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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.
IMPAC II Summary Statement Process Facilitates May Council
Summary statement production for the May Council was highly successful, with over 97 percent of summary statements completed in IMPAC II. For the first time, ICs were required to print Council Books using ICSTORe, the IMPAC II document management system. For the October Council, all summary statements will be generated in IMPAC II. Review staff can upload summary statements continuously; there is no need to wait until a summary statement is viewable before uploading the next. Summary statements can be displayed within 60–90 minutes of upload. Users have reported a few limitations when documents submitted by reviewers are prepared in WordPerfect®, which does not support user-defined characters, dropped capital letters, or tables. If WordPerfect discards content while attempting to match unsupported characters, users can try to identify missing characters by converting the summary statement body to Microsoft® Word. Contact the Helpdesk at 301-402-7469 or by email at helpdesk@od.nih.gov with questions.
IRDB Enhancements Support User Requirements
The IMPAC II Reporting Database (IRDB) “redesign” team will release new and enhanced Materialized Views (MVs) during April. Materialized Views are pre-calculated tables that improve query performance by storing the results of database joins and aggregations in the database. Updates scheduled for April release include the following: Program Official contact information for the primary and any secondary ICs will be added to PV_ICD_ASSIGNMENT_MV on April 24.
When the modified PV_GRANT_PI_MV goes into production on April 29, major Persons Data enhancements requested by the user community will be available. Name and contact information for the Grants Management Officer, Grant Specialist, and Scientific Review Administrator will be added to this view. Other changes include new information pieces (columns) and several renamed columns.
- The new PV_STEM_CELL_LINES_MV will add human embryonic stem cell (HESC) data to the IRDB effective April 29.
Details of upcoming changes to the IRDB, including effects on existing queries, are available on the IMPAC II Web page.
IMPAC II Functions Replace IMPAC I Lookup Tables
Program Official (PO) data previously maintained in the IMPAC I lookup tables C02 and 600 now is stored and updated in IMPAC II. Users no longer need to request updates to these IMPAC I tables, provided that all summary statements are uploaded and processed using IMPAC II. All summary statements for the October Council will be generated in IMPAC II. Program Official addresses and assignments In IMPAC I, lookup tables are used to assign a PO to a grant. Any summary statement created with IMPAC I requires table C02 for current PO data. In IMPAC II, both Program Class Code (PCC) and PO are assigned to grant applications. Person IDs link PO assignments to grants; lookup tables are not needed. PO assignments appear on summary statements and score mailers. Although eRA may develop a mechanism that would enable POs to update their own Persons data, IMPAC II coordinators at ICs currently are tasked with this responsibility. Persons data also can be modified in several IMPAC II modules. POs should review their profile information periodically to ensure its completeness and accuracy. Users with appropriate privileges can employ the following methods to assign POs in IMPAC II. Each IC designates an ICO Rules Manager who defines PO assignment “rules” in the Batch Assignment module. Based on these criteria, a nightly batch update automatically performs assignments. For example, an IC may create a rule that designates Jane Doe as PO on any grant with a PCC that begins with “AB.”
Users with Referral Officer roles can create a query in the IC Operations (ICO) module that returns one or more grants for assignment to a selected PO. The drawback to this approach is that the Referral Officer must continue performing assignments as grants are received.
Users with GM Rule Manager roles can enter assignments on the Grants Management Administrative Review screen.
After creating PO assignments in an IC extension system, users upload the information to IMPAC II via an Application Programming Interface (API).
Score/Just-in-time mailer addresses With the May 17 IMPAC II deployment, IMPAC I score/just-in-time mailers will be retired, and entry of return addresses/points of contact in IMPAC I table 600 will cease. Scientific Review Groups (SRGs) will be able to regenerate a mailer by using the IMPAC II Peer Review module, and changes to the score and/or percentile will automatically generate a correction mailer. For more information, refer to the IMPAC II documentation on the eRA website or contact the Helpdesk at 301-402-7469 or by email at helpdesk@od.nih.gov.
