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eSubmission News and Updates Archive

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2014

July 2014

Known Issues with NIH Multi-project Applications & Dealing with System Issues

There are a couple of known software issues impacting electronic multi-project applications that we’d like to bring to your attention…

Character Limitation for Project Titles of Components

We are currently unable to process applications where the 'Descriptive Title of Applicant's Project' field on the SF424 (R&R) cover form used within multi-project application components is over 75 characters. Although you can use up to 200 characters for your main project title in the Overall component, you can only use 75 characters for the project titles of all other components. This limitation is the result of an issue with how we are generating the Table of Contents within our multi-project assembled application images.

If you are using ASSIST, then this issue may also impact your ability to successfully generate an application preview. If your attempt to generate a preview results in a 'Failed' status, check the length of each component project title before trying again.

The fix to this issue will be available on August 8, 2014. Until then, please limit the project titles of your components (other than Overall) to 75 characters or less.

This issue does not impact single-project applications (i.e., you can still include project titles up to 200 characters for your R01 and other single-project submissions.)

Multiple Editors and the Delete Application Action in ASSIST

One of the nice features of ASSIST is that you can have multiple people simultaneously working on your application. However, this also poses some challenges from a system's perspective. When implementing the new Delete Application feature, we did not correctly handle the scenario when one user attempts to delete an application when another user is editing it.

Currently, the system is working like this…Mary is editing a form in the application. John attempts to execute the Delete Application action, but receives an error indicating that a form in the application is locked by Mary. Mary gets out of the form so John can delete the application. On John's subsequent attempt to delete the application, he still receives a message indicating that the form is locked by Mary. John must log out of ASSIST and log back in in order to complete the action without errors.

We are scheduled to release a fix to this issue on October 17, 2014. This tiny glitch shouldn't cause too much worry in the meantime since it only impacts applications that you want to delete.

What to do if you encounter a 'System Issue'

Experiencing a system issue with ASSIST, Grants.gov, SAM, or eRA Commons that you believe threaten your ability to submit on time? Don't panic. NIH will not penalize applicants who experience confirmed system issues that are beyond their control. However, it is imperative that you follow our Guidelines for Applicants Experiencing System Issues. This process includes contacting the eRA Service Desk by the due date to report your issue and your good-faith effort to submit on-time. Once it is confirmed that a system issue exists, the help desk will work with you to determine the best path forward. In many cases, the eRA production support team can reprocess your application without any additional action on your end. In other cases, they will provide guidance on changes that must be made to the application in order to process it. Either way, the first step to resolution is contacting the eRA Service Desk.

Applicants that fail to document their issues on or before the submission deadline or that do not have a confirmed system issue will be subject to the standard NIH Policy on Late Submission of Grant Applications.

As always, the eRA Service Desk is available to clarify any of the above items.  

Take care,

Sheri

Sheri Cummins
Division of Communications and Outreach
NIH Office of Extramural Research
cumminss@mail.nih.gov
301-496-3405


2013

September 2013

eRA Commons, ASSIST, and IAR Will Be Briefly Unavailable Tonight at 7 p.m.

A Commons, ASSIST and IAR will be briefly offline tonight at 7 p.m., Tuesday, September 3, 2013. Urgent maintenance steps are required due to a power outage that occurred this morning. We anticipate the downtime to be approximately 15 minutes in duration.


July 2013

Highlights of Upcoming Release & Scheduled Downtime for Thursday, July 18

Highlights of eRA's July Software Release


June 2013

eRA Commons and IAR Login Issue Resolved

Thursday, June 13, 2013

The technical issue that was resulting in "404 Page not found" error messages when logging into eRA Commons has been resolved.  All eRA Commons functions, including Internet Assisted Review (IAR) are back to normal operations.

Please remember not to access the eRA Commons login page via Google or other search engine. Only use the eRA Commons Login button found at http://era.nih.gov/.

