Grants.gov System Questions

For some DOE proposals, where an FFRDC cannot be the lead institution, we are required to submit a parallel proposal.  Is eSRA set up to "hand-shake" with the  new grants.gov Workspace portal?

Yes, the Grants.gov Workspace proposal and eSRA Grants.gov proposal will be matched up at DOE.  Grants.gov is like a post office.  The Grants.gov Workspace proposal package and the eSRA proposal package both arrive at the Grants.gov post office where DOE goes to retrieve both packages.  They are matched up at DOE.  

What do I do if we are a subaward and the direct sponsor is submitting to Grants.gov using Workspace and they insist we enter our information directly into the Grants.gov Workspace?

This is not LBNL's preferred way to submit a subaward proposal because it requires duplicate effort.  Preparing the proposal in Grants.gov Workspace cannot be used to circumvent the SPO Contracts Officer (CO) from reviewing and authorizing submission of the subaward proposal.  If the direct sponsor insists you enter information into the Grants.gov Workspace, follow these steps:

1. Make sure you (the RA) have a Grants.gov account affiliated with LBNL.
2. Enter the proposal information into eSRA skipping View 8.5.
3. Contact eSRAHelp@lbl.gov and provide the FP# and request temporary Grants.gov Workspace access to enter the information into Grants.gov Workspace.
4. The help ticket will be assigned to the System Support and Reporting Group (SSRG).
5. The SSRG will provide Workspace access to your Grants.gov account so you can enter the proposal information into Workspace.
6. SSRG will use the ‘Email Proposal Team’ activity in eSRA to notify you and the CO that you have access to Workspace in Grants.gov for this proposal.
7. Enter the required information in Grants.gov Workspace.
8. Print a copy of the information you entered in Grants.gov Workspace.
9. Complete the proposal info in eSRA and upload that printout into the eSRA proposal on View 8.5.
10. Route the proposal in eSRA for review, approval, and submission by the CO to our direct sponsor.
11. Notify the SSRG person (or comment on your existing help ticket) that you have completed the proposal in Grants.gov.
12. The SSRG will remove the Workspace access from your Grants.gov account and use the ‘Email Proposal Team’ activity in eSRA to notify you and the CO confirming the Grants.gov Workspace access has been removed.

People in Grants.gov applications

I can't find an LBNL Scientist on the selection list for Other Significant Contributor (OSC)

• The most common cause of a scientist not being included on the OSC selection list is because the scientist does not yet have a Researcher Profile. Since most NIH proposals are submitted via Grants.gov and Grants.gov applications require the Researcher Profile in order to create the Person Profile in the SF424 application, a Researcher Profile is required to select a person for that field.
• LBNL staff do not need any special role in eSRA to be named as an OSC.
• Researcher Profiles QR2021, available on the Supplemental Information by Topics page of the eSRA website can assist you. 
• After the Profile is created, you should be able to select the scientist as an OSC. 

A person is displayed in the SF424 PDF multiple times

This is probably due to the person being entered into the eSRA proposal in more than one location (although it isn't currently visible to the user).  For example: if a person was identified as "key," then moved to another group (such as OSC) without deleting the person from the Key Personnel List, eSRA remembers them and they will be entered twice in the SF424 application package.  

Solution:

• Click "yes" on each type of personnel in eSRA proposal View 4 where the answer is “no” to locate any hidden people.  
• Delete them from the incorrect locations and change your answer back to “no” for that type of personnel.
• If this is not the cause of the problem, submit a help request for assistance.

The person profile did not show up in the SF424 application package

Usually, the Research & Related Senior/Key Person Profile form is a required form in the SF424 application package.  However, whether a form is deemed required or optional is based on the specifications provided by the sponsor to Grants.gov.  If a form is optional, you many need to manually make this determination.

These are the steps:

• Navigate to the SF424 application.
• Click to edit the Grant Application.
• The first SmartForm should be the “Select Optional Forms” View.
• Check the box to select the “Research & Related Senior/Key Person Profile” form.
• Save and exit.
• Thereafter, the Person Profile will be included in your SF424 application package.
• Return to the eSRA proposal and use the activity "Update SF424" to confirm.

The Department and Division are switched on my NIH SF424 application package

Grants.gov Budgets

I tried to Generate a PDF on a non-federal with NIH Flow-Thru but no forms were created

• The Grants.gov solicitation number must be entered in question 3.4.a in order for eSRA to know to go to Grants.gov to download the application package and link it to the proposal.  If you enter the solicitation number in question 3.4.c, an application package will not be linked.
• If you entered the solicitation number in 3.4.a and still did not get the application forms, check to see if the proposal must be submitted via NIH ASSIST.  In those situations, there is no Grants.gov application package of forms for eSRA to attach to the proposal.  eSRA will seem to have an attached application package, but there are no forms included in it.  You can confirm this is the situation by reference in the Funding Opportunity Announcement.
• If you still have problems and neither of the above situations seem to fit your proposal, send a request to the Help Desk for additional troubleshooting.

How do I calculate the composite rate for indirect costs?

• The SF424 application package only provides 4 lines for indirect costs making it difficult for LBNL to itemize the Institutional Support Costs.  
• eSRA recommends entering a single line identified as 'Composite Rate Applied'
• Enter the Total Direct costs as the Base
• Enter the Total Institutional Support costs as the Indirect Costs
• Calculate the rate as Indirect Costs/Total Direct Costs
• Note: This will often trigger and error/warning message when you validate the proposal.  If the amount of difference identified in the validation messages is less than $10 this is due to rounding caused by our method of calculation and can be ignored.  If the difference identified in the validation message is greater than $10 that might indicate a true calculation error and you should double-check your numbers.

