Electronic Research Administration: Efficient Grant Management System

1. NIH electronic Research Administration:NIH Commons Interface to the Extramural Grantee Community George Stone, Ph.D. Extramural Inventions and Technology Resources Branch OPERA/NIH george.stone@nih.gov (301) 435-0679

2. Periodic Reports - progress - financial - inventions - women/minorities Final Reports - progress - financial - inventions Scientific Proposals Other Support Project Specific Assurances Certifications Assurances Summary Statement Post-Award Correspondence Assignment Grants Policy Statement Application Specification Priority Score Notice of Grant Award Objective = Full Electronic Grants Administration Applicant/Grantee Interface – NIH Commons Common File NIH Grants Database Interface – IMPAC II NIH Institutes and Centers

3. NIH Electronic Grants Administration Components • NIH and OER Web Sites – Information dissemination to public • Awards Database – Public site • Commons Registration – Secure access for grantee institutions • Accounts Administration – Secure access for grantees • Application/Award Status – Monitor pending grant applications • Institutional & Professional Profiles – Maintain repetitive information about institutions and investigators • Competitive Application – Competing Grant Application • Submission of non-competing progress reports (e-SNAP) • Trainee Appointments (X-Train) – Appointment and administration of grantee trainees • Fellowship applications • Financial Status Report (FSR) • Interagency Edison – Invention Reporting

4. System Design to Complement Diverse User Community • High Level User Requirements • Human-to-computer interfaces required for some business processes • Human-to-computer or computer-to-computer option for some business processes • Security is critical • System design must accommodate low-end institutions/users • Minimize redundant data entry • Minimize duplication of data entry • Exact representation of complex documents, I.e. rich text Users want customizable Information push; proactive notifications • Software to support and allow for control of complex organizational hierarchies and workflow • Open systems, open code, avoid proprietary software solutions

5. eRA Concept of Operations IMPAC IMPAC II Private Data Access Limited to NIH Staff • Existing Infrastructure • IMPAC = Mainframe • IMPAC II = Client/server • Oracle DBMS • C/S Oracle Forms • Fully Secure Trans-NIH • Network NIH IC Staff

6. eRA Concept of Operations IMPAC NIH Commons IMPAC II Private Data Extramural Research Community Private Data Info. Staging Area Access Limited to NIH Staff Public Data • Security • Coordination with • IMPAC/IMPAC II • Difference in User • Requirements • Institutional • Offices • Applicants • Researchers • Reviewers • Public NIH IC Staff

7. Information Dissemination: Unlimited Access Through any Web Browser http://www-commons.cit.nih.gov

8. Exchange of Confidential Information: Requires Institutional Registration and Account Creation for Logon http://www-commons.cit.nih.gov

9. NIH eRA Systems Design Principles- Accommodating Extramural “Business Partners” - • All eRA systems will adhere to a public data standard • Common Data Dictionary (194 Data Set) for grant application • http://grants.nih.gov/grants/era/era.htm • Build all database systems to this standard • All eRA systems will offer security for grantee data • Data Access & Data Transmission • Build all networks with security • All eRA systems will avoid proprietary software solutions • You don’t need to buy proprietary software to do eRA with NIH • All eRA systems will adhere to standard interface options • Interactive Web Forms: human-to-computer • Datastreams: XML/EDI: computer-to-computer • These formats will provide options for institutions of all sizes and levels of IT sophistication

10. Ways to Proceed with eRA • Grantee Institution Efforts • Assess level of institutional commitment to eRA • Leadership is critical: top-down is crucial • Level of Support for change/reengineering • Level of financial and human resource allocation • Analysis of existing IT infrastructure • Hardware/software • Staffing • Status of grants administration hierarchy and business process • Well-defined vs. diverse • Simple vs. complex

