successful application that works seamlessly for all of NIH –– the Office of Women’s Health, the Office of Extramural Research (OER), the Institutes and Centers, and most recently, the eRA Commons. Della will be missed by those who have worked with her.”

In her new post as director of OSPPP, Dr. Hann will advise the NIMH director and senior staff about science policy, crosscutting science programs, the direction of the mental health field, and the articulation of national mental health policy. OSPPP is responsible for developing options and recommendations for achieving national mental health policy goals.

Before coming to OER, Dr. Hann was the associate director for Research Training and Scientific Collaborations in the Division of Mental Disorders, Behavioral Research, and AIDS at NIMH. She provided administrative oversight for research centers, training grants, and individual fellowship awards and served as project officer for several special projects, including an international multi-site cooperative agreement in AIDS prevention and several cooperative agreements for collecting national mental health epidemiological information. Before joining the government in 1991, Dr. Hann was a research associate at Louisiana State University Medical Center, where she completed a post-doctoral fellowship on adolescent mother-infant social and emotional development from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She also served as an instructor in the Department of Psychology at the University of New Orleans. Dr. Hann earned her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Tennessee. 

In departing from the eRA project, Dr. Hann commented: “I have truly enjoyed being an active part of the team and value the opportunity to work with such creative and hard-working colleagues. Although my role with the eRA project has changed, I still plan to be involved and helpful in any way possible.”

Danielle Bielenstein and Penelope Colbert Join eRA Project Team

Danielle Bielenstein joins the eRA Project Team as the advocate for Budget Management, replacing Earl Hodgkins who retired after 32 years of service to the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Ms. Bielenstein currently is the budget officer in the Office of Administrative Management and International Services at the Fogarty International Center (FIC). This NIH Center promotes and supports scientific research and training internationally to reduce disparities in global health.

Prior to coming to the NIH, Ms. Bielenstein spent 18 years at the Smithsonian Institution, 16 of them at the National Museum of Natural History. Given her background in the biological sciences and mathematics, she is well-prepared to administer a budget that supports science and research.

As a newcomer to the NIH, Ms. Bielenstein has the advantage of seeing eRA with fresh eyes. Tired of using paper-based methods, she is anxious to learn about new electronic systems, to see how they work, to participate in improving them, and to do outreach. Ms. Bielenstein says, “I want to get my hands dirty, to do hands-on work.” She already has developed two new reports that she “had imagined in [her] head” for some time. The first reconciles the differences between the eRA database and the NIH data warehouse; the second identifies co-funding dollars coming in to FIC from other ICs. 

Ms. Bielenstein earned a B.A. in anthropology from Sweet Briar College and an M.A. in anthropology from the George Washington University. Her M.A. thesis was on forensic taphonomy, the study of the osteological processes upon death of a vertebrate. Such processes can include: fossilization, carnivore damage, human intervention (such as cut marks), weathering, and burning. The study of taphonomy had previously been used only for research in the animal or fossil record; Ms. Bielenstein used that data and applied it instead to present time forensic cases for her graduate research.

Penelope Colbert recently became the coordinator of the NIH eRA electronic Competitive Grant Application Process (CGAP) project and its coordination with the federal Grants.gov project. eRA currently is developing a system to accept incoming applications as XML data streams according to schemas published by Grants.gov. CGAP/Grants.gov coordinator is Ms. Colbert’s second and concurrent role on the eRA team. She also provides technical leadership to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) integration initiative (see article in this issue).

Ms. Colbert comes to eRA from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), where she contributed to the eRA effort by serving on the ECB-QVR Steering Committee and the IC-Specific Data Focus Group. She also participated as an IMPAC II coordinator and technical representative and as the NICHD data quality control contact.

In total, Ms. Colbert has 35 years of experience in the federal government, 29 of them at the NIH. She has worked in both intramural and extramural divisions and has expertise in information resources management and grants management. During her career, she has interacted closely with program and administrative officials, conducting analysis and training.