Inside eRA, November 28, 2003 (Volume 4, Issue 11)

Dr. John McGowan Steps Down from eRA Project

Dr. John J. McGowan announced on October 9 that he will step down from his post as eRA project manager on December 9. Under his leadership, the NIH eRA initiative has made great progress in achieving its objective of end-to-end electronic grants administration. This fall, Dr. McGowan realized the personal goal he set when he joined the project in 1999 -- NIH successfully accepted its first competitive e-applications for the October/November cycle.

Dr. Elias Zerhouni, in his letter of commendation to Dr. McGowan, thanked him for his stellar effort and vision in steering the eRA. “Dr. McGowan’s leadership and management brought transparency and clarity to eRA. He established systems and a process to provide independent cost analysis and verification to ensure that the project produced results on time and within budget.”

Dr. Wendy Baldwin, former NIH deputy director for Extramural Research, praised Dr. McGowan as an “outstanding colleague [who] understands the culture of the NIH, the heart of the technology, the need for change management, and the hard work of supervising a complex activity.” According to Baldwin, eRA is “a massive behavior-change project as well as a technological project.”

Dr. McGowan’s success in moving the project forward is due, in large part, to his ability to unite communities with diverse interests toward a common goal. An effective manager who bridged organizational cultures and personalities to create a coherent, well-functioning team of 600 participants, Dr. McGowan created innovative organizational structures to foster communication and feedback from all stakeholders. These structures include:

• Volunteer eRA Advocates, drawn from 12 different NIH institutes and centers, who represent the interests of their business area on the eRA Project Team.          
• Commons Working Group, comprising representatives from 18 grantee institutions, that plays a critical role in shaping, evaluating and fine-tuning new eRA Web-based applications for the grantee community.          
• Six Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awardees who are collaborating with eRA to build tools to assist grantee organizations with the creation and submission of electronic application files.          
• eRA participation in Grants.gov, a federal initiative supported by eleven departments and agencies that are working together to develop a one-stop electronic grant portal for full-service electronic grants administration.

For Dr. McGowan, serving as project manager has been “an honor and a privilege.” In reflecting on the past three years, Dr. McGowan commented, “I hope I have served NIH and the extramural community well.” He views his role as an enabler who brought the stakeholders together, championed the project at higher levels, and secured the funding to empower system users to set priorities and accomplish goals. Recognizing that the project was seriously under-funded, Dr. McGowan and the advocates built a business case for increasing the annual eRA budget from $15 million to $40 million in a two-year period. At the same time, the project team established the appropriate checks and balances to ensure results on time and within budget.

During Dr. McGowan’s tenure, eRA Project Team achievements include:

• Phase-out of the legacy mainframe IMPAC system.          
• Construction of all new software applications using Web-based J2EE architecture and phased migration of existing applications to this platform.          
• Scanning of all grant applications received by the Center for Scientific Review, virtually eliminating the costs of reproducing, distributing and storing the 60,000 annual incoming proposals for NIH staff and peer reviewers.          
• Elimination of all unscheduled system downtime by introducing new technologies such as load balancing and a Storage Area Network.          
• Implementation of Internet Assisted Review (IAR), a tool that cuts the time spent in review meetings by 33 percent and reduces summary statement cycle time from eight weeks to three days.          
• Introduction of the Electronic Grants Folder, which allows online retrieval of documents stored in the eRA database. This innovation will eliminate millions of pieces of paper each year.          
• Deployment the NIH eRA Commons Version 2, a Web interface where NIH and the grantee community are able to conduct grants business electronically and to display status and reports online. Since Commons’ debut last fall, 679 institutions and 7,300 grantees have registered. eRA expects to enroll more than 65,000 additional users over the next 18 months.          
• Pilot deployment of Electronic Simplified Non-competing Application Process (eSNAP), a Web interface that enables researchers to submit their Type 5 progress reports. This is one of several areas where Dr. McGowan’s experience with biological research, knowledge of NIH policies and procedures, and technical expertise led him to lobby for business process reengineering prior to software development.           
• Pilot deployment of electronic Competitive Grant Application Process (CGAP). As indicated above, NIH has begun accepting a limited number of electronic grant applications.          
• Creation of one common database for transactions by applicants, reviewers and NIH staff for analysis of information collected on grants, contracts and intramural research.          
• Selection of eRA as the DHHS-wide system for research grants processing.

