eRA Project Team Meeting
Date: April 10, 2001
Time: 9:00 am
Location: 6700B Rockledge, Room 1205

Next Meeting: April 24, 2001, 6700B Rockledge, Room 1205, 9:00 am

Action Items

1. Participation in May 10 Workshop (Advocates) - Contact Megan Columbus by Wednesday, April 18 regarding availability for the Enterprise/Extension System Workshop. Designate an alternate if unable to attend. The role of the Advocate will be to answer questions and solicit input. Be prepared to explain priorities, timelines and future enhancements. Indicate willingness to demo your module or do a presentation.

2. Keynote Speaker (John McGowan & Thor Fjellstedt) - Identify keynote speaker(s) for May 10 workshop.

3. Contact Information for David Wise (John McGowan) - Provide Thor with email address.

4. Promote May 10 Workshop (John McGowan, Thor Fjellstedt & Advocates) - Advocates are asked to promote the workshop within their functional and user groups. Thor to present at EPMC meeting. Advertise in newsletter.

5. Vision Statement (John McGowan) - Rehearse for workshop. Agenda item for next meeting.

6. Interest in Scanning/Grant Folders (Advocates) - Contact Steve Hausman (scanning) or Eileen Bradley (grant folders) to have representation at meetings on these topics.

7. Reporting Requirements (Advocates) - Inform Carol Martin about meetings that address reporting.

8. Meeting Schedules (Advocates) - Contact Megan Columbus with meeting dates for posting on shared calendar.

9. One-on-One Time (John McGowan) - As requested by the Advocates, JJ will contact them to provide the opportunity for one-on-one meetings to discuss progress and issues.

10. Roles/Responsibilities (John McGowan) - Clarify roles and responsibilities of Advocates and Analysts. Agenda item for next meeting.

11. Summary Statement Deployment (Sherry Zucker & Eileen Bradley) - Prepare presentation. Agenda item for next meeting.

12. Summary Statements/IMPAC I (John McGowan) - Engage EPMC to determine who still prints summary statements from the legacy system. Are there other dependencies that must be considered? Agenda item for next meeting.

13. Commons Working Group Meeting (Advocates) - Email Megan Columbus if you plan to attend May 16 meeting.

14. Grants Folder Concept Presentation (Megan Columbus) - Schedule as an agenda item at April 25 EPMC meeting.

15. Transfer of X-Train Support (Marcia Hahn) - Write article for Inside eRA about transferring responsibility for electronic 2271 to User Support.

Presentations

1. NIH Workshop on Extramural Enterprise and Extension Systems

Thor Fjellstedt provided an update on plans for the May 10 workshop at the Natcher Conference Center (see Attachment A). The purpose of the workshop is to showcase IMPAC II modules that support our business practices and to demonstrate extension systems developed by the ICs that may be adaptable by other ICs. Demos will cycle on the half hour and on the hour. It was suggested that a floor plan be distributed along with the schedule to assist attendees. Grouping demos by functional area and providing an abstract of each module would also be helpful.

Advocates are asked to be available at workshop sessions to answer questions and solicit input. Contact Megan Columbus by Wednesday, April 18 to confirm availability or to designate an alternate. Be prepared to explain priorities, timelines and future enhancements. Indicate willingness to demo your module or do a presentation.
The following sessions were suggested for inclusion: scanning demo; grants folder demo; NIAID Council Actions (CAP) extension system; and portal technology.

In order to promote the workshop, Thor will make a presentation to EPMC. Advocates should inform their functional and user groups. There will also be a newsletter article.

2. Grant Folder

Eileen Bradley presented the "grant folder" concept and showed relevant screens from the upcoming May release of the Peer Review module (see Attachment B). The grant folder grew out of the requirement to store applications electronically; it is still "a work in progress". For each application, the following documents may be available: the grant application image in PDF with bookmarks to sections; PI grant history (brief), PI grant history (detailed), current summary statement, prior summary statements, abstract and notice(s) of grant award.

John McGowan commented that the grant folder concept is consistent with the eRA project objective of facilitating access to information. What began as a "one-stop shopping" tool for Review has great potential for other functional areas and for the flow of information from one area to another. He also thought that the folder should be available to the PIs and external users.
Discussion followed about how comprehensive the folder should be and whether it should include only static documents or have buttons to generate real-time reports. It was suggested that the grant folder be customizable to serve the specific requirements of each functional area. Advocates need to get their teams thinking about how to adapt and incorporate the grant folder concept.
There was concern by some Advocates about the decision to include the grant folder button across the board without their knowledge or input. This is a rapidly emerging concept which started as an extension of the scanning pilot on March 18. Given the strong infrastructure of IMPAC 2, this feature can be modified and deployed. The purpose for bringing to the meeting was to inform the team and to help generate next steps with the concept. Advocates were encouraged to contact Eileen Bradley if interested in having representation at meetings about grant folders. Likewise, scanning was identified as a cross-cutting area. Contact Steve Hausman if interested in participating in discussions about scanning.

Announcements

1. John McGowan's office will invite each Advocate to schedule a one-on-one meeting to discuss progress and concerns.

2. John McGowan named Advocates as points-of-contact for the planned NSF workshop on "The Granting Agency of the Future".

3. John McGowan intends to hire an independent consultant to evaluate the "health" of the eRA project to date.

4. Development of the proposed Population and Tracking module is on hold pending feedback from the Steering Committee.

5. John McGowan prepared a response to the Federal Computer Week article of 3/26/01 regarding e-grant applications and digital signatures (see Attachment A).

6. Carol Tippery is organizing a committee to discuss eRA issues that have policy implications.

7. There will be a meeting of the Commons Working Group on May 16. Email Megan Columbus if you plan to attend.

8. Responsibility for the X-Train system will be transferred to User Support. Marcia Hahn will document in an article for Inside eRA.

Status Reports

1. Claire Benfer reported that Committee Management has opted to explore the possibilities of the new J2EE architecture. Consequently, the redesign of the CM module will be delayed.

2. Jim Cain reported--

• The IRDB is stable.
• NIH Commons design is progressing nicely; tool selection will be completed by the end of the week, and a presentation will be made at the next Project Team meeting.
• The draft work plan for 2001/2002 will be presented to John McGowan by April 13.

3. John McGowan will clarify Advocate/Analyst roles and responsibilities at the next meeting.

4. The Quick View upgrade to include the Grant Folder will be available in May.

5. There are coordination issues with the deployment of IMPAC II summary statements. John McGowan will engage EPMC to determine who still prints summary statements from the IMPAC I legacy system and if there are other dependencies that must be considered. Sherry Zucker and Eileen Bradley were asked to present a deployment plan at the next meeting.

Attendees
John McGowan, Claire Benfer, Eileen Bradley, Carlos Caban, Jim Cain, Dave Carter, Krishna Collie, Megan Columbus, Zoe-Ann Copeland, Bud Erickson, Thor Fjellstedt, Carla Flora, Donna Frahm, Scarlett Gibb, Andy Greenleaf, Chip Groh, Marcia Hahn, Steve Hausman, Mary Kirker, Paul Markovitz, Carol Martin, Gregory Milman, Madeline Monheit, Bob Moore, Pete Morton, Richard Panniers, Bob Reifsnider, Wally Schaffer, Belinda Seto, Jay Silverman, Bobbi Spitzberg, Jim Tucker, Tim Twomey, Virginia Van Brunt

Attachments