NIH ERA COMMONS WORKING GROUP ANNOUNCEMENT/SOLICITATION Release Date: October 3, 2000 NOTICE: OD-01-001 National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is in the process of establishing a Project Management Team to oversee the continued design, development and implementation of the NIH electronic Research Administration (eRA) system. The eRA system, when fully implemented, will support the electronic administration of the entire NIH grants life cycle. Information will be received from applicant organizations into a database called the NIH Commons. Following data and business rule validation, information will be transferred to the NIH enterprise database, IMPAC II, for processing by NIH Institute/Center (IC) staff. To ensure that all relevant business areas (e.g. application receipt, referral, review, council, grants management, program administration) are represented in the continuing NIH eRA efforts, a Management Team is being formed that will be comprised of representatives from various user groups. For aspects of the eRA system designed for NIH IC staff use, such user groups will involve key NIH IC administrative staff and/or information technologists. Given the extensive and diverse nature of the grantee organizations that will be using the NIH Commons, the NIH wishes to convene an NIH Commons Working Group, to serve as a counterpart to the various NIH IC functional groups. The Commons Working Group will serve under the Peer Review Oversight Group (PROG), a formal NIH Advisory Committee established under the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). Individual recommendations made by members of the Commons Working Group covering topics such as establishment and monitoring of eRA priorities, assistance in analysis of maintenance, operations, anticipated enhancements, and eventual redesign of dated NIH Commons interfaces will be submitted to the PROG for consideration and communication to the NIH eRA Project Management Team. The Commons Working Group, as envisioned, will provide input to the PROG for consideration toward the goal of completing the requirements of the eRA system during the next two years. With this announcement the NIH is seeking to recruit faculty and/or grantee organization professionals to participate on the NIH Commons Working Group. Prospective members are sought both from the faculty and from grantee organization professionals having administrative and/or technical expertise.. It is anticipated that the Working Group will be made up of 12 to 18 individuals, representing a cross-section of the diverse grantee organization community. Affiliation with any grants administration professional society or association is not a prerequisite for participation on the Working Group. To assist in the facilitation of Working Group’s efforts, the NIH has identified an eRA Commons Grantee Organization Liaison. The Commons Liaison will assist in the establishment of the Working Group, scheduling of meetings, and work closely with the Working Group to meet specific objectives put forth by the eRA Project Management Team. Once the Working Group is established, a facilitator from among the Working Group member may be designated. If so, arrangements will be made for the facilitator to actively participate in eRA Management Team meetings, so as to be able to apprise other members of the Working Group on the primary issues outstanding. The final composition of the Working Group will be determined by the NIH eRA Project Management Team as a recommendation to the PROG who will formally request for participation of prospective Commons Working Group members. All members of the Working Group will serve in a volunteer capacity, and be asked to contribute in the following ways. o The Working Group will be expected to be engaged in dialog via e-mail and/or conference calls on an as-needed basis, as well as to meet regularly (3-5 meetings/year) to discuss and/or review planning documents related to NIH Commons design, deployment, operations, maintenance, and/or enhancements. The NIH Commons Liaison will assist in the coordination of such meetings, as well as provide a suggested agenda. o One of the initial efforts assigned to the Working Group will be to provide opinions relative to the establishment of new, and/or refinement of existing Commons assessment criteria in an effort to standardize the prioritization of Commons software design, development, deployment, operations, maintenance, and enhancement. The Working Group will solicit input from the extramural grantee community, and convey individual recommendations to the PROG for consideration and communication to the NIH eRA Management Team. o At this time, due to budgetary constraints, no financial support for travel for Working Group’s members is anticipated. NIH budget will, however, allow for administrative support (e.g. Xerox, making arrangements for meeting rooms, etc.). As an alternative to meeting in Bethesda, the Working Group will be encouraged to hold meetings in conjunction with either regional or national meetings of professional societies or associations. o In order to better understand issues outstanding in the eRA users community, Working Group members may be requested to solicit input from groups of users identified to the NIH by grantee organizations and/or professional societies. The NIH Commons Liaison will facilitate such interactions. o The Working Group will not be expected to play any formal role in making budget recommendations. This will fall within the purview of the eRA Management Team. However, extramural budgetary concerns will be discussed with members of the Working Group, and their individual perspectives may be solicited. eRA Management Team plans call for the Commons Working Group to be established and begin fulfilling prescribed objectives by the end of CY2000. The first step toward this goal is to recruit Working Group members. All interested members of the extramural grantee community administrative staff or scientific faculty - are encouraged to submit a short (< 1 page) statement of qualifications: relevant experience, demonstrated interest in implementation of eRA at their institution, and formal commitment by their institution for their active participation in the Working Group. Such statements, and any questions regarding this initiative should be directed to the NIH Commons User Support Branch Help Desk [(866) 504-9552; commons@od.nih.gov]. In order for the timely establishment of the Working Group, formal statements should be received by October 31, 2000.


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