As Dr. McGowan prepares to leave the project, he is challenging the project team to consider eRA’s potential beyond the original goal of electronic grants administration. At the recent Third Annual eRA Retreat (see article in this issue), he urged the team to expand the eRA vision to include NIH research initiative planning, formulation of solicitations, and exploitation of Knowledge Management technology to identify subject-area experts, determine scientific trends, and analyze return on investment.

eRA Receives First Live Electronic Applications

eRA currently is working with grantee volunteers who are taking part in the first round of electronic submission of live, competitive applications. The eRA pilot, which coincides with NIH’s October and November receipt dates, accepted 15 applications from commercial vendors participating in the project. During FY2004, eRA will process an increasing number of e-applications for each cycle. Full production for simple, single-project applications is planned for the fall round of FY2005.

Response from pilot participants has been very enthusiastic. “Virginia Commonwealth University was delighted to have the opportunity to participate in the successful test of a pioneering system for electronic proposal data transmittal to NIH,” commented Herbert Chermside, director of Sponsored Programs Administration at VCU. According to Dr. Norman Altman, vice provost for Research at the University of Miami, e-applications offer a way for grantors and grantees to realize significant efficiencies. “…we can focus on our research instead of paperwork and optimize the return for our sponsors.”

In preparation for the pilot, eRA and participating institutions collaborated with eRA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awardees who are building tools to assist grantees with the creation and submission of electronic applications. The University of Connecticut Health Center, the University of Illinois, the University of Miami and Virginia Commonwealth University used a software solution developed by InfoEd International to submit applications for NIH’s October deadline. Working with two of its clients -- Children's Mercy Hospital and Oregon Research Institute -- Research and Management Systems (RAMS) successfully transmitted their competitive PHS 398 grant applications for the same due date. The University of Michigan used Cayuse’s GrantSlam product to submit its first electronic application. Penn State, the University of Massachusetts and St. Jude Children’s Hospital teamed with ERA Software Systems to make their submissions using the Grants Application and Management System. See article in this issue for more on eRA’s SBIR partnerships.

eRA also continues to upgrade internal systems to be able to route the electronic applications for grants administration without reverting to paper at any point. The  pilot in progress supports paperless processes for receipt and referral.

To transmit an electronic application, volunteers, in collaboration with a service provider (SBIR awardee), prepared and submitted a PHS 398. In the future, grantees will be able to download, complete and submit their 398’s through Grants.gov. Alternatively, institutions can choose to enable their own systems to meet the specifications of the CGAP interface. For these institutions, NIH will issue an information kit with sample code and details of the technology needed to communicate electronically with the eRA Exchange.

When the XML-formatted applications arrive at the NIH, they will be received by the eRA Exchange. The Exchange checks for viruses, validates the format, maps the XML to the eRA database, notifies the service provider or Grants.gov, and routes the application data to the eRA system. The Principal Investigator and Signing Official then examine and verify the application via the Commons Status interface. Status has been upgraded to provide a new inquiry function that allows submitters to track the progress of their electronic applications through the system. 

The NIH is overseeing the applications of all volunteer participants to eliminate the risk of missed deadlines and to protect applicants from any possible problems. The CGAP team is assisting applicant institutions and grantees with each step of the electronic submission.

The vision of Grants.gov and the NIH eRA CGAP project extends well beyond support for the receipt of electronic grant applications. The notion of implementing an end-to-end, electronic grants administration business process is at the heart of development efforts. Ultimately, all downstream grants transactions and notifications will occur electronically.

