Re: An open complaint about HHS electronic application processes Kathryn Lomax 23 Feb 2007 10:48 EST
This is very well stated/said. I concur 100% as I am in a similar situation re: size of campus and office staff. Thank you for expressing it. Kathy Lomax University of Wisconsin Platteville Platteville WI 53818 -----Original Message----- From: "Peterson, Nancy K" <xxxxxx@WINONA.EDU> To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 08:59:24 -0600 Subject: [RESADM-L] An open complaint about HHS electronic application processes Winona State University is not a member of COGR. I represent a small, one-and-a-half person mid-sized teaching-focused institution. Still I'm dealing with the same problems that major research universities are experiencing. If anyone could forward this message on to Council on Government Relations (COGR) - or to any other individual or organization you can think of that might be of help - feel free to do so. ----------------------------------------- The Department of Health and Human Services is violating the basic principle behind creating grants.gov. First, NIH came up with their ERA Commons System. You must be registered in the ERA system to apply. To apply, you submit an application through grants.gov, then you have to login to the ERA Commons to verify you have no warnings or errors that must be corrected. If you do, you have to re-apply through grants.gov, then go to ERA to check for warnings and errors (which may not be the ones you were informed about previously), then you have to re-apply through grants.gov, and so on and so on. Applying to NIH means research administrators, authorizing officials and principal investigators all have to learn two systems. (Oh, you also end up with a grants.gov tracking number and a different ERA number.) Now HRSA is requiring electronic submission and has an Electronic Handbook (EHB) system. A recent deadline was an absolute nightmare. Again, the authorizing official and principal investigator must be registered with EHB. (Oh, by the way, anybody can register and designate themselves to be an authorizing official.) Again, to apply, you submit an application through grants.gov, then you have to login to EHB to complete your application. I have a PI with multiple registrations because he received poor instructions from the help desk (on hold wait time for every call was 20-25 minutes) and there does not appear to be any way to delete the extra ones. And of course, your application has one tracking number for grants.gov and another one for HRSA. Using grants.gov was supposed to simplify things, because applicants would use one application system and not have to learn separate ones. With HHS, we're using grants.gov and needing to register and learn different electronic systems for each funding source within the department...systems that are incredibly un-user-friendly and have woefully inadequate support services. As I said, HHS is violating the basic principle behind having grants.gov in the first place. All they are doing is adding on a grants.gov requirement in addition to each funding source's own application system. It seems the result of the paperwork reduction act is an electric work explosion. Any assistance you could provide to initiate changes in this multiple application systems practice would be greatly appreciated. ------------------------------------------------------- Nancy Kay Peterson, Director Grants & Sponsored Projects (G&SP) Winona State University Somsen Hall 212 Winona, MN 55987 Phone: 507.457.5519 Fax: 507.457.5586 http://www.winona.edu/grants ====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") ====================================================================== Kathryn Lomax - Director Office of Sponsored Programs 321 Brigham 1 University Plaza University of Wisconsin Platteville Platteville WI 53818-3099 608-342-1456 Office 608-342-1232 Fax xxxxxx@uwplatt.edu Email ====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") ======================================================================