Population Tracking Module Debuts in May
eRA will deploy the NIH Population Tracking module on May 17. This new IMPAC II application records and stores information about target and yearly cumulative enrollment of women, men, and minorities involved in NIH-supported clinical research. Population Tracking will be one of the featured demonstrations at eRA’s May 10 symposium, and additional sessions will be offered in June and July. Depending on user demand, the Human Resources Development Division (HRDD) may provide hands-on instruction. Training demonstrations will focus on using the Population Tracking module to enter data reported in competing and non-competing applications. Topics will include entering data from single and multiple protocols within a grant, using new and old formats for describing ethnicity and race, and reporting foreign populations. Look for Population Tracking documentation on the IMPAC II Web page after the May deployment.
Grants Closeout Module Pilot Slated for Release
The IMPAC II Grants Management (GM) Grants Closeout System (GCS), Phase 1, will be released in pilot mode to members of the GM Closeout Working Group on May 17. The GCS is the first eRA module to be developed in a multi-tiered Java environment. Core functionality in the initial release of this module will enable users to perform the following tasks: Subsequent releases will include batch assignments to GM Closeout Specialists, workload reports, Federal Records Center report, and other enhancements. The Grants Closeout System will be highlighted in breakout sessions at eRA’s May 10 symposium. Depending on user demand, the Human Resources Development Division (HRDD) may provide hands-on instruction.
Commons Working Group Plans Washington, D.C., Meeting
The next NIH Commons Working Group (CWG) meeting will begin at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 19, at the State Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C., preceding the May 20–21 meeting of the Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP). CWG members will finalize recommendations for reengineering the competitive application and address issues related to the July deployment of Commons Version 2 and the reopening of Commons registration. CWG meetings are open to all interested persons. For more information, contact Dr. George Stone, Advocate for the eRA Interface to the Extramural Community, at 301-435-0679 or by email at george.stone@nih.gov.
eRA Considers the Benefits of Knowledge Management
Dr. Richard Morris of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has joined the eRA Project to recommend methods of incorporating knowledge management capabilities in our business processes. What is knowledge management and how can it benefit NIH? In a recent presentation to the eRA Project Team, Dr. Morris defined knowledge management as “the systematic process by which knowledge is created, captured, shared, and leveraged.” To meet objectives, organizations need accurate, timely, and accessible information that provides strategic value. At NIH, the challenge is to extract relevant information from complex data sets and ensure that it reaches disparate stakeholders. Barriers to this process must be identified and overcome. For example, knowledge management could be used as a tool for reducing reviewers’ workload by selecting reviewers based on areas of expertise, screening reviewers for possible conflicts of interest, and assigning proposals. Another potential application is the identification of emerging research trends in support of timely Program planning. Possible next steps in integrating knowledge management into eRA include identifying underused mission-critical data sets and designing pilot projects.
IMPAC II Releases as of April 24, 2002
The next IMPAC II deployment is scheduled for May 17. Release highlights for each IMPAC II module are listed below. After the deployment, check the IMPAC II Web Page for release notes. Module | Highlights | Persons module | - To change a name in the Persons module, NIH users will no longer type over the name; instead, they will enter the new name on a pop-up screen. This new procedure will improve data quality by preventing users from inadvertently typing over a name with a different person’s name.
As another data quality initiative, only the Office of Extramural Research (OER) System Quality Assurance Interfaces Branch (SQAIB) will have authority to update and collapse profiles. To request a profile collapse, contact the eRA Helpdesk.
