eRA Commons: New Features and Fixes
New features and fixes added to the Commons module are listed below:
eRA Commons Enhancements
Please note this is an overview of the eRA Commons enhancements for the October release. For full details, please view the October Commons Release Notes, which will be posted after Thursday, October 8, 2009.
Institutional Profile (IPF) Enhancements
- A Content Managed link was added to the Assurances and Certifications screen that leads to a document that would explain all assurances and certifications - http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/phs398.doc#_Toc238447714
- Assurances and Certifications - Two new Assurances & Certifications were added to the IPF:
- 1. Graduate Student Training for Doctoral Degrees. D43, TU2, T15, T32, T37, T90, U2R, U90, and U54/TL1 only. This Certification will not be mandatory for eSNAPs
- 2. Smoke-Free Workplace
eSNAP Enhancements
- Several changes and additions were made to the Edit Business and eSNAP Report screens and PDF.
- Content managed text changes were made to the eSNAP Edit Business – All Personnel List screen and the eSNAP - Help File Supplement Support - All Personnel Screen.
- 508 Compliance Changes for Commons - A number of Section 508 Compliance changes were made to Financial Status Report (FSR), the IPF, the Status screen(s) and other sections of the eRA Commons system.
Recovery Act Enhancements
- eRA Commons - Both GCM & Commons Closeouts were modified to accommodate separate closeout of ARRA T-3 records.
My Bibliography Enhancements
- PPF - MyBIB - New Process for Managing Publications - The system will now pull all bibliography records directly from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) using the web service. The system will also provide the user with the option to view any publication by selecting the Citation ID hyperlink. System will maintain capability of the user to edit and or delete PD/PI entered publications.
- eSNAP - MyBIB - Integration of the New MYBIB Process with eSNAP
- The system will now display all publications from the MyBIB system on the eSNAP My Publications screen and eSNAP Report.
ESI Enhancements
- The system will now present the user with the identifier for the Terminal Research Degree on the Person Degree page. Additionally, we have added the capability to mark one of the degrees in the PPF as the Terminal degree.
- For the initial stage of Terminal Research Degree implementation, the system will locate the latest degree in every profile and mark it as Terminal. This enhancement will set the Terminal Research Degree within the system automatically.
eRA FIXES
Commons Fixes
- Multi PI Status Information- “Application Entered into Computer” Displays Multiple Times - This duplication of displayed information has been corrected.
XTrain Fixes
- System Giving Overlapping Appointment Error and Displaying All Previous Amendments when Amending an Amendment - The issue is now resolved. When amending an amendment, the system is allowing users to create amendments without displaying the overlapping appointment error. Additionally, the system only displays the latest accepted amendment record on the Trainee Roster screen.
- xTrain Additional Scenario when Reappointment Link Should Disappear - The system code was fixed to hide the reappointment link as soon as a reappointment has been created for any future year and not just the immediate future year.
- System Looks at the Original Appointment End Date and Not at the Termination Date - The system has been modified so now when user creates a new appointment for the same trainee that was terminated it looks at the Termination Date and not at the original appointment End Date so user will no longer receive an overlapping appointment error.
eSNAP Fixes
- Edit Business - Key Personnel: User Gets a Validation Error - Before the October release, the user would get a validation error (when either clicking on the Validate button or the Submit button) indicating that the value for calendar/summer/academic months must be greater than zero. However, when the user navigated to the Key Personnel page, the data clearly showed all the values to be greater than zero. The Commons applications have been updated to make the display and validation of values for PI consistent.
- Edit Business, Project Performance Sites, Content Managed Text Entered Twice - Previously, the Content Managed text was showing up twice on the Edit Business - Project Performance Site List screen. This duplication of Content Manages text was corrected so that the message only appears once.
508 Compliance Fixes
- No Labels for the Radio Buttons in the Central Accounting System (CAS) Information or Edit Financial Status Record (FAS) Page - Explicit labels were added to the radio buttons to make them compliant with Section 508 standards. The Edit FSR page was also made 508 Compliant.
If you have any questions, please contact the eRA Helpdesk: 301-402-7469; helpdesk@od.nih.gov.
Features
Add trainee and post-doc role to the list of roles that can have multiple affiliations
- The Trainee role and a Post-Doc role have been added to the dropdown list of roles that can have affiliations with multiple institutions.
508 Compliance Changes
- Commons system enhancements and changes were made based on Section 508 Standard requirements for Web forms and images. All Web forms and images in the following modules are now 508 compliant:
- Account
- Registration
- FCOI
- xTrain
Change the label on the 'Forgot Password?' link to 'Forgot Password or Locked Account?'
