Notice Number: NOT-OD-08-002

Key Dates
Release Date: October 9, 2007

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

The NIH continues toward its goal of a paperless grants process. Effective January 1, 2008, NIH will no longer provide paper notification of the Notice of Award (NoA) letters. Instead, NoAs will be sent solely via e-mail to grantee organizations and will be accessible in the eRA Commons through the Status module.

All award recipients are required to be e-mail enabled to allow for the electronic transmission of the NoA. Institutions registered in the Commons should verify the e-mail address on file is correct, or add the appropriate e-mail address. Authorized officials can edit the Institutional Profile in the award e-mail field. Any new/prospective grantee institution or organization must register a valid e-mail address in the eRA Commons Institutional Profile once the initial Commons registration process is complete. Organizations are encouraged to use a unique e-mail address that is not specific to an individual in order to avoid communication problems when personnel change.  The organization is responsible for maintaining an accurate NoA e-mail address.

NIH provides an additional tool for monitoring NoA activity. On the eRA Commons web site, a query is available to view a report of issued NoAs. The query shows awards made to a particular organization over a selected time period (the organization’s IPF Number is required).
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.

Inquiries

Inquiries about a specific NoA should be directed to the assigned Grants Specialist listed on the NoA. General inquires about changes to the NoA process may be directed to:

Division of Grants Policy
Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration
National Institutes of Health
6705 Rockledge Drive, Suite 350
Bethesda, MD 20892
Telephone: (301) 435-0938
FAX: (301) 435-3059
Email: [email protected]

The following resources for the eRA Commons should be of assistance:

• eRA Commons Home Page for organization registration and updates: https://commons.era.nih.gov/commons/
• eRA Commons web page for information on features of the Commons:  http://era.nih.gov/commons/index.cfm
• Frequently Asked Questions: https://commons.era.nih.gov/commons/faq.jsp
• Commons Helpdesk at 1-866-504-9552 or via the Web at http://ithelpdesk.nih.gov/eRA/ (preferred method of contact)