Send additions (word/phrase with definition) and/or requests for a definition of word or phrase to Ask eRA at askera@od.nih.gov, entering "Glossary" on Subject line.
901
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Request from an Institute or Center (IC) to change selected, limited fields within an eRA System record for pending, competitive applications prior to award.
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A
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Accessible
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Something that is accessible can be used by persons with disabilities. In the context of computing, this generally means that the software or device should be compatible with access aids, and should be able to transform itself into a needed format.
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Active Grants
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A grant that meets the following criteria is defined as an "active grant": 1. Today's date is between the budget start and end dates. 2. The grant has an eRA System (IMPAC II) application status code of "Awarded. Non-fellowships only." or "Awarded. Fellowships only."
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Activity Code
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A three-digit code identifying the type of award mechanism (e.g., RO1 is a research project grant). Major series are: F-fellowship; K-research career; N-research contracts; P-research programs and centers; R-research projects; S-research-related programs; T-training; U-cooperative agreements, and Y-interagency agreements.
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Actor
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Someone or something, outside the system, that interacts with the system.
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Advocate
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A member of the eRA Project Management Team who acts as liaison and facilitator for the Functional Group and User Group related to a module.
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Artifact
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A piece of information that is produced, modified, or used by a process; defines an area of responsibility; and is subject to version control.
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B
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Baseline
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A reviewed and approved release of artifacts that constitutes an agreed basis for further evolution or development and that can be changed only through a formal procedure, such as change management and configuration control.
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Bioinformatics
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In the last few decades, advances in molecular biology and the equipment available for research in this field have allowed the increasingly rapid sequencing of large portions of the genomes of several species. Popular sequence databases, such as GenBank and EMBL, have been growing at exponential rates. This deluge of information has necessitated the careful storage, organization and indexing of sequence information. Information science has been applied to biology to produce the field called Bioinformatics. The simplest tasks used in bioinformatics concern the creation and maintenance of databases of biological information. Nucleic acid sequences (and the protein sequences derived from them) comprise the majority of such databases. While the storage and organization of millions of nucleotides is far from trivial, designing a database and developing an interface whereby researchers can both access existing information and submit new entries is only the beginning. The most pressing tasks in bioinformatics involve the analysis of sequence information. Computational Biology is the name given to this process.
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Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC)
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A standing committee that reviews an IC's intramural scientific mission. The board usually meets twice a year, depending on the IC.
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BSC
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See Board of Scientific Counselors.
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Bug(s)
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An unwanted and unintended property of a program or piece of hardware, especially one that causes it to malfunction. Antonym of feature. For example, “There’s a bug in the editor: it writes things out backwards.” The identification and removal of bugs in a program is called “debugging”.
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C
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CCB
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See Configuration Control Board.
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Center for Scientific Review (CSR)
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An NIH center that conducts initial peer review of most investigator-initiated NIH applications for research grants and fellowships. CSR also receives Public Health Service research and research training applications and refers them to PHS components for possible funding.
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CGAP
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See Competitive Grant Application Process.
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Closeout
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Closeout is a procedure to officially conclude a grant. See also Grants Closeout Module.
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CM
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See Committee Management and Configuration Management.
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COI
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See Conflict of Interest.
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Collexis
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Collexis® is a tool (also the name of the company that builds the tool) used in information retrieval and mining. Besides the standard data and information retrieval capabilities of search engines, Collexis technology also is able to discover relationships between elements of different information items (via clustering and/or aggregation) and thus uncover important implicit knowledge. See http://www.collexis.com.
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Committee Management (CM) Module
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A client-server module providing data entry, query, and reporting capabilities for managing committees and subcommittees, including chartered advisory committees and review meetings. It enables committee management staff to establish, amend, and re-charter committees as well as manage information associated with them, including creating and printing the Federal Register Notice. See Committee Management Fast Track.
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Committee Management Web Module (CM Web)
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New J2EE, Web-based designed Committee Management module providing data entry, basic ad hoc querying, and reporting capabilities associated with establishing, amending and re-chartering committees/subcommittees, the nomination and appointment of members to these committees/subcommittees, the managing of people data, and maintenance of the data associated with committee meetings and the Federal Register Notice. Complete functionality for CM not yet available in CM Web.
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Common Account Number (CAN)
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The identification number of the specific IC account to be charged for the acquisition of supplies, services or equipment. This is sometimes referred to as accounting and appropriation data, or a fund cite.
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Commons
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See NIH eRA Commons.
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Competitive Grant Application Process (CGAP)
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An NIH eRA Commons module that is the electronic version of the PHS 398 grant application. CGAP is part of the overall NIH eRA project to create electronic processes for receipt of grant applications and subsequent business flow.
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Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects (CRISP)
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A publicly accessible database of federally funded biomedical research projects. CRISP enables users to research scientific concepts and identify projects and investigators from a database of awards funded since 1972.
