Where can I find information on the XML schema
used for system-to-system transmissions?
The development of a system-to-system interface with Grants.gov is between the applicant institution and Grants.gov. Therefore, the best source for this information is the Applicant System to System Integration webpage on the Grants.gov website (http://www.grants.gov/agencies/applicant_system_integration.jsp).
How will System-to-System Trading Partners know
if forms changes are planned?
All of the Grants.gov form components are subject to change,
including the SF424 (R&R) and agency-specific forms used by NIH (labeled PHS 398). Although NIH is an active member of the Research and Related Working Group that makes form change recommendations to Grants.gov, Grants.gov has responsibility for change management of the government-wide form components. For the PHS 398 components, NIH will have to schedule requested changes with the Grants.gov forms development team. When any such plans are made, NIH will post the pending change and approximate timing on our Electronic Submission website.
Which form components will NIH use for its opportunities?
For each grant program (mechanism) NIH will use a combination of government-wide
and agency-specific forms (PHS 398 and SBIR/STTR) listed on the Grants.gov
website under SF424 R&R Family (http://apply.grants.gov/agency/FormLinks?family=3).
Since NIH requires eRA Commons registration for electronic submission,
the Research & Related Personal Data government-wide form will not be
used by NIH.
Each funding opportunity announcement lists both
mandatory and optional components within the application package. Can
NIH notify system-to-system providers of the mandatory and optional
components to be used for each grant program (mechanism)?
The specific mandatory and optional components
have not yet been defined for all mechanisms. NIH has internal working
groups that are working with the nuances of each mechanism and fitting
them to the SF424 (R&R) form set. As decisions are made for individual mechanisms NIH will post this information to the Electronic Submission website. NIH will generally follow one of 5 templates based on the budget/special components used (Modular, Non-modular, both Modular and Non-modular, SBIR and STTR).
Will NIH accept Greek characters in the XML data
streams?
No. Although XML will allow the characters, the Greek characters cause issues
downstream. NIH's current data model and presentation interfaces are not set up to handle these characters.
Will a System-to-System Trading Partner need to
accommodate different versions of application forms?
Yes. A System-to-System Trading Partner
will need to have the flexibility to develop and maintain multiple schemas
in order to support different versions of forms. Remember that some NIH
funding opportunities stay in place for up to three years. NIH will not
always go back to previously posted opportunities to have them pick up
the latest forms, so System-to-System developers will want to be able
to support either form - the original and the latest form. NIH is currently developing the ability to handle multiple schemas on the agency side.
If a System-to-System Trading Partner generates
the application image, does the applicant also need to check the image
in Commons?
Although some System-to-System Trading Partner may have built their own system
to generate applicant images, NIH strongly recommends that the applicant
still check out the grant image of their assembled application in eRA
Commons and not rely solely on the developer-generated image.
Are there some optional fields in the schema that
are actually mandatory for the applicant on PureEdge?
Yes, the NIH team is discovering that there
are many optional fields in the schema that the user is actually required
to fill in on PureEdge. The NIH code is throwing system errors when we
retrieve System-to-System submissions with empty tags in these fields.
We will inform you as we learn of these so you are aware of them. Program
Income on the 398 checklist and the Stem Cell tag are examples we have
uncovered.
