I do NOT concur.  I disagree that the new system was established to
simplify things.  And I think your complaints about NIH are very
short-sighted.  Improvements in anything are often difficult to deal with
at first.  But NIH has done a very good job.

Focus on other federal agencies without the NIH Commons-type capabilities,
and then I will sign on.

Charlie

> 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")
> ======================================================================
>

======================================================================
 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")
======================================================================