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Configuration Control Board (CCB)
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The Configuration Control Board reviews change requests to the eRA processing systems and the baselined requirements of future software releases. It assesses risk of action and inaction as well as cost and scheduling impact for each request before a decision is made. The CCB comprises branch chiefs representing each eRA functional area. The board, which is chaired by the project management branch chief, meets weekly.
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Configuration Management (CM)
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A supporting process whose purpose is to identify, define, and baseline items; control modifications and releases of these items; report and record status of the items and modification requests; ensure completeness, consistency and correctness of the items; and control storage, handling and delivery of the items.
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Conflict of Interest (COI)
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Regulations to assure that government employees, scientific review group members, Council members, or others having the ability to influence funding decisions have no personal interest in the outcome. At the NIH, prudent stewardship of public funds that support research programs requires that appropriate steps be taken to ensure high-quality results. Therefore, recipient organizations must establish safeguards to prevent employees, consultants, or members of governing bodies from using their positions for purposes that are, or give the appearance of being, motivated by a desire for private financial gain for themselves or others such as those with whom they have family, business, or other ties. Therefore, each institution receiving PHS funds must have written policy guidelines on conflict of interest and avoidance thereof. These guidelines should reflect state and local laws and must cover financial interests, gifts, gratuities and favors, nepotism, and other areas such as political participation and bribery. These rules must also indicate how outside activities, relationships, and financial interests are reviewed by the responsible and objective institution official(s). In addition, the institution has the responsibility for maintaining objectivity in research by ensuring that the design, conduct, or reporting of research will not be biased by any conflicting financial interest of investigators responsible for the research in accord with the provisions of PHS regulations 42 CFR Part 50, Subpart F, and 45 CFR Part 94. (/grants/guide/notice-files/not95-179.html). Institutions that identify research investigator financial conflicts of interest are required to report the conflicts to the NIH Grants Management Officer (GMO) at the NIH Institute or Center (I/C) which funds or will fund the project. Questions should be directed to I/C GMO’s at the address shown on NIH notices of grant awards.
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Construction
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The third phase of the Rational Unified Process (RUP), in which the software is brought from an executable architectural baseline to the point at which it is ready to be transitioned to the user community.
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CRISP
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See Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects.
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CRISP Coding
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CRISP Coding is the process in which the CRISP Thesaurus is used to apply key terms to Projects/Proposals.
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CRISP Plus
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An internal relational database available through the eRA System that allows NIH staff to perform keyword searches of grant titles, abstracts, and application summary statements. It houses sensitive information (e.g., dollar amounts and information on unfunded grants) not available in the external version of CRISP.
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CRISP Thesaurus
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The CRISP Thesaurus is a controlled vocabulary used to assign indexing terms or keywords to research projects. The CRISP Thesaurus is also a tool for selecting the appropriate terminology when querying the database.
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CSR
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See Center for Scientific Review.
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Cycle
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One complete pass through the four phases: inception, elaboration, construction and transition.
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D
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Data Stream
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A sequence of digitally encoded signals used to represent information in transmission.
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Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS)
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The DUNS number is a nine-digit number assigned by Dun and Bradstreet Information Services.
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Data Warehouse
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A generic term for a system for storing, retrieving and managing large amounts of any type of data. Data warehouse software often includes sophisticated compression and hashing techniques for fast searches, as well as advanced filtering.
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Deferred application
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Delayed review of an application, usually because additional information is needed to complete the review or because the review has been compromised in some way.
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Deliverable
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An output from a process that has a value, material or otherwise, to a customer or other stakeholder.
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Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)
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The Department of Health and Human Services is the United States government's principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves. The department includes more than 300 programs, covering a wide spectrum of activities. HHS is the largest grant-making agency in the federal government, providing some 60,000 grants per year. HHS' Medicare program is the nation's largest health insurer, handling more than 900 million claims per year. The NIH is an operating division (OPDIV) of the DHHS.
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Disaggregated application
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An application is disaggregated when a portion (or subproject) is funded as a separate grant.
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Disease Category
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Disease Category refers to the approximately 230 categories used by Building 1 when reporting to Congress. Disease Categories are broad definitions. A Disease Category may consist of one or more scientific codes (see definition below). For example, the Disease Category “Cancer” may consist of many scientific codes, such as Lung Cancer, Breast Cancer, Melanoma, Colon Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Prostate Cancer, and Leukemia. Some ICs refer to Disease Categories as budget categories, reports, and budget reports.
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Drill Down
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(v) In information technology, to move from summary information to detailed data by focusing in on something. To drill down through a series of folders, for example, on a desktop means to go through the hierarchy of folders to find a specific file or to click through drop-down menus in a GUI. To drill down through a database is to access information by starting with a general category and moving through the hierarchy of field to file to record. (n) Spelled drilldown. The act of focusing in. For example, "He got the information he needed through a drilldown of the database."
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DUNS
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See Data Universal Numbering System.
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E
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E-Notification Event Triggers
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Logic (computer code) associated with the event that is initiated when an event occurs.
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E-Notification Events
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An occurrence in eRA that requires a notification, either to another system or user. E-Notification events can be initiated by the eRA system or end-user. Recipients of e-notifications can be internal or external to eRA. Currently, all notifications within eRA are batch notifications, which are compiled, grouped and dispatched nightly. eRA also supports summary notifications.
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E-Notification System
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This eRA system module is being designed to provide automatic notification to internal and external users alike regarding changes, due dates and other pertinent information regarding applications and grants.
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Earned Value
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A measure of the value of work performed so far. Earned value uses original estimates and progress-to-date to show whether the actual costs incurred are on budget and whether the tasks are ahead or behind the baseline plan.
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ECB
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See Electronic Council Book.
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Elaboration
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The second phase of Rational Unified Process (RUP) process where the product vision and its architecture are defined.
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Electronic Council Book (ECB)
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An internal eRA System application that houses summary statements, percentiles, priority scores, Initial Review Groups (IRGs), and key identifying information for applications going to council for second-level review. Council members and NIH staff use separate versions.
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Electronic Research Administration (eRA)
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The NIH initiative to move from paper to a fully electronic research administration environment. eRA sets up an electronic dialogue between NIH and its grantees covering the entire life cycle of the grant.
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Electronic Streamlined Non-Competing Award Process (eSNAP)
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eSNAP is an NIH eRA Commons module that allows principal investigators (PIs) to prepare and administrative officials (AOs) from grantee organizations to electronically approve and submit information consistent with an Application for Continuation of a Public Health Service Grant (PHS Form 2590).
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End User
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The person who uses a computer application, as opposed to those who developed or support it. The enduser may or may not know anything about computers, how they work, or what to do if something goes wrong. Endusers do not usually have administrative responsibilities or privileges. End users are certain to have a different set of assumptions than the developers who created the application.
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EPMC
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See Extramural Program Management Committee.
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eRA
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See Electronic Research Administration.
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eRA Grant Snapshot
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A consolidated view of grant-elated information on one report. Currently, the Grant Snapshot displays the following sections: general grant information, Peer and Council Review data, Administrative Codes, Administrative IC Assignments, Multi IC/PCC data, PI Information, Institution data, Pre-award Budget data, Award Detail data, Award Budget data, Award Budget by CAN data, CFY Line Item data, SRG and Council Meeting data.
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eSNAP
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See Electronic Streamlined Non-Competing Award Process.
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eXtensible Markup Language (XML)
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A markup language that allows you to define the tags (markup) needed to identify the data and text in XML documents. J2EE deployment descriptors are expressed in XML.
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Extramural Program Management Committee (EPMC)
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An NIH committee composed of heads of IC extramural administrative divisions that helps define extramural policy.
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F
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FACA
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See Federal Advisory Committee Act.
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FDP
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See Federal Demonstration Partnership.
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Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA)
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A law that regulates federal advisory committees to ensure an appropriate balance of scientists and lay persons and minority, geographical, and racial representation.
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Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP)
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The FDP is a cooperative effort among 11 federal research agencies and 65 universities and non-profit research centers piloting new eRA systems to increase productivity by reducing the administrative burden on investigators, while maintaining effective stewardship of federal funds.
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Federal Register
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An official, daily publication that communicates proposed and final regulations and legal notices issued by federal agencies, including announcements of the availability of funds for financial assistance.
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Financial Operating Plan (FOP)
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The FOP is a method of capturing the total costs related to the operation and staff costs of committees for the current fiscal year as well as an estimation of the next fiscal year’s costs. This information is used when preparing the Annual Comprehensive Review (ACR) Report.
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Financial Status Report (FSR)
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A financial report due 90 days after the end of each budget period showing the status of awarded funds for that period. The report is mandatory for continued funding of the grant.
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Fingerprint
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A “Fingerprint” is a representation of the results from the information retrieval and mining, using the Collexis tool.
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FOP Operational Data Store (FODS)
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A data-mart outside of the eRA System of meeting-related expenses, which is maintained and supported by CSR.
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FSR
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See Financial Status Report.
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Functional Group
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An advisory group to eRA comprising members of an NIH functional group committee that corresponds to an eRA module (e.g., the NIH Grants Management Advisory Committee and the GM module).
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Functionality
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Waffle for “features” or “function”. The capabilities or behaviors of a program, part of a program, or system, seen as the sum of its features. Roughly, “the things it can do." Generally used in a comparative sense, e.g., “The latest update adds some useful functionality."
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G
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GM
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See Grants Management.
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GMAC
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See Grants Management Advisory Committee.
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GMO
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See Grants Management Officer.
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GMS
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See Grants Management Specialist.
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Grant Update Module (GUM)
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A component of the GM, ICO, and REV modules that permits authorized users to make data changes in several dozen fields.
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Grantee
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An institution that receives a grant or cooperative agreement and assumes legal, financial, and scientific responsibility and accountability for the funds and performance of the activity. In certain cases, a grantee may be an individual.
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Grants Closeout Module
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This module provides the means to electronically manage the conclusion of a grant.
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Grants Management (GM)
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An internal eRA System module that allows NIH grants management staff to process and manage grant-related information, including assignments, work-ups, sign-offs, and notices of grant awards.
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Grants Management Advisory Committee (GMAC)
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A committee that advises the Extramural Program Management Committee (EPMC) on matters relating to grants administration.
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Grants Management Officer (GMO)
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The NIH official who is responsible for the business management of grants and cooperative agreements, including ensuring that both the granting agency and grantees meet all requirements of laws, regulations and policies.
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Grants Management Specialist (GMS)
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An NIH staff member who is the focal point for all business activities associated with the negotiation, award, and administration of a grant or cooperative agreement. He/she also interprets grant administration policy and provisions.
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Grants Technical Assistant (GTA)
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A staff member who assists scientific review administrators (SRAs) in peer review-related work.
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Grants.gov
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The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the managing partner for the federal Grants.gov initiative, one of 24 initiatives of the overall E-Government program for improving access to government services via the Internet. Eleven departments and agencies have been designated as supporting partners for this initiative that calls for the development of a one-stop electronic grant portal where potential grant recipients will receive full service electronic grant administration. HHS has established a Grants.gov Program Management Office to lead the development activities. See http://grants.gov.
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Group Advocate
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See Advocate.
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GTA
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See Grants Technical Assistant.
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GUM
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See Grant Update Module.
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H
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HTML
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See Hypertext Markup Language.
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Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
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A text-based markup language for hypertext documents on the Internet. HTML enables the embedding of images, sounds, video streams, form fields, references to other objects with URLs and basic text formatting.
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I
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IAEGC
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See Inter-Agency Electronic Grants Committee.
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IAR
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See Internet Assisted Review.
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IC
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See Institutes and Centers.
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IC Coding Thesaurus
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The IC Coding Thesaurus contains the vocabulary used by each IC in scientific coding.
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IC Query and Reporting (IQR)
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An internal eRA System module that is a high-end reporting tool for accessing the IMPAC II Reporting Database (IRDB).
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IC Search, Track Order, Report (ICSTORe)
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An internal eRA System mechanism for document tracking and retrieval, e.g., distributing Summary Statements, abstracts, applications, Notice of Grant Awards (NGA) and other electronic documents.
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ICO
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See Institute and Center Operations.
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ICSTORe
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See IC Search, Track Order, Report.
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iEdison
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See Interagency Edison.
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IMPAC II
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NIH's extensive internal information management system for application and award data.
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IMPAC II Reporting Database (IRDB)
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A simplified database designed for speedy, simplified querying and reporting. IRDB loads data from the Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) database.
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Inception
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The first phase of Rational Unified Process (RUP) in which the seed idea, request for proposal, for the previous generation is brought to the point of being (at least internally) funded to enter the elaboration phase.
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Information for Management, Planning, Analysis, and Coordination (IMPAC I)
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The early system for application and award data that was phased out and replaced by IMPAC II, now called the eRA System.
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Institute and Center Operations (ICO)
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An internal eRA System module that provides administrative functions required by program officers, including viewing application and program class code assignments, managing a portfolio (e.g., ability to set payment codes and sign off on awards), and updating basic grant information such as title, PI, and budget data. ICO permits budget officers to indicate grants to be paid and council administrators to add council actions to the database.
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Institutes and Centers (IC)
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The 27 institutes and centers that comprise the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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Integrated Review Group (IRG)
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Review activities of the Center for Scientific Review (CSR) are organized into Integrated Review Groups (IRGs). Each IRG represents a cluster of study sections around a general scientific area. Applications generally are assigned first to an IRG, and then to a specific study section within that IRG for evaluation of scientific merit.
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Integration
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Combining software or hardware components or both into an overall system.
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Integration Testing
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Testing in which software and/or hardware components are combined and tested progressively until the entire system has been integrated.
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Inter-Agency Electronic Grants Committee (IAEGC)
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A group that facilitates the effective use of e-commerce for the federal grants community.
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Interagency Edison (iEdison)
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U.S. Government's Internet center for reporting inventions developed with government funding. Website: https://s-edison.info.nih.gov/iEdison/
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Internet Assisted Review (IAR)
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A Web-based system to manage the process of electronic submission of critiques by Reviewers. The eRA-developed Internet-Assisted Review system will help expedite the scientific review of grant applications by providing a standard process for Reviewers to submit their critiques and initial priority scores via the Internet.
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IQR
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See IC Query and Reporting.
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IRDB
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See IMPAC II Reporting Database.
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IRG
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See Integrated Review Group.
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IT Shared Design Group
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A group of IC representatives, chaired by the Center for Information Technology (CIT), that develops shared designs of NIH information systems to reduce costs and enhance results by pooling knowledge and conducting joint projects.
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Iteration
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A distinct sequence of activities with a baselined plan and valuation criteria resulting in a release (internal or external).
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J
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J2EE
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Java 2, Enterprise Edition. Object-oriented architecture that is the platform for the eRA System.
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JAD
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See Joint Application Development.
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JIT
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See Just in Time.
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Joint Application Development (JAD)
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A working session, attended by users, analysts, and technical developers, used for requirements definition and prototype evaluation.
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Just in Time (JIT)
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1. A virtual machine implementation approach, used to speed up execution of byte-code programs. To execute a program unit such as a method or a function, the virtual machine compiles its bytecodes into (hardware) machine code. The translated code is also placed in a cache, so that next time that unit’s machine code can be executed immediately, without repeating the translation. Currently it is also used by some implementations of the Java Virtual Machine under the name JIT (Just In Time compilation). 2. At the NIH, a reinvention innovation in which applicants send some information to the NIH only if an award is likely, streamlining the application process.
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K
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Knowledge Management (KM)
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There are many definitions for Knowledge Management (see http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=define%3A+knowledge+management). For the purpose of eRA project, KM refers to use of the Collexis tool for the sharing (mapping) of information and expertise of many ICs and individuals at ICs, towards the betterment of NIH, rather than information remaining with different ICs working separately towards the same goal (adapted from www.aslib.co.uk/info/glossary.html).
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Knowledge Management (KM) Thesaurus
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The Knowledge Management (KM) Thesaurus is the vocabulary used by the Collexis tool to generate information retrieval and mining fingerprints.
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L
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Load
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1. To copy data (often program code to be run) into memory, possibly parsing it somehow in the process. For example, 7 “WordPerfect can’t load this RTF file—are you sure it didn’t get corrupted in the download?” Opposite of save. 2. The degree to which a computer, network, or other resource is used, sometimes expressed as a percentage of the maximum available. For example, “What kind of CPU load does that program give?” “The network’s constantly running at 100% load.” Sometimes used, by extension, to mean “to increase the level of use of a resource”. For example, “Loading a spreadsheet really loads the CPU”. See also: load balancing. 3. To install a piece of software onto a system. For example, “The computer guy is gonna come load Excel on my laptop for me”. This usage is widely considered to be incorrect.
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Load Balancing
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Techniques that aim to spread tasks among the processors in a parallel processor to avoid some processors being idle while others have tasks queueing for execution. Load balancing can be performed either by heavily loaded processors (with many tasks in their queues) sending tasks to other processors; by idle processors requesting work from others; by some centralized task distribution mechanism; or some combination of these. Some systems allow tasks to be moved after they have started executing (“task migration”) others do not. It is important that the overhead of executing the load balancing algorithm does not contribute significantly to the overall processing or communications load.
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M
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Materialized Views (MV)
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Oracle objects that are used to create, maintain, and use summary tables.
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MV
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See Materialized Views.
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N
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NAC
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See National Advisory Council.
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National Advisory Council (NAC)
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A standing committee in each IC that provides the second level of grant application review following the Scientific Review Group (SRG). The number of NAC meetings per year varies for each IC.
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National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA)
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An organization of individuals involved in the administration of sponsored programs at colleges, universities and teaching hospitals.
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NBR
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See New Budgeted Requirement.
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NCURA
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See National Council of University Research Administrators.
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New Budgeted Requirement (NBR)
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eRA prioritization term for a planned, budgeted requirement.
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New Funded Requirement (NFR)
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eRA prioritization term for a new requirement that is financed.
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New Requirement (NR)
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eRA prioritization term for a new requirement with no budget.
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NFR
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See New Funded Requirement.
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NIH Disease Category Fingerprint
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NIH Disease Category Fingerprints are a set of vocabulary terms used to define a Disease Category. The Disease Category Fingerprint will be pre-defined with the Collexis tool and health science experts. They will be pre-defined prior to utilization on Projects and Proposals, and will be controlled by a limited set of users with the Office of the Director at NIH. It is anticipated that the thesaurus of choice for vocabulary terms will be UMLS. As of April 2004, the version of UMLS used will be version 2003AC; the version maybe updated as newer versions are released.
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NIH eRA Commons
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A Web-based, J2EE system that enables data exchange between the external research community and NIH. Only registered organizations can access the working modules.
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NR
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See New Requirement.
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O
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OBR
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See Original Budgeted Requirement.
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OFR
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See Original Funded Requirement.
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OLTP
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See Online Transaction Processing.
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Online Transaction Processing (OLTP)
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A database containing all incoming data in a sophisticated Oracle relational database that reduces the processing burden.
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Oracle
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Relational database developed by Oracle Corporation.
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Original Budgeted Requirement (OBR)
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eRA prioritization term for an original requirement budgeted for and to be added in the release of software upgrades when the money becomes available.
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Original Funded Requirement (OFR)
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eRA prioritization term for an original requirement that has been funded and will be added in the schedule for release of software upgrades.
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Other/Withdrawn Portfolio Page
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Contains all grants assigned to the signed-in user that are withdrawn. (Program Module)
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P
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PAC
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See Program Advisory Committee.
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Payline
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A percentile-based funding cutoff point determined at the beginning of the fiscal year by balancing the projected number of applications coming to an NIH Institute with the amount of funds available.
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Peer Review
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See Review.
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Pending SRG Portfolio Page
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Contains all competing applications assigned to the signed-in user that have a status of Pending IRG Review. (Program Module)
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Pending Type 5 Portfolio Page
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Contains all non-competing grants assigned to the signed-in user for the current fiscal year that have a status of To be Paid. (Program Module)
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PGM
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See Program Module.
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Phase
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The time between two major project milestones, during which a well-defined set of objectives is met, artifacts are completed, and decisions are made to move or not move into the next phase.
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PI
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See Principal Investigator.
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POPOF
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See Project Officers/Program Officials Forum.
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Population Tracking
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An eRA system module that provides an electronic means of entering, storing, and reporting the annual population tracking data required for the NIH Inclusion Policy. It provides a means of integrating the storage and reporting of the population tracking data in the larger NIH enterprise system (eRA) and the ability to record data reported in both the old and new OMB formats for reporting data on ethnicity and race. It was developed to improve the accuracy of the NIH’s tracking data on the inclusion of women and minorities.
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Portal
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Customizable, single integration point that is used to launch applications, websites and other tools that users need to perform their jobs. With a single logon, users have access to all role-based privileges. Each user can customize a portal home page to link seamlessly to portlets, which are functional areas.
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Post Award Portfolio Page
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Contains all competing and non-competing grants assigned to the signed-in user for the current fiscal year that have a status of Awarded, Award Prepared Not Funded, Terminated and Cancelled. (Program Module)
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Post-Council Portfolio Page
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Contains all competing applications for the current fiscal year assigned to the signed-in user that have a status of Pending Award, Council-Not Recommended for Consideration, Council Deferred and To be Paid. (Program Module)
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PowerView (PV)
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A sophisticated query tool designed for NIH "power users" for retrieving grant-related information from the eRA System database. Power views are pre-joined tables accessible for reporting, analysis, and evaluation, using various query tools, including Microsoft Access and Excel.
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Pre-Council Portfolio Page
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Contains all competing applications for the current fiscal year assigned to the signed-in user that have a status of Pending Council Review, No Initial Review Group (IRG) Recommendation and Not Recommended for Consideration (NRFC). (Program Module)
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Principal Investigator (PI)
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A qualified person designated by the applicant institution to direct the research and be responsible for the proper conduct of the project or program of a grant.
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Program Advisory Committee (PAC)
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A standing committee that reviews a specific IC program.
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Program Approval
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Process performed by program staff to review and approve non-competing progress reports.
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Program Checklist
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Questions the NIH requires Program staff to answer prior to the award of each non-competing grant.
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Program Module (PGM)
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The Program Module is being designed to enable Program Officials (POs) to conduct NIH research administration using the paperless processes mandated by Congress. The PGM will serve as a gateway to biomedical research and eRA information, and will allow POs to monitor and administer their assigned grant applications as they move through all phases of the grant lifecycle and to find the status of an individual grant very quickly.
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Program Officer
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An Institute staff member who coordinates the substantive aspects of a contract from planning the request for proposal to oversight.
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Program Official
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An Institute staff member responsible for overseeing and monitoring a scientific program and progress of grants in his or her portfolio. Program officials work closely with grants management staff to resolve issues.
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Program Portfolio
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A Program Official’s portfolio that consists of grant applications in their respective phases throughout the grant lifecycle, from pre-submission through post-award. Currently, the Program module provides six default portfolios: Pending SRG, Pre-Council, Post Council, Pending Type 5s, Post Award, and Other/Withdrawn. (Program Module)
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Project Officers/Program Officials Forum (POPOF)
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A committee of IC program staff representatives that provides policy advice and makes recommendations to Extramural Program Management Committee (EPMC) from an operations perspective.
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Project/Proposal Fingerprint
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The Disease Categories assigned to a Project/Proposal. It is generated through the representation of the results from the information retrieval and mining of eRA documents (such as the Grant Image, Summary Statement, Abstract), using the Collexis tool, against the pre-defined ~230 Disease Category fingerprints.
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PV
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See PowerView.
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Q
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Query/View/Report (QVR)
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The QVR is a decision support system for internal users that is designed for quick and easy access to eRA System data.
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QuickView (QV)
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A query tool that simplifies retrieval of select grant data: summary statements, abstracts, basic administrative data, budget information, PI contact information, and notice of grant awards.
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QV
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See QuickView.
