Notice Number: NOT-OD-05-075

Key Dates
Release Date: September 8, 2005

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH), (http://www.nih.gov/)

The NIH continues towards its goal of a paperless grants process through the elimination of the following notifications which are currently sent in hard copy: Summary Statements and Peer Review Outcome Letters. Instead, investigators are instructed to use the eRA Commons, a Web interface where NIH and the applicant organizations are able to conduct extramural research administration business electronically.

Applicant Organizations must be registered in the eRA Commons before an account may be established for its investigators. The NIH strongly encourages Principal Investigators to contact their institution’s Office of Sponsored Programs for registration guidance. The following resources for the eRA Commons should be of assistance in the process:

• Home Page for registration and updates: https://commons.era.nih.gov/commons/
• Frequently Asked Questions: https://commons.era.nih.gov/commons/faq.jsp
• Commons Helpdesk at 1-866-504-9552 or via e-mail at [email protected]

In addition to complying with a Congressional mandate to move from paper-based to electronic systems, these new procedures will also improve consistency and timeliness of communication between NIH, investigators, and institutions during the grant application process.

Over the next two grant review cycles, the NIH will discontinue mailing the following two kinds of documents:

Summary Statements: Beginning October 1, 2005, NIH will no longer send hard copies of the Summary Statements to Principal Investigators (PIs) and Individual Fellows Applicants. Summary Statements are accessible electronically to PIs and Fellows in the eRA Commons within approximately 8 weeks of the Scientific Review Group (SRG) meeting.

Review Outcome Mailers : Beginning February 1, 2006, the NIH will no longer send hard copies of the notification letter (also known as a mailer ) to PIs and Fellows regarding the review outcome of an application by the SRG. When the SRG rosters and meeting dates become available, they may be accessed through http://www.csr.nih.gov/Committees/rosterindex.asp (Center for Scientific Review [CSR] reviews) or https://public.era.nih.gov/pubroster/ (Institute/Center reviews). Scores will be posted in the eRA Commons approximately 5 working days after the SRG meeting.

At this time, the NIH will continue to send assignment and change of assignment mailers. However, this information is also accessible on the eRA Commons.

In order to avoid delays in the e-notification process, it is vital that all Grantee Organizations, Principal lnvestigators, and Individual Fellows are registered in the eRA Commons and e-mail addresses are checked periodically for accuracy.

NOTE: This process does not apply to applications for the Agency for HealthCare Research and Quality or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Inquiries

Inquiries on this NIH Guide Notice may be directed to:

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