NIH eRA COMMONS

1
NIH eRA COMMONS

• Principal Investigator Lab
• Regional Seminar Albuquerque
• April 2005

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Todays Agenda

• COMMONS Overview
• COMMONS Demonstration Site
• Demonstration of COMMONS systems
• Hands-on exercises
• Wrap-up and Questions

3
COMMONS Overview

• On-line connection to NIH for information on
  pending applications and awarded grants.
• Get timely information regarding a pending
  review, its results, summary statements, and
  award information.
• Links to NIH staff Scientific Review
  Administrator, Program Official, Grants
  Management Officer and Specialist.

4
COMMONS Overview

• Registering your Institution
• Must be done by an official in the business
  office.
• Information is entered on-line and electronically
  sent to NIH
• A copy of the page is printed, signed, and faxed
  to the eRA Commons Help Desk
• Upon NIH verification, the Business Office
  official can begin creating accounts for
  Institution staff

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COMMONS Overview

• Explanation of Commons Roles
• SO Signing Official
• Has the authority to submit information to NIH,
  create/maintain accounts, and view limited
  information for all of the institutions grantees
• AO Administrative Official
• Can create/maintain AO, PI, and ASST accounts
  can view limited information for all of the
  institutions granteescan be part of the
  institutions approval workflow process when
  submitting electronic applications to NIH

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COMMONS Overview

• Commons Roles (cont)
• PI Principal Investigator
• Can view information for all of his/her grants
  and applications at NIH, including access to
  summary statement, Notice of Grant Award (NGA),
  create a pre-printed face page for
  non-competing continuation, and much more
• ASST Administrative Assistant
• Can be delegated authority to access/update eSNAP
  and X-Train information for a PI

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COMMONS Overview

• Commons Roles (cont)
• IAR Internet Assisted Review
• Can participate as a reviewer for NIH Peer Review
  committee Does not have to be affiliated with an
  institution
• FSR Financial Status Report Administrator
• Can update and submit FSRs to NIH

8
COMMONS Overview

• Commons Roles (cont)
• AA Account Administrator
• Can create, maintain, and delete accounts for the
  institution Role is granted by the SO

9
Systems Well Be Covering Today

• Institution Profile (View-only for PI Role)
• Account Administration
• Personal Profile (PPF)

10
Systems Well Be Covering Today

• Status
• eSNAP
• Just in time (JIT)
• IAR

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COMMONS Demonstration Site

• Created to emulate the production COMMONS system
• Allows access to anyone who has an interest in
  the NIH eRA COMMONS, no need to be affiliated
  with a registered institution

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Institution Profile

• View-only access for all roles other than SO
• Basic Information Page
• Assurances and Certifications Page

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Account Administration

• Functions Delegate PI Delegate PPF Change
  Password Verify NIH Support
• Hands-on Exercise 1 Administer Your Account

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Personal Profile (PPF)

• Single Point of Ownership
• You are responsible for keeping your information
  current and correct
• Very few staff members at NIH have access to
  change information (for emergencies only)

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Personal Profile (PPF)

• Personal Information
• Race/Ethnicity
• Employments
• Address for current employment is used for your
  grant application when entered into the eRA
  database

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Personal Profile (PPF)

• Reviewer Address
• Residential Address
• Degrees
• Publications

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Personal Profile (PPF)

• Hands-on Exercise 2 Maintain your Personal
  Profile

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Status

• Status Hit List
• Grant Number is hyperlink to full Status
  information
• Detailed application information including
• Scientific Review Group meeting date/location
• Scores, review results, access to Summary
  Statement and other relevant documents
• Program and Grants Management staff contact
  information

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Status

• Person with PI role can only see his/her own
  grants
• Currently cannot delegate this permission to
  another user
• Hands-on Exercise 3 Using Status

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eSNAP

• electronic Streamlined Non-competing Application
  Process
• First e-submission system at NIH
• No longer in Pilot
• Organization can self-register to use this
  function

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eSNAP

• eSNAP Hit List
• Shows all of your grants at NIH
• Hyperlink grant numbers are eSNAP eligible
• Shows the due date, eSNAP status, and current
  reviewer

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eSNAP

• Functions of the different roles
• PI Initiate the eSNAP Work-In-Progress (WIP),
  edit business and scientific information, view
  the eSNAP report, route the eSNAP to an AO or SO
• ASST Can do everything that the PI can do
  EXCEPT route the eSNAP

