1 NIH electronic Research Administration: NIH Commons Interface to the Extramural Grantee Community George Stone, Ph.D. Extramural Inventions and Technology Resources Branch (301)

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

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

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

7 InformationDissemination: Unlimited Access Through any Web Browser

8 Exchange of Confidential Information: Requires Institutional Registration and Account Creation for Logon

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  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 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 Ways to Proceed with eRA

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 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 Human-to-Computer

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

14 Interface Option: Datastreams 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 Computer-to-Computer

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

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

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

20 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 NIH Commons V 2.0 User Interface

21 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 Planned eRA Implementation: FY 2003

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 * * Includes business process reengineering and design Legend: Analysis*DevelopmentDeployment StartContinuing BPR only Competing Application (R01) CGAP (XML Datastream) E-SNAP Profiles X-Train V 1.5 Status V 2.0 Admin Module BPR only Commons V 2.0: New User Interface New e-SNAP Interface Electronic submission of Competitive Grant Appl. Internal Deployment – J2EE/’N’-Tier