- Many users were unaware that the ‘Forgot Password’ link that can be used to have the system generate a new password if they forget their password can also unlock their account by having the system generate another password if they are locked out because of too many consecutive login attempts. The link label has been changed for clarity.
Guidance Messages
- Instructive tips added to several Commons screens, including Just-In-Time (JIT) screens with recent changes.
Times Revised in the status search screens
- The Just-in-Time (JIT) submission date and the number of times the report was submitted or revised have now been combined into one hyperlink that displays the latest information. When the JIT form (PDF only) is opened, the form now shows the last submitted date (MM/DD/YYYY) and the number of times submitted in the upper right area of the form.
Fixes
Reviewer name is missing from a meeting list
- Correction made to ensure the Reviewer Name is always displayed in the heading of eeting lists.
Inconsistencies in display of Action Links and Scores during EDIT
Previously, there were inconsistencies in the various displays of the Action links and Scores when the Scientific Review Officer (SRO) was in the Edit phase. The following inconsistencies are no longer issues:
- When submitting only Criterion scores for an unassigned reviewer, the Delete link only became available if the preliminary scores were entered along with criterion scores, or a critique had been submitted. (Issue resolved)
- When submitting Criterion scores, preliminary scores, or both, and then going back to the List of Applications, the unassigned reviewer would have no Action links at all. (Issue resolved)
- When a Discussant would submit Criterion scores with a critique and go back to the List of Applications to delete just the critique, only the Submit link was available. (Issue resolved)
Create Affiliation link not correctly restricted to PI, Trainee, and Post-Doc roles
- This situation has been corrected so that the Create Affiliation hyperlink actively displays in the Action column for the Principal Investigator (PI), Trainee, and Post-Doc roles only.
Admin - Not finding IAR roles in Account search screen.
- Commons will now add Not Affiliated records to both the 'Active' and 'Pending' search results. Additionally, we have removed the PI role restriction from the search query when the 'Account Status' is Not Affiliated and added the IAR role to the Search screen Role selection dropdown.
Features
General Enhancements
- The Status Information screen will now display the applications’ Early State Investigator (ESI) and New Investigator (NI) eligibility status on detail page.
User Account Management Module – 508 Compliance
- The User Account Management Module is now fully 508 compliant.
Content Managed Text
- Changes were made to enhance the wording on the Principle Investigator (PI) Submit Reference Letter screen to provide clearer instructions.
Account Management
We streamlined the process of managing accounts and have integrated the following new features:
- Users can now Create Account, Create Affiliation, and Maintain Account all from one Manage Accounts tab.
- Manage Account tab will display a new search screen that has been enhanced to include an Institution Search option.
- Create Affiliation function now allows the SO to affiliate a current, non-affiliated Primary Investigator to his or her Institution through the Search button.
- SO has system authority to create a new profile or update an existing profile account within Commons.
- Enhanced capability allowing SO to use Create Account screen to create a new Trainee role from the Management Account tab.
- Provide capability of search within Institution (default) or outside Institution separately for Commons Account holders.
Peer Review Re-engineering Effort
- Peer Review System enhanced to accommodate new priority scale.
- Just-in-Time link behavior has been adjusted to fit the new scale.
Career Tracking
- New POSTDOC role added to the Commons Role list. The new role will be used for tracking purposes of post-doctoral persons involved with grants.
New Investigator
- Self-reported New Investigator role will no longer be considered during review, and will not have any relevance for applications other than R01 and DP2. The new ESI functionality automatically calculates the New Investigator Value on an R01 and DP2.
Features
Early Stage Investigator (ESI) eligibility determined and flagged.
Scientists who have attained their last degree or completed their medical residency or equivalent within the last 10 years and have not received a substantial NIH research grant may be eligible to be categorized as an ‘Early Stage Investigator.’ Once PD/PIs update their Personal Profile in eRA Commons with their degree information and medical residency completion dates, the system will determine their eligibility – effective with this software release. R01 grant applications will be flagged as Early Stage Investigator applications beginning with the February 2009 R01 submissions; these applications will receive special consideration during review and award.
The features to accommodate ESI are as follows:
- Modify Commons’ Personal Profile to allow users to enter Medical Residency Information and store data:
- The Commons Add Degrees/Residency screen was modified to allow
users to enter:
- The end of their Medical Residency training date (this is a required field with month and year in the MM/YYYY format).
- The area of Medical Residency (an optional field)
- Modify Commons Personal Profile to Display Residency Info for all users and ESI Info for PI, IAR and Trainee and Delegates
- The system will now display Medical Residency information for all users and will calculate ESI Eligibility information for users with PI, IAR, and Trainee roles and their Delegates roles on the Degrees/Residency screen.
