[Office-of-research] NIH Business Process Changes Impacts Application Forms, Prior Approval Requests and UCR Procedures

[Bruce Morgan]

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently issued several notices
regarding a business process change and its impact on NIH applications,
procedures and systems.  The information below summarizes the business
process change and its impact, including how UCR will comply with new
requirements resulting from the change.  The individual NIH Guide Notices
that communicated the business process change and its impact on other
aspects of NIH procedure, forms and systems appear in the News section of
the Office of <http://or.ucr.edu/>  Research website.

 

Questions regarding the business process change and its impact on NIH and
UCR procedures should be directed to the Contract
<http://or.ucr.edu/home/Staff.aspx?t=3>  and Grant Officer assigned to your
unit.

 

Business Process Change

 

Effective May 10, 2006, the signature of the Principal Investigator (PI)
will no longer be required as part of applications, post-submission
information, progress reports, and post-award prior approval requests.
Although the signature is no longer required, UCR must still obtain and
retain a dated assurance from PIs and Co-PIs and must make such assurances
available to the NIH upon request.  UCR's implementation of this requirement
is discussed in the following sections.

 

PHS 398 Applications

 

Effective May 10, 2006, grantees must use revised the PHS398 application
forms (dated rev. 04/06) and instructions those funding mechanisms that
utilize the PHS398 paper application. After this date, applications
submitted using previous versions of form pages that have been updated, may
be delayed in the review process.

 

The revised PHS398 application forms incorporate a number of business
process changes that have been implemented since the publication of the
9/2004 revision, including eliminating the PI signature and implementing the
grantee requirement to obtain and retain a dated assurance from PIs and
Co-PIs.  To ensure UCR's ability to comply with this requirement, the Office
of Research (OR) has revised the Campus Approval Form (CAF) to include the
required assurance.  The revised CAF may be obtained from the OR website
<http://or.ucr.edu/home/Forms.aspx> .  Please note that effective May 10, OR
will not accept prior versions of the CAF.

 

Applications Submitted Through Grants.gov 

 

Due to the business practice change, applications submitted via Grants.gov
after May 10, 2006, will no longer require the use of the NIH eRA Commons to
perform the validation process.  As a result, UCR will obtain PI and Co-PI
assurances through the revised CAF noted in the PHS398 Applications sections
above.  It is important to note that applications submitted via Grants.gov
will still be made available for review by the PI in the NIH eRA Commons
within 48 hours.  However, no further action is required unless the PI would
like to reject the application and resubmit. 

 

Annual Progress Reports Using the PHS2590 Set of Forms

 

Effective June 1, 2006, grantees choosing to submit progress reports using
the paper PHS2590 must use the revised forms (dated rev. 04/06).  After this
date, applications submitted using previous versions of form pages that have
been updated, may be delayed in the review process.

 

The revised PHS2590 application forms incorporate a number of business
process changes that have been implemented since the publication of the
9/2004 revision, including eliminating the PI signature and implementing the
grantee requirement to obtain and retain a dated assurance from PIs and
Co-PIs.  To ensure UCR's ability to comply with this requirement,  PIs and
Co-PIs who choose to use the PHS2590 forms to submit annual progress reports
must provide the OR with an assurance, in hard copy (signed and dated) or
e-mail (provided the e-mail comes directly from the PI and Co-PIs via a
unique e-mail address).  The text of the assurance must read as follows:

 

"I, (enter PI name), certify for the project entitled (enter project title)
(1) that the information submitted within the application is true, complete
and accurate to the best of the my knowledge; (2) that any false,
fictitious, or fraudulent statements or claims may subject me to criminal,
civil, or administrative penalties; and (3) I agree to accept responsibility
for the scientific conduct of the project and to provide the required
progress reports if a grant is awarded as a result of the application."

 

Post-Submission Information

 

The business process change also applies to post-submission information
(e.g., revised budgets, additional information requested by NIH related to
an application, submission of just-in-time information, etc.).  The
submission of such information and documents must be coordinated through the
OR, via the Contract and Grant <http://or.ucr.edu/home/Staff.aspx?t=3>
Officer assigned to your unit, and be accompanied by a hard-copy (signed and
dated) or e-mail assurance (provided the e-mail comes directly from the PI
and Co-PIs via a unique e-mail campus address).  The wording of the
assurance must be the same as the one noted in the Annual Progress Reports
section above.

 

Prior Approval Requests

 

The business process change also applies to prior approval requests.  The
submission of such requests must be coordinated through the OR, via the
Contract and Grant Officer <http://or.ucr.edu/home/Staff.aspx?t=3>  assigned
to your unit.  Prior approval requests must be accompanied by a hard-copy
(signed and dated) or e-mail assurance (provided the e-mail comes directly
from the PI and Co-PIs via a unique e-mail campus address).  The wording of
the assurance must be the same as the one noted in the Annual Progress
Reports section above.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ucr.edu/pipermail/office-of-research/attachments/20060601/9b0bc8e0/attachment.html