Re: another g.g fluke Tom Drinane 15 May 2008 21:17 EST
The apostrophe/quotation mark issue is very troublesome. When this happens, I would recommend not stopping with the help desk, but making sure the issue is escalated to G.g management for a bug fix, which is what is needed. I will see what kind of response I can get via the G.g listserv. Jim, you don't say exactly what the problem was (other than than the Commons help desk came back with the wrong warning message). I have not heard of NIH not taking responsibility when in fact a late application is caused by gov't system errors or problems. On the other hand, if an application is submitted at the last minute, with an error that is the responsibility of the submitter (missing data, whatever), that is a different matter. We cannot expect the rules to be changed because the problem was uncovered by an automated system. Think of it this way: If you sent an application via FedEx and violated margin rules, or font size, etc., and you did not submit early enough to resubmit before the deadline - too bad! If you have a clear case that the lateness was caused by a failure of some gov't system, I would take this pretty far up the ladder before accepting a rejection. Tom Drinane IS Manager Office of Sponsored Projects Dartmouth College HB 6210 11 Rope Ferry Road Hanover, NH 03755-1404 603-646-3008 (W) 603-646-9141 (Fax) 802-356-7843 (M) Hi, We've experienced some very difficult problems, too. For the March 5 deadline, we had 3 of our grants go to Grants.Gov, but not make it to eRA Commons. I followed one of them very closely, and it took two weeks to get any resolution from G.g, Commons or the NIH. They finally let the grant be resubmitted. But they considered it late and refused to review it. We had everything documented, including who we spoke to and when. At one point, they sent us the warning message they got for the grant. It wasn't even the correct message. It was for another submission. It seems as though G.g or eRA Commons does not want to take responsibility or accountability for any of this. There glitches seem to be our problem. Has anyone else experienced trouble like this? Jim ________________________________ From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@hrinet.org] On Behalf Of Vincelli, Diana Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 1:06 PM To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org Subject: [RESADM-L] another g.g fluke Greetings Grants.Gov Warriors, Twice in recent weeks we have submitted applications to NEH via grants.gov. Both were rejected with very obscure error messages. After a number of conversations and email exchanges with grants.gov, I was told with the first, "Oh you have a curly apostrophe in the project description (summary on SF424) which turns into 3 question marks and puts you over the 1000 character limit." In the second one, it was regular straight quotation marks that turned into 4 question marks! (thus putting the project description over the limit). In both cases I asked the grants.gov rep why he/she knew that, but the end users are not informed of such quirks. Neither knew why. So the bottom line is: no punctuation except periods and commas in the Project Description. Diana Diana Thompson Vincelli Director of Grant Support Office of Foundation, Corporate & Government Relations G-14 Maryland Hall University of Richmond, VA 23173 804.289.8005; fax 804.289-8943 xxxxxx@richmond.edu http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/grants P Please consider the environment before printing this 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") ====================================================================== The information transmitted in this electronic communication is intended only for the person or entity to whom it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of or taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this information in error, please contact the Compliance HelpLine at 800-856-1983 and properly dispose of this information. ====================================================================== 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") ======================================================================