eRA Commons ID requirement
According to NOT-OD-21-109, applicants will receive a warning message if a valid eRA Commons username (Commons ID) is not provided for senior and/or key personnel in the credential field. See Figure 1. For multi-project applications, this requirement applies to the individual components of the application and not to just the Overall component.
To get applicants accustomed to this change, starting April 21, 2021, applicants will receive a warning if a valid eRA Commons username is not provided for senior/Key Personnel for submissions with due dates on or after May 25, 2021. This warning is tentatively scheduled to be in effect for no less than 2 council rounds before becoming an error on proposals with a submission date on or after January 25, 2022, that must be corrected to successfully submit the application 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 username for the life of their research career. It is important that the signing official (SO), or account administrator (AA) check to ensure a person does not already have an eRA Commons username. If the person has an existing username, the SO or AA can then affiliate them to their institution if the person is changing institutions.
If you find that you have more than one account please contact the eRA Service Desk at https://public.era.nih.gov/submithelp/ or 1-866-504-9552.
NOTE: This new requirement does not mean Senior/Key Personnel listed on the application must be affiliated with the applicant organization, only that they have a valid eRA Commons username.
Resources:
- The University's procedure on how to request eRA Commons Access
- Since 2014, students with measureable effort also require Commons user ID's per this announcement