- A new Medical Residency section was added to the Degree screen.
This section contains:
- Area of Medical Residency
- End Date or Expected End Date of Medical Residency
- Early Stage Investigator Status
- End of Medical Eligibility Date
- A link to FAQ’s for ESI Eligibility
** Also note that you will have the ability to Edit and/or Delete a Medical Residency record and the ability to ‘Add’ new Medical Residency information. The Add New Residency section will not be available if degree information is not entered.
New reimbursement system introduced for reviewers
A new, simplified registration process will be in place with this software release to facilitate disbursement of honoraria and expenses to reviewers for their participation in peer review meetings. The new system will require reviewers to log in to eRA Commons and update their Personal Profile. Reviewers will then click on a link to a secure payment system, managed by the NIH Office of Financial Management (OFM), and enter their banking information. The new system replaces the U.S. Central Contractor Registration (CCR) system that NIH previously used for this purpose.
The features to accommodate the new reimbursement system are as follows:
- The location of the secure payment link — titled Secure Payee Registration System (SPRS) — was changed from the Reviewer screen to the Residential Address screen. Reviewers are now asked to enter their home or other reviewer location in the Residential Address screen in order to activate the link to SPRS.
- The new system requires reviewers to log in to eRA Commons (https://commons.era.nih.gov/commons)
with their user name and password and update their Personal Profile with
the following information:
- Residential address, phone number, and email; and link to the SPRS to enter social security number, bank routing number, and bank account number.
Note: Please follow the step-by-step instructions for registration at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/peer/peer.htm. Only users with the Internet Assisted Review (IAR) role will be able to view the link and log into the SPRS system. All required fields, including the email address, must be filled in.
Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI)
- Added a note to the Financial Conflict of Interest – Initiate screen to let users know that an attachment is optional after the initial Save.
Fixes
Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI)
- Allow the FCOI grant number field to accept the entire record, not just the required information. Users will no longer receive the following error message: Grant was not found or not awarded.
xTrain
- Resolved the issue where an account with both BO and ASST roles did not display the Process TN (termination notice) link.
- Removed the Termination email sent to the user when a BO account is deleted.
- Ensured that for both the 2271 form and the TN, the original document will no longer be altered when it is amended.
- Ensured automatic population of personal information into the 2271 form with the data used at the time of nomination.
- For early terminations, the system will automatically amend the latest appointment to include the original stipend amount and the new stipend amount in the Amendment section (Total support amount includes Tuition fees and Travel Fees in addition to stipend amount). The original appointment form information will not be altered. All TNs, Amendment records and PDFs affected by this will now show the correct stipend amount.
xTrain User Guide Coming Soon
- An xTrain User Guide will be posted soon on the xTrain Web page on the eRA Web site.
Features
Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI)
NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-09-001 - NIH Announces a New Business Process for Reporting an Identified Financial Conflict of Interest for Grants and/or Cooperative Agreements beginning October 10, 2008.
- New Commons service that allows institutional users to:
- initiate and prepare FCOI reports
- electronically submit reports and supporting documents to NIH
- search and view FCOI reports previously submitted through the Commons
- edit or rescind submitted reports with NIH involvement
- access history of actions
- Pilot expanded to include all Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) members and a small sample of non-FDP members
Electronic Non-competing Award Process (eSNAP)
- Added text at the top of the eSNAP Edit Business page to clarify Human Subject codes
- Added the capabilities in Zip Code for foreign applicants to enter letters and numbers (digits and numerals)
Personal Profile
- Added text at the top of the Personal Profile Degrees screen to clarify process
xTrain
- System aligned with recent xTrain policy change regarding requirement
for signed paper copies of all post-doc trainee actions
- Appointment forms and termination notices submitted through xTrain will serve as official documentation. System will no longer prompt user to print, sign and mail signed appointment forms and termination notices for post-doc trainees.
- Signed payback forms for post-doc
trainees in their first year of NRSA support are still required
and the system will provide link to print document
- Business rule checks (i.e., validations) against ethnicity and disability information have been separated from checks against other profile information. Ethnicity and disability became required fields as of May 1, 2008 (part of most recent OMB cleared changes for the 2271 form). The change was necessary to allow proper paper processing of forms submitted prior to May 1, 2008 that did not include ethnicity and disability information.
