Grants.gov & NIH Troubleshooting Tips

The following information is provided in order to help applicants avoid common causes for rejected NIH applications submitted via Grants.gov.

• Definitions
• Common Errors
• Common Problems
• Common Warnings

Definitions

Error: Something that will prevent validation in ERA Commons of an application submitted via Grants.gov.

Problem: Issues that do not directly impact Grants.gov submission or ERA Commons validation, but nevertheless create difficulties.

Warning: Something that will not prevent validation in ERA Commons of an application submitted via Grants.gov, but which ERA Commons nevertheless flags.

Common Errors

1. The PI’s ERA Commons account must designate a “preferred employment address.” If there is no preferred address in the PI’s ERA Commons account, the application will be in error and unavailable for validation.
   
   To designate a preferred address the PI (or someone with PI delegated authority) must:

   • Login to Commons

   • Select "Personal Profile"

   • Select "Employments"

   • Click the "Edit" link on his/her current employment address

   • Check the box at the bottom that designates this as the preferred address

   • Click the "Submit" button
     

2. On the "Research & Related Senior/Key Person Profile" page, there is a field called "Credential, e.g., agency login." In the PureEdge file, this is not flagged as a required field (since the form is used by multiple agencies). As a result, "Check Package for Errors" will not care if it's blank, nor will Grants.gov. However, when the application gets to ERA Commons, ERA Commons will be looking for the correct PI user name. Be sure to include the correct ERA Commons user name in that field.

3. Any and all files attached to your Grants.gov application must be a PDF. ERA Commons won't accept any other file type.

4. File names for attached documents must not include spaces or special characters and the ".pdf" extension must appear. (Note: A lot of computers are set not to display the extensions, though the extensions are still there. The extension will appear in file name for the document once it’s uploaded into the Grants.gov application.)

5. You must complete all required fields, even when it makes no sense to do so. So, for example, should you have a performance site in Helsinki, Finland, you must still identify which of the fifty US states or five US territories and the zip code in which Helsinki resides.

Common Problems

1. The PI will receive an email from Grants.gov notifying him/her of errors in the application but the application will not appear in ERA Commons for a minimum of 24 hours after the email is sent. Thus, neither the PI nor OSP will be able to identify the errors and make corrections for at least a day following notification of the existence of those errors.

2. You may not receive an email from ERA Commons letting you know that the application is there and available for validation. You need to be proactive and go looking for it.

3. ERA Commons is going to pull the email address for the official contact from the application, not the Grants.gov user name associated with the submission. As a result, all of the notices from ERA Commons regarding the applications have, so far, been sent to osp@u.washington.edu since we've been identifying Carol as the official contact. (As a result, we may want to rethink how we fill these out.)

Common Warnings

1. You will get a warning if the PI name in the application doesn’t exactly match the user name in ERA Commons, including titles. In other words, if Commons knows the PI as "Jane Doe" but the application identifies her as "Jane Q. Doe" or “Dr. Jane Doe,” Commons is going to flag that with a warning.