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eSNAP

• AO Can edit business information, view the
  eSNAP report, route to the PI or SO
• SO In addition to AOs abilities, can submit
  the eSNAP to NIH
• SO can grant permission to a PI to submit his/her
  own eSNAP to NIH

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eSNAP

• Initiate the eSNAP creates the WIP
• PI becomes the current reviewer
• Status is set to PI WIP
• eSNAP Menu page
• Status of Completion is information only! - not
  linked to actual data entered

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eSNAP

• Upload Science
• Progress Report file
• Research Accomplishments file
• Other Documentation file
• Citations/Publications

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eSNAP

• Edit Business
• Organization Info (face page)
• Performance Sites
• Key Personnel
• Research Subjects
• SNAP Questions and Checklist

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eSNAP

• Inclusion Enrollment
• 2 versions of the form 4/98 and 5/01
• 5/01 version contains multi-ethnic and
  multi-racial categories
• Part B. Hispanic Enrollment Each category in
  this section is a subset of the total in Part A

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eSNAP

• Other functions
• View eSNAP Report
• Validate
• View Routing History
• Route
• Recall
• Once the eSNAP is routed to the SO, s/he can
  submit it to NIH

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eSNAP

• Hands-on Exercise 4 Creating an eSNAP

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Just in Time (JIT)

• Availability depends on review outcome
• This does not indicate a pending award
• Items to submit
• Other Support file
• IRB date
• Human Subjects education for Key Personnel
• Must be submitted to NIH by SO

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JIT

• Hands-on Exercise 5 Just in Time Other Support
  Submission

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IAR (Internet Assisted Review)

• Ability to view application image on-line
• Ability to submit critiques for applications in a
  meeting
• Assign preliminary scores to applications to
  which you are assigned
• Ability to read critiques submitted by other
  reviewers

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IAR

• Released in August 2003
• Over 21,000 Commons Accounts with an IAR role
• Over 1500 Meetings Conducted in FY 2005
• Over 220,000 Critiques Submitted
• Currently, IAR usage is approximately 75 of its
  projected future utilization.

34
IAR

• Setting up a meeting
• NIH Scientific Review Administrator (SRA) creates
  a roster of reviewers for a meeting and assigns
  applications to each reviewer
• Meeting is set up in IAR and each reviewer is
  sent an email invitation to participate.

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IAR

• Invitation to join the meeting
• Email is different depending on whether or not
  the reviewer is currently registered in COMMONS.
• If Reviewer doesnt have a Commons account, a web
  site for creating an account will be provided.
• Reviewers email address is from the Reviewer
  Address in Personal Profile

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IAR

• Meeting Phases
• Submit Phase (mandatory)
• Reviewers log in and submit critiques and
  preliminary scores for their assigned
  applications.
• Reviewers can only see critiques and scores that
  they have submitted during this phase.
• This phase usually ends a few days before the
  actual meeting.

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IAR

• Meeting Phases
• Read Phase (mandatory)
• Read phase begins after Submit phase (critique
  due date).
• Reviewers are permitted to read other Reviewers
  critiques (if not in conflict). 

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IAR

• If a reviewer has not submitted an assigned
  critique, the SRA may block the Reviewer from
  reading other critiques on that application until
  he/she submits

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IAR

• Meeting Phases Read Phase continued
• Reviewers may view the Score Matrix that
  indicates streamlined or lower-half applications
  as designated by the SRA. These lower-half
  applications may not be discussed at the actual
  meeting.
• The Read phase usually begins a few days before
  the meeting and is open until the actual meeting
  is held.

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IAR

• Meeting Phases
• Edit Phase (optional at SRAs discretion)
• Reviewers may submit updated critiques or
  critiques for unassigned applications.
• Score submission is not permitted.
• This phase is usually open for a few days to a
  week after the actual meeting.

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IAR

• Submitting Critiques and Preliminary Scores
• Word or Text document types supported.
• Preliminary Scores can be numeric (1.0-5.0) or
  alphanumeric (see Submit screen for guidance)
• Reviewers should NOT include their Name as part
  of the critique file they upload.
• To modify a previously submitted critique, simply
  resubmit a new file. Only the most recent
  critique is retained.

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IAR

• Conflicts
• If Reviewer has an institutional conflict, he/she
  cannot submit or view critiques or scores on
  applications where conflicts exist.
• In addition, if Reviewer is in competitive
  conflict, he/she also cannot view the online
  application image.

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IAR

• Hands-on Exercise 6 Using Internet Assisted
  Review (IAR)