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QVR
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See Query/View/Report.
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R
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RAE
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See Reports, Analysis, and Evaluation.
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Rational Unified Process (RUP)
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RUP is a complex, multi-phase methodology, based on best practices, that improves existing processes by taking advantage of proven Rational software engineering expertise. The core process workflows in the RUP model -- business modeling, requirements, analysis and design, implementation, test, and deployment -- are executed with varying intensity during four development phases: inception, elaboration, construction and transition. This workflow brings order to the software development process and allows formulation of a reasonable schedule. RUP verifies quality on satisfying "use" case requirements rather than validating design. It uses an iterative software development path rather than a linear one, and incorporates unified modeling language (UML), the industry-standard language for "specifying, visualizing, constructing, and documenting the artifacts of software systems."
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Real Time
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Describes an application that requires a program to respond to stimuli within some small upper limit of response time (typically milli- or microseconds). Such applications often require special operating systems (because everything else must take a back seat to response time) and speed-tuned hardware.
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Receipt, Referral, Assignment (RR)
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An internal eRA System module used by the Center for Scientific Review (CSR) referral officers to refer incoming applications to an IC and assign them to a scientific review group (SRG).
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Reports, Analysis, and Evaluation (RAE)
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An area of the eRA System where users can create reports from data in the IRDB and OLTP databases with the use of query tools, including QuickView, PowerView, IQR and the Web Query Tool (QT).
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Requirement
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A requirement describes a condition or capability to which a system must conform; either derived directly from user needs, or stated in a contract, standard, specification, or other formally imposed document.
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REV
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See Review.
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Review (Peer Review, REV)
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A module providing NIH review organizations key information, including application data, lists of prospective reviewers, committee rosters, and reviewer assignments, used to prepare for, conduct, and record outcomes of review meetings, including summary statements.
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Review Policy Committee (RPC)
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An NIH group of IC representatives that advises the chairman of Extramural Program Management Committee (EPMC) on policies and procedures for initial peer review.
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RPC
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See Review Policy Committee.
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RR
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See Receipt, Referral, Assignment.
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RUP
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See Rational Unified Process.
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S
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SBIR
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See Small Business Innovation Research.
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Scientific Code Fingerprint
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Scientific Code Fingerprints are not applicable for Knowledge Management prototypes.
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Scientific Codes
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Scientific Codes are key terms assigned by ICs to Projects and Proposals that appear in the NIH database of funded research, and are used to reflect the “areas” of NIH-supported research. Scientific codes also are referred to as disease codes and anatomic/disease sites.
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Scientific Coding
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Scientific Coding is the process in which an IC assigns key terms to Projects and Proposals.
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Scientific Review Administrator (SRA)
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A federal scientist who presides over a scientific review group (SRG) and is responsible for coordinating and reporting the review of each application assigned to it. The SRA serves as an intermediary between the applicant and reviewers, and prepares summary statements for all applications reviewed.
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Scientific Review and Evaluation Award (SREA)
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A payment made to a Scientific Review Group (SRG) reviewer. Also refers to the process by which the award is generated.
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Scientific Review Group (SRG)
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Formerly called "initial review group" and also known as a "study section." SRGs provide initial scientific merit in the review of grant applications. They rate applications and make recommendations for the appropriate level of support and duration of the award.
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Section 508
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Section 508 refers to a statutory section in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (found at 29 U.S.C. 794d). Congress significantly strengthened section 508 in the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. Its primary purpose is to provide access to and use of Federal executive agencies' electronic and information technology (EIT) by individuals with disabilities. The statutory language of section 508 can be found at www.section508.gov.
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SEP
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See Special Emphasis Panel.
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Server-side
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Functionality that is provided by the server rather than on the user's machine. For example, with a server-side image map, mouse coordinates are sent to the server, which then decides what action to take. With a client-side image map, the action is taken by the client immediately.
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Servlet
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A Java program that extends the functionality of a Web server, generating dynamic content and interacting with Web clients using a request-response paradigm.
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Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
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SOAP is a lightweight protocol for the exchange of information in a decentralized, distributed environment. It is an XML-based protocol that consists of three parts: an envelope that defines a framework for describing what is in a message and how to process it, a set of encoding rules for expressing instances of application-defined datatypes, and a convention for representing remote procedure calls and responses.
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SITS
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See Special Initiatives Tracking System.
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Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
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The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program at the NIH is a set-aside program (2.5% of an agency's extramural budget) for domestic small business concerns to engage in Research/Research and Development (R/R&D) that has the potential for commercialization. The SBIR program was established under the Small Business Innovation Development Act of 1982 (P.L. 97-219), reauthorized until September 30, 2000 by the Small Business Research and Development Enhancement Act (P.L. 102-564), and reauthorized again until September 30, 2008 by the Small Business Reauthorization Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-554).
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SOAP
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See Simple Object Access Protocol.
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Special Emphasis Panel (SEP)
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A SEP reviews grant and cooperative agreement applications and contract proposals for research projects and for research and training activities in broad areas of basic and clinical cancer research. Members and Chairs, rather than formally appointed, are selected to serve for individual meetings on an “as needed” basis in response to specific applications or proposals.
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Special Initiatives Tracking System (SITS)
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A module that enables reviewers, grants management, and other NIH staff to access data for minority, disability, and reentry supplements, e.g., tracking the supplement portions of a parent grant.
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SRA
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See Scientific Review Administrator.
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SREA
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See Scientific Review and Evaluation Award.
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SS
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See Summary Statement.
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Status
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Status is an NIH eRA Commons module that is a secure, interactive Web interface by which grantees and grantee organization administrative officials can obtain information about pending grant applications and awards.
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Summary E-Notifications
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E-Notifications that convey multiple messages to at least one recipient, within one e-notification, on a given object (e.g., Grant, IC, etc.). For example, if an SRA wants to receive a notification when the IC of a grant changes, and when a grant is withdrawn, eRA supports sending just one summary notification with both messages to the SRA.
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Summary Statement (SS)
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An official document showing the outcome of initial peer review, containing priority score and percentile, codes for various areas of concern (e.g., human subject research), and recommended budget. Summary statements generally have a short synopsis of the project prepared by the scientific review administrator and reviewer critiques. When special review criteria are used, the scientific review administrator synthesizes the critiques.
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T
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TAC
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See Training Advisory Committee.
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Training Activities (TA)
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A module supporting NIH's National Research Service Award business operations for processing appointments, terminations, and payback obligations. Houses documents mailed by principal investigators (PIs) to NIH as well as appointments and terminations entered by PIs electronically through the NIH eRA Commons.
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Training Advisory Committee (TAC)
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A group that reviews and makes recommendations to the NIH deputy director for extramural research on policies, procedures, and operations of NIH extramural training and career development programs.
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Transition
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The fourth phase of Rational Unified Process (RUP) in which the software is turned over to the user community.
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Type 1
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Application type: a new application. Contract transaction type: new contract.
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Type 2
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Application type: A competing continuation (a.k.a. renewal, recompeting) application. Contract transaction type: renewal.
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Type 3
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Application type: An application for additional (supplemental) support. Contract transaction type: modification.
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Type 4
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Application type: An application for additional support beyond that previously recommended. Contract transaction type: letter contract.
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Type 5
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Application type: A noncompeting continuation application. Contract transaction type: Continuation of an incrementally (typically, in one-year increments) funded contract.
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Type 6
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Contract transaction type: Task orders and subsequent modifications relating to existing ordering agreements.
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Type 7
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Application type: A change of grantee institution for an application. Contract transaction type: Exercise of option.
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Type 9
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Application type: A change of NIH awarding institute or division (competing continuation) for an application.
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U
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UA
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See User Administration.
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UML
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See Unified Modeling Language.
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Unified Modeling Language (UML)
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UML is an industry-standard language for "specifying, visualizing, constructing, and documenting the artifacts of software systems." It simplifies the complex process of software design by creating a "blueprint for construction" (see http://www.rational.com/uml/index.jsp). See Rational Unified Process.
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Uniform Resource Locator or Universal Resource Locator (URL)
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The address of a computer or a document on the Internet that consists of a communications protocol followed by a colon and two slashes (as http://), the identifier of a computer (as www.m-w.com) and usually a path through a directory to a file.
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URL
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See Uniform Resource Locator.
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Use Case
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A description of system behavior, in terms of sequences of actions. A use case should yield an observable result of value to an actor. A use case contains all alternate flows of events related to producing the “observable result of value.” - Level 1: Also known as a Use Case Model Survey in the RUP; Use case names are enumerated with each name representing an actor goal; actor names are enumerated.
- Level 2: Brief description of major scenarios in the use case; summary of the major flow of events.
- Level 3: All major scenarios are defined through the basic flow and essential alternative flows.
- Level 4: All significant scenarios defined through the basic flow, essential and exceptional alternative flows; all special requirements are defined.
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User Administration (UA)
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An internal module that enables Institute and Center (IC) eRA System coordinators to administer user accounts and passwords.
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User Group
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An eRA group that brings together actual users of a module and its Functional Group so the users can contribute their perspectives to the development process.
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V
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W
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Web QT
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See Web Query Tool.
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Web Query Tool (Web QT)
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This query tool assists different types of users to query the eRA system database and act as a powerful reporting tool.
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Withdrawn application
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Applicant requests that his/her application not be considered for review/award.
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Workflow
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The sequence of activities performed in a business that produces a result of observable value to an individual actor of the business.
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X
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X-Train
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An NIH eRA Commons electronic trainee activities system that allows program directors and trainees from institutions with National Research Service Award training grants to transmit confidential personal data electronically to the NIH.
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XML
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See eXtensible Markup Language.
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Y
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Z
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