Both grantors and grantees will profit from the government-wide implementation of electronic grant applications. There will be an improvement in data quality and significant savings in paper, space, effort and time. The migration to e-applications is expected to shorten the waiting period from submission to award by more than two months. Specific benefits include:

1. Grantee interface only with his/her institution instead of with multiple systems.      
2. Support for outputs for submission to multiple agencies.     
3. Application validation prior to submission.     
4. Immediate confirmation of receipt and validation.     
5. All subsequent business transactions occur between eRA and the institution system.     
6. Ability to query and retrieve data from eRA as transactions, eliminating data discrepancies and transcription errors.     
7. Automated upload of award budget and terms.     
8. Grantee ability to view application status throughout the life cycle of the grant.

Following the fall pilot, NIH will gear up for the February 2004 cycle when eRA expects to invite more participants, expand the scope of functionality, and accept application data from additional sources. At that time, eRA may allow additional application types (the fall pilot is limited to R01 Type 1 and Type 2 simple projects with modular budgets) and begin issuing Notices of Grant Awards (NGAs) via transactions. eRA currently is seeking volunteers to participate in the next pilot.

In preparation for the production deployment of single-project electronic applications next fall, eRA strongly suggests that all grantee institutions register for the Commons and become familiar with its applications. At the recent annual meeting of the Society of Research Administrators (SRA) International in Pittsburgh, Dr. John McGowan, eRA project manager, urged institutions to enter the world of electronic grants. “If you’re not registering your PIs, they’re going to be registered for you” because NIH is using the Internet for peer reviews. Reviewers will become aware of the new electronic tools and will challenge their schools with “Why aren’t we using the eRA system?” Visit https://commons.era.nih.gov/commons/ to learn how to enroll and use Commons interfaces.

Proposed PHS 398 Revisions: Implications for eRA

eRA is preparing to accept additional information that may be required on the 2004 revision of the Public Health Service (PHS) 398 grant application. NIH plans to change the standard form to reflect policy changes implemented since 2001 and definitions in the current NIH Grants Policy Statement. In addition, the PHS 398 is being extensively rewritten with a focus on clarity, simplicity and plain language. The eRA implications of this proposed revision are relatively few. Some changes were specifically proposed by eRA to help keep paper and electronic submissions in sync.

eRA Implications of Proposed Changes

• Face Page, Item 3h –– Commons User Name

The NIH “Commons User Name” field will be required. This data item currently is optional. Capturing the user name in the eRA database is a step towards harmonizing the electronic and paper processes. Recording this information should greatly reduce the need to search for the correct PI Profile.

• Face Page, Item 4c –– Clinical Trial Indicator

A Yes/No check box for Clinical Trial will be a new data element in the eRA database. On the current form, item 4c is a Yes/No check box for indicating whether the project is an NIH-Defined Phase III clinical trial. This item will become 4d.

• Human Embryonic Stem Cells

There will be a distinct section for Human Embryonic Stem Cell (HESC) information, including on-line links to the registry. HESC data no longer will be required in the Description, facilitating data capture into the eRA system. 

• Key Personnel Section

Proposed addition of the new NIH Commons User Name field.

• New Key Words Section Using CRISP Terms

This proposed section will greatly aid CRISP staff and Knowledge Management initiatives.

• Biosketch

A field will be added for the NIH Commons User Name. There are no eRA implications since biosketch data are not captured as separate data elements.

• Checklist Form Page

A field will be added for “Change in Grantee Institution.” Discussion and a decision are needed to determine if eRA would want to capture this data upon application receipt.

Third Annual Retreat Devoted to Resetting the eRA Vision

“Resetting the Vision” was the theme of the FY2004 eRA Project Team retreat on October 9 and 10 at the Harbourtowne Golf Resort and Conference Center in St. Michaels, MD. During the retreat, the team worked on goals for the coming year in light of the growing momentum of the electronic grants project, eRA’s expanding role in the Department, and opportunities for eRA to accelerate medical discovery in accordance with the NIH Roadmap.

At the present time, eRA is funded to provide a core transaction system for NIH research grants and a database for analyzing all research projects conducted by the intramural program and subsidized by grants and contracts. Recently, eRA’s mission has grown to supply these services to the entire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). In his opening address at the retreat, Dr. John McGowan, eRA Project Manager, urged participants to expand the eRA vision even further. The team should consider eRA’s potential to become an integrated solution for efficiently supporting all phases of the research endeavor.

There are three major phases in promoting scientific research:

• Planning –– Thus far, eRA has not provided support for launching a research initiative. Institutes and Centers (ICs) make recommendations, issue approvals, integrate new projects into the budget, and generate announcements and requests, among other tasks. The Office of Extramural Research (OER) announces opportunities in the Early Notification System, the NIH Guide and FedBiz Opps. eRA can build a comprehensive solution for expediting these research-planning activities.         
• Implementation –– eRA currently supports pre-award functions (receipt, referral, review and award) as well as post-award administration of research grants. In keeping with the aims of the NIH Roadmap, the implementation of electronic applications is expected to reduce the elapsed time between receipt of proposal and award by two full months. In addition, eRA can introduce new efficiencies if its role is expanded to include a contract management component, an interface for the electronic submission of Office of Laboratory Welfare (OLAW) assurances, and other applications. Since all DHHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) will be using the eRA systems, integrating functions like e-submission of assurances will significantly reduce the regulatory burden on applicants.         
• Evaluation –– eRA currently offers several grant administration evaluation tools, including CRISP, QVR, and Web QT. By the summer of 2004, eRA intends to implement Virtual Organization Layers (VOL), a new management tool for tracking and managing portfolios. Independent of the established organizational structure, users are grouped and regrouped into layers that support a specific function (e.g., security), accommodate workflow and facilitate the administration of inter-department/institute/agency and inter-disciplinary research projects. Through VOL, pre-defined privileges are assigned to each layer. eRA already has introduced VOL concepts into the design of the new Program module, which presents each program official/assistant/analyst with his/her customized portfolio. Ultimately, VOL will provide a global solution for internal staff and grantee institutions.

To supplement eRA reporting tools, many ICs also maintain their own extension systems to extract administrative information from the eRA database. Nevertheless, eRA data has not been used to greatest advantage. According to Dr. McGowan, the eRA repository is an excellent source of research information. He urged the team to explore Knowledge Management (KM) tools to optimize eRA’s assets. See article in this issue for more about KM.

As a follow-up to the retreat, the eRA Project Team is compiling a prioritized list of FY2004 goals. These goals will be categorized as “within eRA scope and budget” and “not within eRA scope and budget.” NIH management then will decide whether to provide additional funding for new requirements or to replace scheduled initiatives with new ones.

eRA Project Team Explores Benefits of Knowledge Management

The eRA Project Team recently explored the potential role of Knowledge Management (KM) in maximizing the utility of eRA data for promoting health research and accelerating discoveries. KM is one of the key components in resetting the eRA vision, the focus of the Third Annual eRA Retreat on October 9–10. (See full article in this issue). 

Dr. Richard Morris, eRA advocate for knowledge discovery, gave a presentation on KM concepts at the retreat. KM refers to the family of text-mining tools for examining vast quantities of data to identify patterns and establish relationships. Given the exponential rate at which the world’s information is growing (estimated at 10¹⁸  bytes yearly), KM has great potential for optimizing the knowledge assets of an organization and saving thousands of labor hours.

Among the promising benefits of KM are:

• NIH-wide level of investment analysis.        
• Timely integration of emerging scientific trends into program formulation.        
• Better access to clinical data for interpretation of research and assessment of discoveries.        
• Accurate and efficient referral of incoming proposals for review.

eRA already has demonstrated proof of concept that KM can successfully identify qualified reviewers for an incoming application. Dr. Bob Lewis of Mitretek Systems described a recent pilot during which eRA “fingerprinted” (profiled) each incoming research proposal using the National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings (MeSH^®) Thesaurus. MeSH is a database of hierarchical (e.g., “ankle” is subordinate to “anatomy”) and cross-referenced topics (e.g., “for vitamin C, see ascorbic acid”), which permits searching at various levels of specificity. The fingerprint for each research plan comprised the most appropriate MeSH terms.

The other sources of input for the pilot were databases (internal and external) of reviewer biosketches. Once the biosketches were fingerprinted, locating subject-matter experts consisted of comparing proposal profiles with expert profiles to produce the best matches. Thus, KM enabled NIH to transform raw text (research plans and biosketches) into useful information.

Dr. Arthur Petrosian, a scientific review administrator at the Center for Scientific Review (CSR), presented the Computerized Reviewer Assignment and Search Program (CRASP^®) that he and his son developed. They designed the program to locate reviewers for specific ad hoc diagnostic imaging study sections. CRASP searches for reviewers based on keywords in CRISP and PubMed. In addition to expertise, CRASP considers other factors such as diversity, gender, geographical balance, and potential conflicts of interest. 

eRA also can use KM techniques to ascertain similar research plans (from proposed and already funded research) and to create opportunities for scientific collaboration by identifying experts with common interests. These and other KM applications are expected to improve NIH performance and efficiency by facilitating data sharing, verifying facts, informing decisions, shortening grant cycle times, and reducing costs. NIH also hopes to realize qualitative gains.

Implementation of KM is not included in the current eRA budget. Dr. McGowan will make a presentation to NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni to establish a business case for purchasing a commercial KM product for NIH-wide use.

eRA Is in the News

Following are excerpts from articles about eRA in recent publications.

• The Chronicle of Higher Education –– Published weekly, with a circulation of 450,000, a news source for college and university faculty members and administrators.

Electronic Grant Applications Make Their Debut at NIH by Jeffrey Brainard, Oct. 24, 2003

The agency’s switch [from paper to electronic submission] is expected to benefit colleges by cutting the waiting time between when scientists submit grant applications and when they hear the results. That wait was typically more than six months, a delay that researchers have long complained was unreasonable… In addition, the system now allows the NIH to speed up the process of notifying those who receive awards and transferring funds to them, which used to take up to a month using letters and paper checks.

• The Washington Fax –– Daily science policy news service that tracks activities in Washington that affect the scientific research enterprise.

Interagency Grants Data Set Submitted to OMB by Shirley Haley, Oct. 29, 2003

[According to Brad Stanford, co-chair of the Federal Demonstration Partnership’s Committee on Electronic Research Administration], we have a public law that says that agencies will provide an electronic option. We have an administration that says this is part of the President’s management agenda. So agencies are paying attention and OMB is cracking the whip… For example, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Division of Extramural Activities Director John McGowan expounded on the agency’s readiness in the e-grant area, stating, “the plan now is for next year to be doing your grant submission to NIH for single-project grants… through the NIH Commons or a variety of other [electronic] means.”

• Science Magazine –– A weekly publication of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society. Science Magazine reaches over 83,000 individual paid subscribers and hundred or thousands of life science readers worldwide.

Net News: NIH Tests First E-Grants, Oct. 31, 2003

…plunging into the digital age, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is testing an online grants application that will end the frenzied ritual of mailing off stacks of paper copies… scientists applying to NIH [will] have several options, including custom software –– sort of like TurboTax –– that makes it easy to package graphics and text. Already, principal investigators (PIs) can see their grant status and peer-review scores on NIH’s Web site.