Original message sent Thursday, June 13, 2013 at 9:16 A.M.


eRA Commons, ASSIST, and IAR Will Be Unavailable June 8, 5pm-9pm

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

eRA Commons, ASSIST and IAR will be unavailable Saturday, June 8, 2013 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.  During this time, NIH will complete network maintenance that may affect eRA systems.  As a precaution, those systems will be offline during the maintenance period.


eRA Commons is Experiencing Technical Issues

Thursday, June 13, 2013

eRA Commons is experiencing a technical issue when logging in.  If you receive a 404 "Page not found" error, please type "commons.era.nih.gov" into your browser address field and hit enter to see if this resolves the issue.

We hope to have the issue resolved as soon as possible. We will provide updated information as soon as possible.


May 2013

Ext-UAT ASSIST and Commons Demo Environments Available Again

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Both the External User Acceptance Testing (Ext-UAT) environment for ASSIST and eRA Commons Demo have be restored and are available again.

(Original message sent Wednesday, May1, 2013 at 11:12 a.m. ET)


April 2013

eRA Commons, ASSIST, and IAR Now Available

Monday, April 29, 2013

The issue with logins for eRA Commons, ASSIST and IAR has been resolved.  These applications are once again available.

We appreciate your patience.

(Original message sent Monday, April 29, 2013 11:50 a.m.)


Do Not Bookmark eRA Commons Login Page

Friday, April 26, 2013

With our latest release last week, we would like to take a moment to remind you again not to bookmark your eRA Commons login page. As we shared with you in a news message in September 2012, book marking your login page can lead to error messages due to changes to the NIH network infrastructure. 

If you wish to bookmark a URL for Commons, keep it generic. Use https://public.era.nih.gov/commons and manually add this URL to your list of favorites/bookmarks.

Similarly, some customers get to the eRA Commons login page using a search engine like Google.  Searching for eRA Commons, NIH Commons or variations thereof may get you to the login page.  But it may also present you with this message:

It Works!

The links provided by search engines are not always complete and do not define the location you are seeking well enough to get you to where you need to be. 

So in the scenarios above, it is not necessary to call the Help Desk immediately.  Try typing in https://commons.era.nih.gov/ or bookmark http://era.nih.gov/  and click on eRA Commons button on the right side of the page:

Right Navigation Images - eRA

RPPR Errantly Made Available for Non-SNAP Eligible Awards

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Due to a technical issue, eRA Commons is currently allowing for the initiation of a Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) for non-SNAP awards.  Per Guide Notice NOT-OD-13-035, the RPPR process can only be used for SNAP and Fellowship awards.  We are working to have this issue corrected before Friday, May 3, 2013. 

Please do NOT initiate RPPRs for non-SNAP grants.

RPPR currently only supports streamlined progress reports for Streamlined Noncompeting Award Process (SNAP) and Fellowship awards, as it lacks the functionality to provide detailed budgets.  As such, the RPPR is not currently an acceptable format for a progress report for non-SNAP awards.

Submit your non-SNAP progress report using the standard paper process as described in the instruction guide for Non-Competing Continuation Progress Report PHS 2590 (Revised 08/2012).

If you inadvertently initiate an RPPR for a non-SNAP award, please revert back to the standard paper process and contact Scarlett Gibb at gibbs@mail.nih.gov so that the electronic report can be deleted from the database. Please provide all relevant information about the grant in question (grant number, organization/institution, PI Commons account name, etc.) to Scarlett.

We are sorry for this inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work to correct the error.

Scheduled Downtime Means Help Desk Tickets Unavailable

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Just a reminder that eRA Commons and ASSIST will be unavailable beginning at 9 p.m. ET tonight, Thursday, April 18. 

All systems are slated to be available by no later than 7 a.m. ET tomorrow morning, Friday, April 19. 

The downtime will allow for the deployment of new features in eRA's April system-wide software release.

Note: The ability to submit help tickets online will not be available during the downtime listed above. However, if you have the need to open a service ticket you can always email the eRA Help Desk during that time at helpdesk@od.nih.gov or call Toll-free: 1-866-504-9552, Phone: 301-402-7469, TTY: 301-451-5939.


