eRA Commons Access

Research, Sponsored Projects   |   Approved October 9, 2015

Purpose

Obtain an eRA Commons account to maintain compliance with applicable federal agency requirements and University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) requirements.

Applicability

Principal Investigators or their designees assigned to grants, cooperative agreements and fellowships with National Institutes of Health (NIH), Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

UMB and many governmental organizations require actions through the eRA Commons system to maintain compliance. For more information please see  the NIH eRA website.

Instructions

1. Email Center for Information Technology Services (CITS), and provide your full name, UMB email address (no gmail, hotmail, etc. addresses), rank (graduate student, postdoc, faculty member or staff) and requested eRA Commons role.
   1. If you are a Principal Investigator with an existing eRA Commons account who needs to affiliate with the University of Maryland Baltimore, email CITS and provide your full name, UMB email address, and eRA Commons account name.
   2. If you are unsure of which role to request, NIH provides descriptions of all eRA Commons roles. The most frequently requested roles are:
      • Principal Investigator (PI): May access information pertaining to the grant(s) on which he/she is the designated PI. May edit their own personal profile, view grant application status and related information, view notice of award, initiate an RPPR (Research Performance Progress Report), view and manage certain training grant activities, and delegate authority to an ASST for certain actions on their account.
      • Assistant (ASST): Is delegated access by a PI to the PI’s eRA Commons account to assist with data entry and/or view grant status.
2. CITS will create your eRA Commons account or affiliate an existing account with the University of Maryland Baltimore.
3. CITS will send you an email with information about your eRA Commons account.
   1. For a new eRA Commons account, this email will include your user name.
4. NIH will send you an email notification. For a new eRA Commons account, this notification will contain your logon URL. Click on the URL to update the password and your account will be available for your immediate use.
   1. If you have a legacy or unaffiliated entry in the NIH database you will receive an email from the NIH requesting confirmation that the account belongs to you. Your account will be available for use 24 – 48 hours after you provide the necessary confirmation.