Fixes
Electronic Non-competing Award Process (eSNAP)
- Users can now revoke ‘Delegate Submit’ authority without an error message being generated
- Implemented new terminology throughout the eSNAP screens:
OLD TERM NEW TERM Principal Investigator Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) Key Personnel Senior/key Personnel Performance site Project/performance site
- Made changes within eSNAP to accommodate the new NIH Public Access Policy
- Provided ability within eSNAP to designate a primary Project/Performance site, enter a DUNS number and effect other changes to accommodate the requirements of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA).
Features
- xTrain
- Number of months for Other PHS Obligation support now required
- Disability Status will be required for Trainee
- Provide link to description for Disadvantaged Background
- PI and Trainee now may modify Field Of Training before saving an Amendment
- Add Registration events to the Routing History
- Add a Recall button
- All users may now view the Application throughout full life cycle even when not the current reviewer
- Many new features for internal users to expedite processing of
Appointments and Terminations
- Status
- SO users can now see previously successful application when a subsequent application results in errors
- Search by Grants.gov tracking number for SO users now works the same way as for PI users
- Reject eApplication link may now be seen in General Status screen
Fixes
- xTrain
- Rename buttons from Route to Save & Route
- Having an Appointment period of 12 months and 1 day now triggers the error that 12-month Appointment period has been exceeded
- Middle name has been added to xTrain termination emails
- Tuition and Travel amount in 2271s may now be zero
- Current Reviewer is now displayed for Appointments when Pending Agency Review
- Fixed bug that created another re-appointment when saving the current re-appointment
- Status
- Changes to Progress Report printable face page to include latest Office of Management and Budget (OMB) revisions
- Made modifications to Race and Ethnicity screen to be consistent with OMB requirements
- On the Personal Profile page you may now enter either the last 4 digits or full Social Security Number, but only the last 4 digits will be displayed
- xTrain changes
Note: xTrain is a new Commons service for managing research training appointments/amendments/terminations through the eRA Commons. It is currently in pilot with nine institutions. xTrain is expected to be available for broader use later this year.- Adding middle name to hit list returned when using the Identify Trainee link
- Allow previous PI to perform actions for only their support years and allow current PI to perform actions for all support years
- View routing history once appointment/termination accepted
- TA screen redesign of search for appointments/terminations
- Modifications to the pre-population of the payback form to for printing and paper submission
- Remove requirement to supply Appointment Start Date (From and To fields) from the Search Appointments and Terminations screen (NIH staff users)
- Stipend greater than zero must be entered
- Performance improvement for Work In Progress (WIP) Appointment and Terminations query (NIH staff users)
- Cancel button consistently returns users to previous screen
- Trainee Roster Search options will switch to Latest Awarded Support Year, Latest & Previous Awarded Support Years and All years. Default set to Latest & Previous.
- Address 500 server error received when viewing PDFs and Routing History for actions that share start/end dates
- Address 404 system errors received when routing Termination Notices from Business Official to Trainee
- Correction to Auto-routing message that is sent to Business
Official after 14 days of no action from PI
- General changes
- Remove IPF search parameter from Employments screen of Personal Profile
- Changes to DP1 reference letter processing
- Corrected reference letter email text sent to referee
- Changed reference letter screen to provide flexibility in RFA/PA number format (frequent help desk call)
- xTrain changes
Note: xTrain is a new Commons service for managing research training appointments/amendments/terminations through the eRA Commons. It is currently in pilot with nine institutions. xTrain is expected to be available for broader use later this year.- Screen clean-up
- Workflow corrections
- Corrected pre-population of Payback form
- New search feature: Ability to search for and track electronically
submitted applications from the Status screen using the Grants.gov
tracking number. The Grants.gov tracking number will continue to be
searchable throughout the lifecycle of the application/grant - even
after the NIH assigns its own application ID (i.e., accession number
or grant number).
- Reorganization of the application/grant data into two separate sections:
- Recent/Pending eSubmissions - includes
electronic application submissions that require action to complete
the submission process (e.g., checking errors/warnings, viewing
assembled application). It also includes those that have been
refused by a Signing Official or are within the two day assembled
application viewing window.
- List of Applications/Grants
- includes both paper and electronic applications that have been
submitted successfully and are available for post-submission status
(e.g., review assignments, review results, summary statements,
Notice of Award). It also includes the list of awarded grants
for accessing other Commons functions.
- Recent/Pending eSubmissions - includes
electronic application submissions that require action to complete
the submission process (e.g., checking errors/warnings, viewing
assembled application). It also includes those that have been
refused by a Signing Official or are within the two day assembled
application viewing window.
- Grouping of multiple submission attempts for a single application
to provide a cleaner screen view and consolidated submission history.
- In internal eRA applications, the PI view within the grant folder now includes a link to files added to the grant folder via eAdditions.
This page last reviewed: October 8, 2009
