Notice Number: NOT-OD-11-012

Key Dates
Release Date: October 14, 2010

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH)

In its upcoming October 22, 2010 software release, NIH’s Electronic Research Administration (eRA) will implement additional multi-PD/PI functionality in various areas of eRA Commons, in order to facilitate grants administration for grant awards with multiple Program Directors/Principal Investigators. The grants Closeout  feature is one area of Commons that will now include multi-PD/PI functionality. Multi-PD/PI functionality in Closeout, as well as additional features and fixes implemented in Commons during the October software release, will be available to users as of Saturday, October 23, 2010.

As part of the current grants Closeout process, a PD/PI is required to verify the Final Invention Statement (via a signature on the Final Invention Statement and Certification form (HHS 568)) before the statement can be submitted to NIH.

New process: PD/PIs no longer will have to verify the Final Invention Statement (FIS) in Closeout before the statement can be submitted to NIH. The PD/PI signature field will be removed from the Final Invention Statement. Any PD/PI on a multi-PD/PI grant will be able to upload and save the Final Invention Statement (not just the contact PD/PI as identified on the grant application). However, only individuals with the Signing Official (SO) role will be able to verify the FIS and submit it to NIH. The Commons on-screen instructions for Final Invention Statements will be changed to read: “For Submission, Final Invention Statement requires verification by the Signing Official of the Institution.”

In addition, this change introduces a new status, ‘Saved,’ to the Final Invention Statement screen in Commons and eliminates the ‘Awaiting PI verification’ status. A FIS is assigned the status of ‘Saved’ once the SO uploads and saves the statement, at which point the PD/PI can no longer change the statement.

Note: Due to this process change, all Final Invention Statements currently in eRA Commons that have not yet been verified by a PD/PI (current status of ‘Awaiting PI Verification’) will be automatically converted to the new ‘Saved’ status. Signing Officials will have to take action to verify and submit these Final Invention Statements to NIH. Following the October 22 software release, NIH will send a communication to SOs whose institution has Final Invention Statements that have been converted to ‘Saved’ status. This communication will describe the change and inform Signing Officials that they will need to verify and submit the statements.

Inquiries

Questions about this notice should be directed to:

eRA Service Desk
Hours: Mon.-Fri., 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time
Phone: 301-402-7469
Toll-free: 1-866-504-9552
TTY: 301-451-5939
Web: http://itservicedesk.nih.gov/era