Updates from the Finance & Sponsored Projects Department

(From the January 2014 issue of Research Now)

eTRAC Grants & Renewals: grant numbers are changing

This change will impact all new grant numbers, both internal and external, that are set up through eTrac and Navision.

Grant numbers for new grants will have an extended project number. Specifically, the two characters following the initial digit will be extended by two numbers creating an eight digit number. Previously assigned numbers are not changing and will continue using the same four-digit number with the last two digits changing on renewal.

The following table illustrates the change for a new grant and an existing renewal.

Why the change?

We are proactively addressing issues identified with the current grant numbering scheme:

• Limit of total grant numbers available is being reached on certain grant types.
• Number of new submissions is increasing and total available grant number continues to get smaller.

How will this help?

Changing to an eight-digit numbering scheme precludes the above issues. In addition, it allows for:

• Up to 99,999 additional numbers to be generated, preventing lack of new numbers in the foreseeable future.
• Prevents duplication of existing grant numbers.
• Allows projects to be set up without interruption.

When will this occur?

This change will apply to all new grant numbers generated on or after 1/15/2014.

Test Drive SciENcv  

NIH has an update on a new tool: the Science Experts Curriculum Vitae or SciENcv. The system enables researchers to easily maintain and generate biosketches for federal grant applications and progress reports, and, as of September, is available to the public in a beta version.

Any researcher can use SciENcv to link their biographical information (education and award history, for example) with publication records in PubMed and myBibliography. Researchers who already have an eRA Commons Account can use it to create a usable NIH biosketch within a few minutes. It also provides a convenient portal to ORCID allowing users to generate and associate a unique international ID with the information in their SciENcv.

NIH’s National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is designing the system with the researcher in mind, reducing the need to manually enter redundant information. When fully implemented, SciENcv will provide a structured, digital view of biosketch information for grant applications for all participating federal science agencies.

You can test the beta version by signing into SciENcv through myNCBI. Your feedback to NIH regarding the existing platform will be helpful.

How Should I Format an NIH Grant Number in my Publications?

As posted by the NIH on November 30, 2013, when citing your NIH grant in your research publications, include the activity code (e.g., R01), and two-letter institute code (e.g., GM) followed by the serial number (including any leading zeros), and leave out any separating spaces or dashes.

A proper grant number citation would look like this: R01GM987654

Citing the grant number in the correct format improves NIH information resources such as PubMed, PubMed Central, and RePORTER. For more information on citing NIH in your research, visit the Communicating and Acknowledging Federal Funding page.