Award Management

Final Invention Statement (FIS) via eRA Commons Procedures

Created 01/2006
Revised 04/2013

Effective 10/22/10, Per notice NOT-OD-11-012, the PI is no longer required to sign or submit electronically in eRA. Effective immediately, please make sure before you submit an FIS in eRA that you have the DA provide a copy of the FIS from eRA with the PIs signature, unless you can see in eRA that the PI is the person that submitted the FIS.

Purpose

NIH requires the processing of three closeout documents when a grant ends:

  1. Final Invention Statement & Certification (FIS) – SUBMITTED BY OSRS-Grants
  2. Final Status Report (FSR) – SUBMITTED BY SPA
  3. Final Progress Report (FPR) – SUBMITTED BY THE PI

The FIS discloses any inventions that may have been created through the duration of the grant and
whether or not they were reported to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The
FSR is a final accounting report for the grant cycle prepared by Sponsored Projects Accounting
(SPA). The FPR is uploaded by the PI. OSRS-Grants does not review the FPR.

Procedures

  1. The PI will need to log on the eRA Commons and complete the FIS
  2. The Department Administrator will need to notify OSRS-Grants when the FIS is ready for submission. Note: eRA Commons does not send emails to OSRS-Grants informing us that an FIS is awaiting our approval.
  3. The institution (a Signing Official (SO) or higher) must verify the information on the submitted FIS.
    • Log into eRA Commons.
    • Click the “Status” button at the top of the page.
    • Use the “General Search” option to look up the grant based on Grant number.
    • When the specific year of the grant is located, the “Action” column should read “Requires Closeout”.
    • Click on the “Requires Closeout” link.
    • Make sure the FIS Result of Actions say “Submitted by (PI NAME)”. If it does not, need e-mail from PI verifying if there are inventions or not.
    • Click on “Process Final Invention Statement” link to view/print.
    • View the FIS.
      • The “Title of Invention” box should either indicate “None” OR it should contain the title of the invention and the “Date Reported to DHHS” box should contain the date the invention was reported to the agency
      • If the FIS reports an invention(s), fax or e-mail the FIS to Office of Technology Management (OTM) for approval prior to submitting the information
      • If there was no inventions, click “Submit” and then “OK”. Verify that the “Status” for the FIS now says “Received”.
    • eRA Commons will automatically send an email to the PI, Financial Officer and Signing Official
      • Forward the email to the department administrator
      • Print one copy of the signed certification for the awarded folder. Add fund # on top of page and note that you copied to SPA with date.
      • Make a PDF of the certification form and email to SPA. Include the fund # in the e-mail.