NIH to Require eRA Commons IDs for Graduate and Undergraduate Students

Over the next year, the National Institutes of Health will start requiring an eRA Commons ID for all individuals in graduate and undergraduate student roles who participate in NIH-funded projects for at least one person month or more. The information will appear on NIH progress reports, including those submitted on paper with the NIH PHS 2590 form and those submitted electronically using the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR).

Beginning August 15, 2013, the NIH will make undergraduate, graduate student, and other project personnel roles available in the eRA Commons.

Beginning October 18, 2013, the NIH PHS 2590 and RPPR forms will be modified to prompt for this information. The newly revised instructions and forms will be available on October 18, 2013 at NIH Forms & Applications. Beginning October 18, a warning will be generated when an RPPR is submitted that lists individuals in a graduate or undergraduate student role who have not established an eRA Commons ID.

Also beginning October 18, 2013, students and postdocs who complete their eRA Commons Profile will be required to answer certain demographic questions. For items that request information on gender, race and ethnicity, and disability, one of the acceptable responses will be “I Do Not Wish to Provide.”

Beginning in October 2014, eRA Commons ID for graduate and undergraduate students will be required for progress reports. RPPRs lacking these eRA Commons IDs will receive an error, and the NIH will not accept the RPPRs without these IDs.

NIH eRA Commons at Berkeley

To obtain an eRA Commons ID, contact the UC Berkeley Sponsored Projects Office for assistance with registration: spoawards@berkeley.edu. You will need to provide the following information:

First Name:
Last Name:
UC Berkeley Email:
Type of account needed (i.e., PI, Postdoc, Assist):

After SPO registers you in the Commons, you will receive an “Account Created” notification email (sent to the email you provide in the UCB Email field) containing the username and a randomly generated password. You then will be asked to create a new password.

Resources

• NIH Proposals and Awards at Berkeley: The NIH eRA Commons
• Extension of eRA Commons User IDs to Individuals in Graduate and Undergraduate Student Project Roles with Measurable Effort on an NIH Annual Progress Report (PHS2590 & RPPR) (NOT-OD-13-097)
• NIH Rock Talk blog: Using eRA Commons to Improve Data on the Biomedical Research Workforce