- In the Persons module, change codes and reasons will be required only for Persons name changes and not for any other modification.
| Committee Management (CM) | To accommodate 5-character identification numbers now used by the General Services Administration (GSA), the GSA ID field on the Committee screen will expand to 5 characters. Only new committees will require the 5-character GSA ID; all other committees will continue to use the 4-character format.
| Grants Closeout System (GCS) | See Grants Closeout Module Pilot Slated for Release in this issue for details of the new Grants Closeout System.
| Grants Management (GM) | Users will be able to view GM comments for all previous years on a pop-up screen accessed from the Admin screen. Although GM comments will no longer carry over to the next year's record, users can use Copy and Paste commands to duplicate comments that are also appropriate to the current year.
On the Award screen, users will no longer need to press a button to copy direct and indirect line item totals to the Summary of Support section; they will copy automatically.
The Program Official name will display on the Type 5 Received Date screen.
- Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number 000 now is invalid and will cause a fatal error (red bar) in the business rules.
| ICSTORe | - On the Advanced Search tab, users will be able to search on multiple-application statuses, and a list of values (LOV) will be added to several fields.
- Principal Investigator (PI) address will be added to the Customize Hit List fields.
| Institute and Center Operations (ICO) and Grant Update module (GUM) | - New Scientific Review Administrator (SRA) parameters on the Search screen will further narrow a search of Special Emphasis Panels (SEPs).
- Users will be able to update the Intent To Pay field for applications pending Scientific Review Group (SRG) review.
- The List of Values for Exception to Tracking Codes report will display only current codes.
| Peer Review (REV) | - A new Order CDs for Reviewers screen will provide an easy method of ordering CD-ROMs that will be delivered directly to the requester, usually within six business days.
Associated with CD-ROM orders, the List of Applications for a Meeting report will indicate which applications have been scanned (i.e., have grant images). The Conflict Type Code table will include a CD Conflict value to identify applications that are excluded from CD-ROMs for specific reviewers.
- REV users will be able to generate score mailers.
- A new report will list the status of all summary statements for a meeting.
| Population Tracking | This new module provides the following functionality: - Access to grants that require tracking.
- Definition of protocols within a grant to store population data.
- Data entry using both the old and new form formats for reporting sex/gender and ethnicity/race.
- Population-tracking grant snapshot reports and data discrepancy reports.
See Population Tracking Module Debuts in May in this issue for additional information.
| Receipt and Referral (RR) | - New RR functionality replaces IMPAC I Type-8 and chairgrant processing options.
- Users will be prevented from inadvertently deleting a valid SSN.
- Several software corrections will be included in this release.
| Training Activities (TA) and Payback | - The modified NRSA Support appointment list will provide more straightforward handling of work-in-progress (WIP) amendments. When displaying WIP amendments, the associated original appointment record will be hidden and only the WIP amendment will display. The previous design created confusion by appearing to list duplicate appointments.
- A new Trainee/Fellowship Transfer report will assist ICs to better track and transfer their paper files when trainees move their support from one IC to another. The report provides two perspectives of the transfers: trainees transferred to or from another IC and grant.
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For information about upcoming releases, contact the Helpdesk at 301-402-7469 or by email at helpdesk@od.nih.gov.
IMPAC II Training Schedule as of April 24, 2002
The Human Resource Development Division (HRDD) has scheduled the following IMPAC II courses. Unless otherwise noted, all classes are held at Executive Plaza South. Course Title | Number | Date | Time | Tuition | Committee Management for CMOs and CMAs | 5834 | 05/01/02
06/12/02 | 9 am–4 pm | $221 | Committee Management for GTAs and Review Staff | 5833 | 08/07/02 | 9 am–4 pm | $221 | Committee Management for SREA Staff | 5835 | 08/28/02 | 9 am–12 pm | $184 | Grants Management | 5827 | 06/13/02 | 9 am–4 pm | $221 | Peer Review | 5825 | 06/19/02 | 9 am–4 pm | $221 |
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 at http://learningsource.od.nih.gov or call 301-496-6211. Course Title | Number | Duration | Tuition | CRISP Plus | 5829 | ½ day | $141 | Institute and Center Operations (ICO) | 5828 | ½ day | $184 | QuickView | 5830 | ½ day | $141 |
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