eRA Information: All Senior/Key Personnel Required to Have a Commons ID for Due Dates on or after January 25, 2022
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is targeting submission dates on or after January 25, 2022 for a new requirement that all Senior/Key Personnel on a grant application must enter a valid eRA Commons username (Commons ID) in the credential field. A valid eRA Commons username will be required to be entered in the “Credential, e.g. agency login” field for all Senior/Key Personnel listed on the Research & Related Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) form. Reminder: Use of Internet Explorer for eRA modules will be phased out by July 19, 2021. Please switch to other eRA supported browsers when using eRA modules.
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 two council rounds before becoming an error that must be corrected to successfully submit the application to the agency.
For more information on this requirement, please see Guide Notice NOT-OD-21-109.
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.
To read other recent articles and messages, please visit the Latest News page at https://era.nih.gov/news.
Additional Resources:
- Guide Notice: NOT-OD-21-109
- Understanding eRA Commons Accounts
- Create and Edit an Account
- Account Roles
- eRA FAQs: Section V. Creating Accounts; Delegating and Revoking Authority; Affiliating (See questions #10 and #11)
- How to Get a User ID for eRA Commons (video)
