NIH eRA Commons Items of Interest – July, 2012

NIH eRA Commons Items of Interest – July, 2012

Some FOAs Go DOA ASAP WLW

Translation: Some Funding Opportunity Announcements go Dead On Arrival
As Soon As Possible W…L…W…??….Oh man, I CRTLA (Can’t Remember
the Three Letter Acronym) for the last one. This is a condition known
as CRS – Can’t Remember Stuff (behave out there!). But the point is
this…

Updated FOAs: Institutes are continually evaluating and updating funding
opportunities. Sometimes this results in having an FOA expire earlier
than previously announced. It is good practice to revisit your FOAs
that are WIP (Works In Progress) within 30 days of the deadline to
ensure you have the most recent information available. Pay special
attention to the Related Notices and Key Date sections of the
announcement.

For example, a new R13/U13 parent announcement has been issued
(PA-12-212 http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-12-212.html
). This is a reissue of PA-10-071
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-10-071.html , which, if
you look at the FOA, now says the following for expiration date:
Expiration Date: June 27, 2012 (Original date: January 8, 2013). If you
hadn’t checked the announcement, you would not have known until
Grants.gov rejected the application. So don’t let your application be
DOA when it comes in to GG (Grants.gov) because you are using an expired
announcement.

Submitting for R13/U13? If you are planning to apply using the R13/U13
parent FOA in August, make sure you download the new application package
http://apply07.grants.gov/apply/UpdateOffer?id=128091 and use it to
complete your submission.

So get BZ, DIRFT and BYOA so you aren’t CRBT. (Get Busy, Do It Right
the First Time and Bring Your Own Advil so you aren’t Crying Real Big
Tears.)

FTBOMH (From The Bottom Of My Heart)

________________________________

xTrain Personal Profiles: A Derailment That Can Be Avoided

While participating in the NIH Regional Conference here in Washington DC
last month, we had an interesting conversation with an administrator
frustrated by the fact that their trainees seem to come to them already
knowing all there is to know (hmm, as the father of 3 teenagers, I can
relate). Specifically with regards to the xTrain Personal Profile,
trainees must remember to complete the profile in its entirety before an
Appointment is submitted. “Why”, they might ask, “is this important (or,
when will I ever use this in real life)?” Because with an incomplete
profile, trying to submit an appointment may create errors. Errors are
bad cuz (kid-speak there) the appointment can’t be submitted. Errors
could mean the trainee doesn’t get the appointment. And like dominos
falling, not getting the appointment means not getting paid. See,
incomplete profile means bad stuff can happen. So trainees, do as you’re
told, complete the profile (Yikes! Channeling my father there..).

To help the trainees and to ensure they fill in the profile completely,
we have developed a Personal Profile Checklist
http://era.nih.gov/files/personal_profile_checklist.pdf for you to
share with them. If they don’t, I recommend a “time-out” session (like
that ever worked on my kids).

________________________________

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow: Signing Officials Need to Un-affiliate
Accounts

Yes, maybe they were a friend, a colleague, a mentor or mentee, but the
time has come to let them go. You need to cut the rope, untie the knot,
set them free. And you should do it now.

Keeping accounts in eRA Commons affiliated to your organization that are
no longer needed is just a bad idea. While the likelihood that one of
these past associates would or even could do something nefarious may be
low, you have an obligation to protect your institution. Make sure that
those accounts affiliated with your institution are needed and should be
affiliated with your institution. If not, unaffiliate them as soon as
possible.

The steps to unaffiliate an account
http://era.nih.gov/commons/steps_commons.cfm#step21 are easy:

* Log in to eRA Commons > Admin tab > Accounts tab > Manage
Accounts tab

* The Search Accounts screen is displayed.

* Enter text in any of the following fields – role, user ID
(log-in user name), last and first name, account status (active,
pending, not affiliated) and institution search (within the user’s
institution) – and click search.

* All records that meet the search criteria can be found in the
Search Results section of the screen.

* On the Search Accounts screen, click the Unaffiliate hyperlink
in the Action column for the relevant account.

* The Unaffiliate Account screen is displayed.

* Click the Unaffiliate button to unaffiliated the account from
the organization (or click cancel to exit the screen).

* The system displays a message that the account has been
successfully updated and returns the user to the Search Accounts screen.

After all, it would be weird if a Principal Investigator (PI) who has
moved to another institution, is using an Assistant (ASST) from your
Institution to initiate reports or maintain their Personal Profile.

Besides, when you’re done, you can always send them a “best wishes” or
“I miss you” card. Just a suggestion.

Joe Schumaker

eRA Communications

Division of Communications and Outreach

NIH Office of Extramural Research

Questions? Please contact the eRA Help Desk. Check out self-help
resources on the Help page http://era.nih.gov/help/ before submitting
an online ticket; or call Toll-free: 1-866-504-9552, Phone:
301-402-7469, TTY: 301-451-5939; or email helpdesk@od.nih.gov
file:///\odapps4eraORIS_CommunicationseRA%20CommunicationsDeployme
nt%20CommunicationsJuly%202011helpdesk@od.nih.gov> . The Help Desk
hours are Mon-Fri, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET

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