1. University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry
Transition to
Electronic Submission of
Federal Grants:
Overview and Implications for PI’s
Research Faculty Meeting
March 23, 2006

2. Points to be Covered Background NIH Process and Timelines
Submitting research grant applications through Grants.gov: Review of Nine Step Process
Systems Requirements
Implications and Preparations

3. Background President’s Management Agenda:
Applicants for federal grants should be able to find funding opportunities, apply for grants and manage grant funds through a common site. The grant application and management process is to be simplified and redundancies are to be eliminated.

4. Grants.Gov
Grants.gov was created to be a simple and unified portal for all applicants for Federal grants.
It will be utilized by most Federal agencies and over 1,000 Federal programs.
$400 billion in Federal funding will be awarded annually to applicants submitting grants through this portal

5. Old Inefficiencies Applicant 1 Applicant N Applicant 3 Applicant 2 .….
Agency 2
Agency 3
Agency N
Agency 1

6. Eliminated through “Trusted Broker”
New Process
Applicant 1
Applicant 2
Applicant 3
Applicant N
Applicant 1
Applicant 2
Applicant 3
.….
Applicant N
Agency 1
Agency 2
Agency 3
Agency N
.….
Old Inefficiencies
Eliminated through “Trusted Broker”

7. Benefits
Reduces time and cost involved in finding and applying for Federal funding opportunities (FO’s)
No need to learn multiple systems
Single registration
Paperwork reduction: Eliminates costs associated with copying and mailing
Saves over 200 million pages of paper
May shorten funding cycle

8. Transition Challenges
THIS IS A BIG CHANGE!
Changes in process for all: Principal investigators and their staff, departments and institutions.
Changes in forms: PHS 398 to phase out, SF 424 family of forms to phase in.
Research applications use SF 424 R&R

9. Transition Challenges
Additional hardware and software requirements
Additional software requirements for non-windows (Mac) users
Separate registration requirements for the PI and the Institution
Deadline Shifts: Applications will have to be in final form before processing through OGC and Office of Research

10. Review of NIH Timeline for Transition to Electronic Submission
The NIH Process
Review of NIH Timeline for Transition to Electronic Submission

11. NIH’s Transition to Electronic Submission
NIH is transitioning by grant mechanism
Once a mechanism has transitioned to electronic submission, paper applications will no longer be accepted
Transition is already underway
By the end of 2007 all NIH submissions will need to be in electronic format
Announced in the NIH Guide, Aug. 19, 2005:

12. NIH Planned Transition Dates of Mechanisms for Electronic Submission using the SF424 (R&R)
SBIR/STTR (Dec. 1, 2005)
R13/U13 (Dec. 15, 2005)
Resource (G), Career Development (K), S11, S21, S22 (Jun. 1, 2007)
R36 (Feb. 17, 2006)
Fellowship (F) (Aug. 5, 2007)
R15 (Feb. 25, 2006)
Training (T&D), U45, D71/U2R (Sep. 10, 2007)
S10 (Mar. 22, 2006)
R18/U18, R25, C06/UC6 (Oct. 1, 2006)
DP1 (Jan. 22, 2007)
X02 (April 18, 2006)
Project/Center (P), M01, R10/U10, S06, U01, U19, U54, U56, R24/U24 (Oct. 1, 2007)
Potential R01 Multi-PI Pilot
(Oct. 1, 2006)
R01 (Feb. 1, 2007)
R03, R21/R33, R34 (June 1, 2006) 12 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
2006
2007
NIH will transition to the SF424 family of forms and electronic submission through Grants.gov by research program or funding mechanism.
As mechanisms are transitioned, Funding Opportunity Announcements will be issued in the NIH Guide and posted in Grants.gov. NIH’s goal is to post an opportunity a minimum of 60 days before the submission date.
ALL applications in response to these announcements will require electronic submission through Grants.gov.
Mechanism Abbreviation Key:
C06/UC6 Research Facilities Construction Grants
DP1 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Program
D71/U2R International Training Cooperative Agreement/
Phase 2 of FIC mechanism D71
P Research Program Projects and Centers
R Research Project Grant Program
R Small Grant Programs
R10/U10 Cooperative Clinical Research Grants
R13/U13 Support for Conferences & Scientific Meetings
R Academic Research Enhancement Awards (AREA)
R18/U18 Research Demonstration and Dissemination Projects
R21/R33 Exploratory/Development Research
R24/U24 Resource Related Research Projects
R Education Projects
R Clinical Trial Planning Grant Program
R Research Dissertation Grant Program
SBIR Small Business Innovation Research
STTR Small Business Technology Transfer
S06,S10,S11 Biomedical Research
S21,22 Health Disparities Endowment Grants
U Cooperative Agreement Awards
X02 Pre-application for Interdisciplinary Research Consortium
Updated February 6, 2006

13. Review of Nine Step Process to Submit a Grant to NIH
The NIH Process
Review of Nine Step Process to Submit a Grant to NIH

15. Grants.Gov Application Process
Step 1:
Go to the Grants.gov website at

16. website

17. Grants.Gov: FIND
Step 2:
Search for and identify a funding opportunity in Grants.gov. NIH opportunities can also be found in the Grants section of the NIH website.

18. Grants.Gov: APPLICATION PACKAGE
Step 3:
Download the grant application package for the selected funding opportunity.
Note: There are no generic application forms. Application packages are specific to a specific funding opportunity. You need to download the specific application package.
Sign-up for notification of any changes in the announcement

19. Download Application Package

20. Grants.Gov: COMPLETE APPLICATION
Step 4:
Complete Application using Pure Edge Viewer Software.
If multiple authors, establish who has “custody” of the master file
Store application on your computer or shared server between rounds of changes – Pure Edge is not web-based

21. Download PureEdge Viewer

22. Application Package
Information in top section is automatically filled based upon the program selected.

23. Application Package (cont.)
You must fill all highlighted spaces in all required forms.

24. Mandatory Documents (cont.)
Click to open

25. SF 424 (R&R)
Remember to complete all highlighted areas on forms.

26. Mandatory Documents
Must be completed.

27. Move completed documents to the right.
Complete Package
Move completed documents to the right.

28. Grants.Gov: ROUTING AND SUBMISSION
Step 5:
Only the Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) can submit the application to Grants.Gov
Allen DiPalma, Director, Office of Research
Proposal Routing/Sign-Off Steps remain the same: Office of Grants and Contracts, School of Medicine, Office of Research …

29. Grants.Gov: ROUTING AND SUBMISSION
… BUT, the entire proposal will have to be completed and in its final form before it can be routed for sign-off and submission
This will result in a major shift in internal deadlines. You will need to have your proposal done at least 2 weeks prior to actual deadline!

30. Grants.Gov: APPLICATION RECEIPT AND ACCEPTANCE
Step 6:
After submission, Grants.gov performs basic form validation and virus check on submitted application. Notification is sent to AO indicating acceptance or rejection.

31. Grants.Gov: TRANSFER TO eRA COMMONS
Step 7:
Once accepted, Grants.gov forwards application to eRA Commons where software performs NIH business rule validation on submitted application.
NIH then notifies Principal Investigator (PI) and Signing Official (SO) by to check the eRA Commons for results of NIH validations check.

32. Grants.Gov: eRA COMMONS NOTIFICATION
Step 8:
The PI and SO find out if the grant application passed or failed the rule check.
If it passed, PI and SO must verify the application in eRA Commons to complete the application submission process.
If it failed, all errors must be corrected and the entire corrected application must be resubmitted to Grants.gov

33. NIH Notification Text: Four Types
Application processed successfully, please verify – proceed to final step for completion
Application processed with warnings (no errors) – can correct without resubmitting
Application processed with errors (and possibly warnings) – have to resubmit
Commons User ID not valid – correct registration error, then resubmit

34. Grants.Gov: FINAL ACCEPTANCE
Step 9:
After verification, the eRA Commons saves the data and grant image, and NIH begins processing the application. Applicants can track the progress of their application in eRA Commons.

35. System Requirements: Hardware/Software
Windows 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, XP
500 Mhz Processor
128 MB of RAM
40 MB Disk Space
Internet Explorer 5.01 or higher, Netscape Communicator 4.5 – 4.8, Netscape 6.1, 6.2 or 7

36. System Requirements: Software
PureEdge viewer downloaded (free) from Grants.gov site at
PDF generation software
Grants.gov lists some available tools and software

37. System Requirements: Software for Non-Windows Users
Grants.gov partnered with NIH to provide a Citrix Server for Non-Windows to view application packages
Go to to locate the instructions for accessing the Citrix Server
A non-windows version of PureEdge should be available November 2006
A Windows emulation program can also be used.

38. Registration Requirements – Grants.Gov
Applicant organizations must complete one-time only registration. Pitt is registered!!
Good for electronic submission to all Federal agencies
Principal Investigators do NOT need to register with Grants.gov
Registration not required to find funding opportunity or download application package, only to submit completed application

39. Registration Requirements – eRA Commons
Applicant institutions must complete one-time only registration. Pitt is registered!!
Principal Investigators (PIs) must work through their institutions to register.The PI must hold a PI account and be affiliated with the applicant organization. PIs currently registered only for Internet Assisted Review (IAR) must work through their institutions for full eRA Commons registration.
Pitt Principal Investigators need to register through the Office of Research website at:

40. Submission Methods
Applicant organization can submit applications to NIH through Grants.gov in one of two ways:
Direct submission - using PureEdge Viewer
System-to-system – using (XML) data stream to communicate with Grants.gov
Pitt currently uses a direct submission method.
A system to system method transition is planned.

41. Anticipated Routing Times
The Office of Research currently requests at least 5 working days to review and submit electronic proposals.
An additional 5 working days will be required for Office of Grants and Contracts and School of Medicine sign-off.
Please note that this is a significant shift from current practice (if not rules)
Allow plenty of time for glitches during first few submission rounds!

43. Experience from First Submissions
As we adapt to process change and learn the new system, submissions take significantly longer than current hard copy system.
System still needs to be debugged, but NIH is pursuing an aggressive transition timetable and is not likely to delay.

44. Preparations Office of Research
Training:
Broad Training through Research Admin Forums already begun.
Specific Training for faculty and staff being developed.
Central Server for document transmittal currently being tested.
Electronic submission resources on Office of Research website.

45. Preparations Department of Psychiatry
Dissemination of Updates through Research Administrator Forum
Formation of Departmental User Group to develop staff and faculty “experts”
System requirements and server issues being examined by Office of Academic Computing (Jack Doman, Director).
Special training of OGC Pre-Award Staff to prepare for transition to electronic submission.

46. Preparations: Principal Investigators
PI’s need to prepare on an individual level as well
Study resource materials about new process and forms
Determine staff and PI responsibilities in proposal preparation
Register as PI in eRA Commons
Notify OGC as soon as you know of a grant submission that will require the use of Grants.gov

47. Electronic Submission: Pitt Resources
Office of Research Website:
eRA Commons and general Grants.gov questions:
Jan Schaffner ,
Grants.Gov technical questions:
Mike Ranieri ,
Grants.Gov Application questions:
Please refer to your department’s assigned grants and contracts officer. This can be found at: