U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
National Institutes of Health
eRA IntranetSubmitting a Trainee Diversity Report with the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) has long been required by NIH for institutional training and career development awards and most research education grants. For recipient organizations, this report previously has involved manually collecting the demographic information from trainees for the report. To reduce the burden on recipients, eRA has developed a streamlined Trainee Diversity Report that collects existing demographic information entered by trainees and other appointees in the Personal Profile of eRA Commons during the appointment process and thus minimizes the need for manual data entry by recipients.
This automated report will be available effective Friday, October 30. As of that date, institutions receiving specified institutional research training grants, institutional career development awards and research education awards (see specified activity codes below) must submit the automated Trainee Diversity Report electronically with their RPPRs (annual, interim, and final).
The report can be generated by recipients from the xTrain and RPPR modules and the signing official (SO) will submit the RPPR with the automated report.
Implementation
The electronically generated Trainee Diversity Report will be implemented through the RPPR submission process for institutional research training grants, institutional career development awards, and research education awards that require appointments through the xTrain system, including the following:
T15, T32, T34, T35, T37, T42, T90, TL1, TU2, TL4, K12/KL2, R25, R38, R90, RL5, RL9
The eRA system will check whether the RPPRs for the specified grant types include an electronically generated Trainee Diversity Report (See Figure 1). RPPRs lacking an electronically generated report will not be accepted.
Note: For K12/KL2, R25, KM1, and R90 awards, the eRA system will check if any appointments were made electronically in xTrain. If an appointment was made in xTrain, NIH will require an electronically generated report. If no appointments were made in xTrain, the system will not be able to generate a report and a manual upload will be required.
Figure 1: A sample of the new Trainee Diversity Report
Key Points
- It is important to note that the Trainee Diversity Report will be most accurate when trainees and other appointees complete their Personal Profile in eRA Commons. Demographic information in the Trainee Diversity Report is collected at an individual level through the Personal Profile but is reported as aggregate data. This means it is not associated with a specific trainee (See Figure 2). While “Do not wish to provide” is an available option for all users, it is important that trainees understand the value of accurately completing their demographic information for NIH’s goal of creating a diverse biomedical workforce.
Figure 2: The Demographics section of the Personal Profile. Note that data is confidential and used for aggregate statistical reporting only
- Recipient organizations should encourage trainees to keep their information updated in their Personal Profiles.
- The automated diversity report can be generated from either the xTrain module or the RPPR module in the eRA Commons as a PDF. The signing official (SO) will then submit the automated diversity report with the RPPR.
Resources: