Published April 26, 2021
On April 20, 2021, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that all individuals listed on the R&R Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) Form must have an eRA Commons username (Commons ID). This is effective for all 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.
Reminder: Individuals needing scientific roles (Program Directors, Principal Investigators, Scientist, Post-Doc, Graduate Students, Undergraduate Students, Project Personnel) should only have one eRA Commons ID for the life of their research career. Always check for an existing eRA Commons account prior to creating a new one. If a person already has an eRA Commons scientific account and is changing institutions, a Signing Official (SO) or an Account Administrator (AA) role at the new institution can affiliate that account with the new institution (see steps).
Please read NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-21-109 for complete information.
If you have questions about this material, please contact the Office of Sponsored Research Services.