eRA Commons IDs Required for All Senior/Key Personnel

• Expanding Requirement for eRA Commons IDs to All Senior/Key Personnel
• Notice Number: NOT-OD-21-109
• https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-21-109.html

Purpose

Targeting due dates on or after January 25, 2022, NIH, AHRQ, FDA, and ORD/VA will require all individuals listed on the R&R Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) Form to have an eRA Commons username (Commons ID). Extension of the existing eRA Commons ID requirement to include all senior/key personnel will facilitate better data collection for individuals contributing to federally funded research as well as assist in disambiguating data on applications and facilitating the identification of conflicts of interest in peer review.

Background

eRA Commons IDs are already required as part of application submission for PD/PIs, multiple PD/PIs, sponsors on fellowship applications, component leads on multi-project applications, candidates for diversity supplement support, and the primary mentor identified on individual mentored career development applications. While it has always been strongly encouraged that all other senior/key personnel to obtain eRA Commons IDs, it has not been required. Without a unique personnel credential, it is difficult to correctly identify conflicts of interest in peer review as well as gather unambiguous data on personnel involved in federally funded research.

Implementation

Targeting due dates on or after January 25, 2022, an eRA Commons ID must be entered in the “Credential, e.g. agency login” field for all Senior/Key Personnel (as defined in NIH GPS 1.2) listed on the R&R Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) Form.  An eRA system validation will be implemented to check for a valid eRA Commons ID. For multi-project applications, this requirement also applies to the individual components of the application and not to just the Overall component.

To facilitate awareness of this policy change, starting late April, applicants will encounter an eRA system validation if the “Credential, e.g. agency login” field is blank or does not contain a valid eRA Commons ID. This validation will be a warning for no less than 2 council rounds before being escalated to an error that must be corrected before the application can be submitted to the agency.

Should you have any questions, please contact OSP.