 
Highlights of Upcoming Commons Release & Scheduled Downtime for Thu, April 18

Monday, April  15, 2013

Highlights of eRA's April Software Release for eRA Commons


 
Scheduled Downtime Means Help Desk Tickets Unavailable

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Just a reminder that eRA Commons and ASSIST will be unavailable beginning at 9 p.m. ET tonight, Thursday, April 18. 

All systems are slated to be available by no later than 7 a.m. ET tomorrow morning, Friday, April 19. 

The downtime will allow for the deployment of new features in eRA's April system-wide software release.

Note: The ability to submit help tickets online will not be available during the downtime listed above. However, if you have the need to open a service ticket you can always email the eRA Help Desk during that time at helpdesk@od.nih.gov or call Toll-free: 1-866-504-9552, Phone: 301-402-7469, TTY: 301-451-5939.


Highlights of Upcoming Commons Release & Scheduled Downtime for Thu, April 18

Monday, April  15, 2013

Highlights of eRA's April Software Release for eRA Commons


eRA Information: Ext-UAT (Commons & ASSIST Demo Environments) Scheduled Downtime for Wed, Apr. 10

Friday April 5, 2013

This is to notify you that the External User Acceptance Test (Ext-UAT) environment, which includes eRA Commons and ASSIST Demo environments, will be down all day on Wednesday, April 10, 2013, in preparation for the April system-wide software release.

Please note that this downtime does not affect the Production environment.

We are sorry for any inconvenience it may cause.


eRA Information: Ext-UAT (Commons & ASSIST Demo Environments) Scheduled Downtime for Wed, Apr. 10

Friday April 5, 2013

This is to notify you that the External User Acceptance Test (Ext-UAT) environment, which includes eRA Commons and ASSIST Demo environments, will be down all day on Wednesday, April 10, 2013, in preparation for the April system-wide software release.

Please note that this downtime does not affect the Production environment.

We are sorry for any inconvenience it may cause.


 

March 2013

eRA Commons & ASSIST Offline Overnight Saturday, March 23

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

eRA Commons and ASSIST will be offline overnight during the weekend of March 23-24, as eRA upgrades a specialized database that stores user names and passwords for user authentication.

The upgrade is designed to improve recent log-in issues with eRA programs experienced by users.

eRA Commons and ASSIST will be unavailable starting at 10 p.m. Saturday, March 23 until 5 a.m. Sunday, March 24.


Ext-UAT & Commons Demo Environments Offline The Weekend of March 15-17

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Both the External User Acceptance Testing (Ext-UAT) environment and the eRA Commons Demo systems will be periodically unavailable this coming weekend. It is anticipated the systems will go offline Friday, March 15, 5:00PM EST for 4-5 hours. Users may experience periodic disruptions throughout the weekend. Full service will be restored by 6:00AM EST, Monday, March 18, 2013.

We are sorry for the inconvenience it may cause.


 

February 2013

ASSIST Pilot Has Begun – Electronic Submission of Multi-Project Applications

January 2013 saw the very first electronic submissions of multi-project applications through ASSIST, the Application Submission System & Interface for Submission Tracking. 

If you recall, ASSIST is a web-based system designed to accept multi-project applications that incorporates many features requested by users. Using ASSIST, applicants will be able to pre-populate applications with information from Commons profiles, work concurrently with others, and control access to various parts of the application. The system also allows users to run a complete check against NIH and Grants.gov business rules before submission and view a complete application image before submission.

The transition to electronic multi-project applications is being accomplished in two phases by activity code. You should review the transition timeline to see current pilot opportunities and see when activity codes that are of interest to you are due to be transitioned to electronic submission. As each activity code transitions, all applications submitted in response to funding opportunity announcements for programs associated with that activity codewill require electronic submission. For more details on the transition to electronic submission of multi-project applications and ASSIST, read the Guide Notice NOT-OD-12-161.  Also, if you need help, make sure to contact the eRA Service Desk.  We also have some great resources on the web and training materials available for you.


 

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