• The Blue Sheet –– Founded in 1957, “The Blue Sheet” is designed for executives, managers and investigators involved in biomedical research. Weekly issues cover the full spectrum of funding and R&D activities at NIH, the academic research community, private research foundations, the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Interagency Grants Data Set Submitted to OMB By IAEGC Subcmte., Nov. 3, 2003

University research administrators whose institutions and principal investigators are not yet oriented toward the world of electronic grants are behind the curve, other speakers warned SRA members [at the Society of Research Administrators International meeting held October 18-22]... NIH received its first 14 pilot electronic applications in October… ”they’re our first stage to gear up for full production next year [noted Dr. John McGowan].”

eRA/SBIR Success Stories

Four recipients of NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards were instrumental in the success of eRA’s electronic grants pilot (see full article in this issue). Awardees partnered with client institutions to prepare digital applications and to transmit them to NIH in the mandated format. Here are their stories.

• Cayuse, Incorporated as told by Christian Harker, Ph.D., President

For the pilot electronic submissions, the relevant profile data [Institutional Profiles and Professional Profiles] were exported from our product GrantSlam in XML format (along with budgets and other critical information collected in the PHS 398 form). During the export process, the XML data were organized and labeled so that the receiving computers at NIH would know exactly how to process them.

Most of the large blocks of text, such as the Research Plan and Biosketches, were included in the electronic submission as PDF files, linked to the XML data…

Once the data were exported and the PDFs in place, GrantSlam wrapped them together as an encoded bundle called a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) document. GrantSlam then used a secure connection to contact a particular server at NIH, identified itself as being associated with Cayuse (a “trusted broker” for NIH), and told the server that the SOAP document was ready to go. Some other key descriptive facts about the bundle were conveyed and NIH issued us a “ticket.”… The use of tickets was instituted to prevent the development of a bottleneck caused by too many electronic proposals coming in to the NIH at the same time. During this pilot, there was no such congestion and the proposal went right through.

…While getting to this point was a major task and plenty remains to be done, once we’d gotten the bugs out, submitting these proposals over the wires was far easier than sending paper.

Cayuse Customer Testimonial

I [Robert Beattie] teamed with Valerie Smith, the grants manager for the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, to use the Cayuse product, GrantSlam, to prepare an electronic proposal for Dr. J. Douglas Engel. GrantSlam produced a perfect paper copy of the application, and the data in the system were converted into the XML data stream needed for the NIH system. The process went very smoothly in the production stage and, with the close cooperation of the Cayuse team and the NIH eRA group, the transmission was accomplished. University of Michigan staff expect to send a number of applications via GrantSlam for the February, 2004 NIH deadline.

Robert Beattie, managing senior project representative for Electronic Research Administration, Division of Research Development and Administration, University of Michigan.

ERA Software Systems (ERASS) as told by Dianne Bozler, President

ERA Software Systems successfully submitted two proposals from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and two from the Pennsylvania State University for the October 1 deadline. For the November deadline, proposals were successfully submitted by UMASS, Penn State, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. All proposals were created and generated automatically from the Grants Application and Management System (GAMS) software. The ERASS focus was to verify the accuracy of the Web services running between GAMS servers and NIH servers. These services provide true machine-to-machine or business-to-business (B-to-B) communication. We were proud to be a part of the pilot project and feel that the close working relationship with NIH technical professionals has been extremely valuable. Finally, electronic research administration is a reality! 

• InfoEd International from press release issued Nov. 3, 2003

InfoEd International, Inc., a provider of software solutions that enable paperless management of research proposals, protocols, clinical trials and related intellectual property disclosures, announced today that it has made history by transmitting the very first electronic grant applications to be accepted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. InfoEd achieved this significant milestone with the support of four leading research institutions, which used the Web-based InfoEd solution to submit their own genuine research proposals for NIH's annual October submission deadline for new applications. The participating institutions included the University of Connecticut Health Center, the University of Illinois, the University of Miami, and Virginia Commonwealth University. 

InfoEd Customer Testimonials

“eRA represents an opportunity for grantors and grantees to yield significant efficiencies from transforming paper-based processes into seamless electronic communications. As a result, we can focus on our research instead of paperwork, and optimize the return for our sponsors."

Dr. Norman Altman, vice provost for Research at the University of Miami

"VCU was delighted to have the opportunity to participate in the successful test of a pioneering system for electronic proposal data transmittal to NIH."

