NIH eRA System Status - May 29, 2009, 5:00 p.m. ET

 

We all have had quite a week at NIH due to the infrastructure upgrade that took place May 22 – 26. We are confident that we’ll soon return to quick service. We want to thank you for your patience and help in identifying some of the issues related to eRA Commons and eSubmission. There are still a few items outstanding items that we are working on.  

 

eRA Commons and eSubmission System Status

As you may have experienced, Commons is working slower than usual. We have also discovered an intermittent problem with electronic application processing. Symptoms of unsuccessful processing include:

 

• General system error notifications sent to applicants. Given the intermittent nature of the issue, NIH staff may try to reprocess applications multiple times resulting in multiple messages being sent to users. Please disregard these messages until further notice.
• Commons status may show status of eSubmission Error and an application ID assigned (e.g. AN 1234567). When users click on Application ID to bring up Status Information screen, there are no eSubmission shown in Other Relevant Document section (where normally users would see assembled application image, cover letter, and appendices.)
• Under ‘Show all Prior Errors’ link, you will see ‘System Error Occurred’ followed by lines of random technical jargon.
• Submission status date may be incorrect.

 

We are still working to restore the ability to upload documents into the Commons.

 

Reminder: Grants.gov Downtime this Weekend

Grants.gov has a planned downtime Saturday and Sunday, May 30 – 31, 2009, for system maintenance to improve service. The Grants.gov team will send out formal communication next week with specific details including screenshots of their newest functionalities. 

 

Error Correction Window Extended for Electronic Submission of NIH Opportunities with Due Dates Between May 20 and May 29, 2009

We absolutely understand how disruptive the recent downtime has been, and the timing of the planned downtime may be frustrating. To ensure that our applicants are not penalized for these system issues we have extended the two day error correction window for opportunities with submission deadlines between May 20 and May 29, 2009 to Friday June 5, 2009. This extension applies to funding opportunities with the standing receipt deadline of May 25 (which, because of the Federal holiday, fell on May 26) for the following activity codes: R18/U18, R25, C06, UC6, G07, G08, G11, G13, G20, S11, S21, S22, SC1, SC2, and SC3, as well as for the specific funding opportunity announcements listed in the Guide Notice NOT-OD-104. Please view the guide notice for complete details.

 

Process to Follow when System Issues Affect Ability to Submit On-time

Please view the steps to take when system issues affect your ability to submit electronic application on time.

 

 eRA Communications

Division of Communications and Outreach

Office of Extramural Research

National Institutes of Health

 

Questions?  Please contact the eRA Helpdesk at 301-402-7469; helpdesk@od.nih.gov.

 

Help us improve our communications; send your suggestions and feedback to eRACommunications@mail.nih.gov or call 301-435-8185.

 

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