Spotlight on Electronic Research Administration Resources
July 2012
Supporting our world-class investigators demands the dynamic development of our electronic research administration (ERA) resources. Access to the latest ERA technologies is critical for harmonizing and meeting sponsors’ requirements, responding successfully to shifting technical demands in grant submission procedures, and for cost-effective management of grant applications, awards, funding searches, and associated data.
The latest edition of the SR-PD Spotlight features ‘new and improved’ ERA resources and capabilities that we offer to the Rockefeller research community.
System-to-System E-submissions
InfoEd continues to be our institutional System-to-System platform for the electronic submission of funding applications to federal agencies via Grants.gov. Working with InfoEd and RUIT, in May 2012 we launched a new InfoEd server configuration and infrastructure, and migrated the entire InfoEd application and data to the new environment. This challenging operation is already resulting in increased robustness, higher speed, better security, and much improved overall InfoEd performance. Also in the works for InfoEd are Enterprise Staging Area (ESA) and Single Sign On (SSO) functionalities, as well as a version upgrade, all expected this summer. ESA will enable seamless creation and maintenance of accounts for all InfoEd users at RU by interfacing with institutional databases, and SSO will integrate the InfoEd system with the University’s information technology network so that InfoEd users can login with their RU network information and will no longer need to maintain a separate InfoEd login. These enhancements, as well as an anticipated InfoEd version upgrade, will enable us to keep up with relevant ERA advancements, contribute towards better ease-of-use and convenience for our users, and further streamline the administration of the system.
Funding Searches
As of June 30, 2012, Community of Science (COS) Funding Opportunities has been replaced by COS Pivot. While the past RU subscription for the COS Funding database was limited to grant seeking, the newly launched, next-generation Pivot features a far wider, integrated framework that connects domestic and global research opportunities, funding resources, and people. Co-sponsored by SR-PD and the Rita & Frits Markus Library, COS Pivot offers users all previous functionalities such as saved funding searches and tracked records, along with new tools for finding collaborators, sharing funding information, and managing one's funding portfolio. To jump-start user transition, supporting documentation and user guidance are available on the Pivot site. Another funding search engine available to the RU community is InfoED’s SPIN which was revamped in early 2012. The improved SPIN provides an intuitive and customizable access to InfoEd’s extensive research funding opportunities. Lastly, in response to user feedback, our in-house funding database now allows users to view a summary of any opportunity announced on campus with just one click on the ‘Details’ button.
SR-PD continues to monitor and prepare for new electronic tools created by sponsors, such as the new NIH Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI) eRA Commons capabilities, and the new NIH Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) for eSNAP awards. This latter tool is expected to streamline reporting requirements across all federal sponsors, and we will update the RU community with details as they become available. SR-PD explores and evaluates other ERA means as well, including collaborative management tools to support researchers engaged in large-scale, multiple-PI, multi-institutional grants applications, and mobile solutions for our weekly funding alerts and most-visited SR-PD web pages.
We welcome your ideas for further improvements to our ERA services.
All SR-PD Spotlights