Herbert Chermside, director of Sponsored Programs Administration at Virginia Commonwealth University

"We were very pleased to have partnered with InfoEd to submit one of the first proposals to NIH e-submissions. Preparation and submission of the electronic files went very smoothly. We look forward to doing business with NIH this way in the future."

Jack Kamerer, director of Grants and Contracts at the University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign

• Research and Management Systems (RAMS) from press release issued on Oct. 10, 2003

On September 1, 2002, RAMS received a Phase I grant from the NIH to help develop an innovative solution for NIH grantees to submit proposals and interact electronically with NIH’s e-Grant effort (NIH Commons). Based on the successful research effort involving local control of professional profiles and the electronic submission of the NIH 398 competitive application via the Web –– using ASP, SQL, XML and SOAP –– RAMS was selected for a Phase II award.

Working with two of its customers -- Children's Mercy Hospital and Oregon Research Institute  -- RAMS successfully submitted the competitive 398 grant applications electronically to NIH for their October 1st deadline. With successful completion of Phase I and Phase II of the eRA SBIR award, NIH will certify that the applications and services developed by SBIR companies, like the RAMS ecGrant product, will enable grantee institutions to submit electronic grant applications and communicate with the NIH eRA Commons.

RAMS Customer Testimonials

“Oregon Research Institute was excited about taking part in this NIH electronic submission pilot, and we found the process to be very simple. We're looking forward to the time when electronic submission is the norm.”

Virginia Osteen, grants specialist 

“It was the smoothest and easiest electronic submission we've done. After going through this once, I don't want to go back to paper again.”

Bill Caskey, Ph.D., director, Research and Grants Administration, Children’s Mercy Hospital

eRA Awards New Contracts for User Support and Technical Writing

eRA awarded two additional support contracts this fall. RS Information Systems (RSIS) will staff the Helpdesk, and Optimus Corporation will provide technical writing services. A decision regarding software design and development contracts is expected shortly.

With its Northrop Grumman Information Technology (NGIT) software development contract about to expire on December 31, eRA decided to terminate its other IT support contracts and issue new solicitations based on current project needs. eRA’s first new awards went to IBM for integration services and to RNSolutions for operations. See article in the October issue for details.

RSIS (awarded Helpdesk contract) provides information technology, systems engineering and technical assistance, telecommunications services, scientific support services, and management consulting to a wide range of government agencies and commercial clients. A privately held, African American-owned company, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, RSIS has 1,400 employees, 65 percent of whom are women, minorities and veterans. Revenues for 2002 exceeded $195 million.

Optimus Corporation, Services Division (awarded technical-writing contract) is a leading provider of advanced information technology solutions, research, and services for government and commercial clients. Headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, OSD supports more than 20 different state and local agencies throughout the United States, including the Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration, National Labor Relations Board and Environmental Protection Agency.

CDC Staff Trained to Use eRA System

Representatives from the eRA team conducted training sessions in November for new users from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta. The NIH and CDC currently are partnering to consolidate the processing of all CDC research grants under eRA in FY2004. 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.

Approximately 50 application receipt resources, committee management officials, scientific review administrators, and grants technical assistants, learned to use the eRA Receipt and Referral, Committee Management, and Peer Review modules. Twelve grants management specialists received an introduction to Grants Management.

All new CDC research grant applications are being loaded into the eRA system. CDC will begin pre-award processing this January. Ultimately, CDC will use eRA to process its research grants through all phases of the grant lifecycle.

eRA technical staff had to make only minor system changes (e.g., revising the wording on mailers) to accommodate CDC pre-award processing; however, since summary statements cannot be uploaded from the Web, eRA has decided to expedite the conversion of the Peer Review summary statement function to J2EE.

In keeping with community participation in eRA decision-making, Teresa Kinley will represent CDC on the eRA Project Team. Anthony Freeman (AHRQ) and Sandy Karen (HRSA) also have agreed to serve as advocates for their agencies.