Grants.gov was developed in response to a Congressional mandate and is not the brainchild of NIH or any other single agency. The Office of Management and Budget issued a Notice related to the "Grants Streamlining Activities under PL 106-107, Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999" - here is the link. http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/preamble2.html It proposed "a standard format for federal agencies in announcing discretionary grant and cooperative agreement funding opportunities" And thus, G.g was born. I think the main problem stems from each agency trying to fit it's own requirements into the G.g format and still get the information they need. Another example of government simplifying. -----Original Message----- From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@hrinet.org] On Behalf Of Charlie Hathaway Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 11:00 AM To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] An open complaint about HHS electronic application processes 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") ====================================================================== ====================================================================== 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") ======================================================================