11. Cost and Implementation Issues • How much will it cost? How easy/difficult will it be to implement? What about maintenance and operations? • Answers determined according to selection of interface format • Interactive Web: human-to-computer • Datastream: computer-to-computer • Electronic Forms • Substitute format for paper submission • Interim solution until full eRA

12. Interface Option: Interactive Web Human-to-Computer • Minimal IT Infrastructure Requirements and Cost • Internet Access • Internet Browser • No database or LAN required • Limited Business Process Requirements • Well-defined application handling/routing • Interactive Web workflow is generic • NIH is NOT Microsoft

13. Interface Option: Interactive Web NIH Commons Private Data Workflow defined (read limited) Info. Staging Area Public Data By NIH Commons

14. Interface Option: Datastreams Computer-to-Computer • Sophisticated IT Infrastructure • Typically expensive software and hardware • System development, operations and maintenance by dedicated staff or vendor • Greatest Business Process Control • Content, display, and workflow completely determined and customized by grantee organization

15. Interface Option: Datastream NIH Commons Private Data Workflow defined And controlled Info. Staging Area By Public Data Grantee Org.

16. NIH Role as eRA Consultant • No Charge • Respond to any technology and/or business process questions • Share any code we have written for NIH Commons • Any/all documentation: Requirements or Design documents • Database schema and table structure • Software application code • Work closely with vendors • Publish Application Programming Interface (API) specifications • Assist in implementation testing of vendor-derived software

17. Current NIH Development/Deployment Efforts • Unrestricted Access Interfaces in Production • OER Site • Grants policy, R&D Contracts, NIH Guide, Funding Opps. • ~500,000 hits per month • http://www.nih.gov/grants • CRISP Interface • Records include 1972 thru Current Awards • ~30,000 CRISP queries per week • http://crisp.cit.nih.gov

18. Current eRA Development/Deployment…cont. • Restricted Access Interfaces • Interagency Edison = Production Deployment • 390 Grantee Organizations Registered • Reporting for 16 Federal Agencies through single IEdison gateway • Currently in redesign – planned deployment Sept. 2002 • Commons Registration/Accounts & Application/Award Status Interfaces • 185 Grantee Organizations Registered • 4,810 User Accounts created • Maintain current operations for existing institutions • No new registrations pending deployment of new Commons Version – June 2002

19. Current eRA Development/Deployment…cont. • Restricted Access Interfaces…cont. • X-Train Pilot Deployment: October 1, 2001 • 12 Grantee Organizations Participating • 36 trainee appointments processed • Proceed to Production Deployment by May 2002. • Development of new Commons architecture • Migration to J2EE implementation of N-Tiered architecture • Deployment scheduled for June 2002

20. NIH Commons V 2.0 User Interface • Deployment of new NIH Commons user interface – June 2002 • New GUI standards • Production deployment to all grantee institutions • Interfaces • Commons registration • Accounts admin • Application/award status • All institutions to register whether submitting electronically or in paper • Improve data quality for electronic and paper submissions

21. Planned eRA Implementation:FY 2003 • Deployment of e-SNAP – October 2002 • Non-competing progress report • Introduction of further streamlining of this business process • Development and deployment of Financial Status Report (FSR) – October 2002 • Design/develop Electronic Competing Grant Application • Pilot deployment possible near end of FY03 • First deployment limited to datastream • Interactive web version – FY04

22. 2001 2002 2003 Internal Deployment – J2EE/’N’-Tier Admin Module Commons V 2.0: New User Interface Profiles Status V 2.0 X-Train V 1.5 BPR only BPR only New e-SNAP Interface Electronic submission of Competitive Grant Appl. Commons Version 2.0 Implementation Schedule Jan Jul Dec Jan Jul Dec Jan Jul Dec Commons Version 2 Phase 1 Infrastructure Phase 2 Phase 3 SNAP Progress Report E-SNAP Competing Application (R01) CGAP (XML Datastream) Legend: Analysis* Development Deployment Start Continuing * Includes business process reengineering and design