Total Estimated Amount is incorrect on the SF424

• Double-check the answer to question 9.3.c, "Sponsor's Cost."  
• If this answer is correct (but the SF424 is incorrect), use the activity "Update SF424" to move this answer to the SF424. 
• Use the activity “Generate SF424 PDF” to confirm the answers are now correctly reflected in the SF424 application.
• If the answer on the SF424 Application still incorrect, submit a help request for technical troubleshooting and assistance.

Total Estimated Amount is missing from the SF424

• The eSRA system does not automatically move answers from the eSRA proposal to the SF424 application.  This would significantly slow down the system for all proposals.
• Make sure all the questions on View 9.3 have been answered. 
• Use the activity "Update SF424" to move the answer in 9.3 to the SF424.  
• Use the activity “Generate SF424 PDF” to confirm the answers are now correctly reflected in the SF424 application.
• If the amount did not correctly populate on the SF424, submit a help request for troubleshooting and technical assistance.

Received error: "Could not Locate SF-424 project: 'sch' is undefined."  Not able to link to SF424 Budget. 

• This message appears in View 9.2 of the eSRA proposal and the link to the SF424 is not available. 
• This sometimes happens when a proposal is copied or when the type of budget is changed from SF424 R&R budget to Modular budget, or vice versa.  
• Solution: Exit the proposal, Go directly into the SF424 application (instructions for Direct Access to SF424 application are on the eSRA Website training page) and check the box for the correct type of budget.  
• Save
• Go back to the eSRA proposal and the error should be cleared and the link should be active.  
• If this does not work, submit a help request.

Changing from Detailed to Modular

• The PI decided to submit a modular budget after I had started to create a detailed budget. What do I do?
• Go to View 9.0 and change your selection to "Modular Budget." 
• Exit your eSRA Proposal and use the Activity "Update SF424." 
• Re-open your proposal to edit, jump to View 9.2 and follow the link to the budget in the SF424. You should now have a modular budget to work with.

Changing from Modular to Detailed

• The PI decided to submit a detailed budget after I had started to create a modular budget.  What do I do?
• Go to View 9.0 and change your selection to "Detailed Budget." 
• Exit your eSRA Proposal and use the Activity "Update SF424." 
• Re-open your proposal to edit, jump to View 9.2 and follow the link to the budget in the SF424. You should now have a detailed budget to work with.

Subaward Budget Form Has an Expired Date

You noticed an expiration date on the Subaward budget form provided by the subawardee.

• This might be a problem, or it could be that the sponsor agency picked a subaward budget form with an old date.
• It is essential that you use the subaward award budget form connected with this specific Grants.gov application.  Here is what you need to do:
• Identify the Grants.gov funding opportunity in question 'a' on View 3 to link a SF424 application package.
• In the eSRA proposal workspace, follow the link on the 'Submission to Sponsor' tab to get to the SF424 Application workspace.
• The subaward budget forms should be available for download.  
• Download the subaward forms and compare with the one sent by your subawardee.
• If they are not the same, ask the subawardee to fill out the new form, or copy/paste the information from their budget form into the correct budget form.
• Upload Subaward Budgets for Grants.gov Application QR5014 available on the Supplemental Information by Topics page of the website provides more detailed information and troubleshooting steps if the subaward budgets do not immediately populate in the SF424 Workspace in eSRA.
• If you need additional assistance, contact eSRAHelp@lbl.gov and provide the eSRA FP # and the Funding Opportunity #.

I can't upload my SF424 subaward budget file

The most likely cause is that you are trying to upload a PDF document and the subaward budget upload must be the PDF fillable form.  You can tell the difference by opening the PDF and looking at it.  

• If there are fields you can edit, you have a form.  
• If you see what looks like a printout, you have a document.  
• If you have a form file, refer to the Upload Subaward Budgets for Grants.gov Application QR5014 instructions available on the Supplemental Information by Topics page of the website.
• If you still have problems, submit a help request for individual assistance.

How do I know if I should use Adobe B or Adobe E subaward budgets and does it matter?

Yes, it matters.  NIH is currently using Adobe E Grants.gov packages.  All other sponsors are still be using Adobe B packages and will likely include information in their solicitation instructions if they make a change.  There are several methods to determine which Budget forms a package is using.

• Option 1: The solicitation instructions indicate the Adobe version to use.
• Option 2: Review the information about the solicitation in View 3.0 or 3.1 of the eSRA proposal.
• If you still have questions, submit a help request and Help Desk staff will examine the application package and let you know which version of subaward package is required.

How can I tell if my subaward institution(s) used the correct subaward budget form?

Unfortunately they are not labeled clearly.The easiest indicator is to look at the first page of the budget where the key people are entered.  

• For Adobe B subaward forms:
• There will be rows for 8 key people.
• Additional people are added as an attachment.  
• For Adobe E subaward forms:
• Key people are added one at a time so you should not see blank key people rows.
• Additional key people are added by clicking a button "Add Additional Key People."  

The PDF of my application has lots of subcontract budgets with zero amounts.  How do I get rid of them?

• The short answer is: you can't get rid of them.   
• It isn't an error; but it is a known nuisance.  When we tell the eSRA system there will be subcontracts, the eSRA system (using the Grants.gov application package) creates a place for as many subcontracts as the application will allow (20 or 30 of them).  
• We use only a few; but the placeholders remain for the rest of them because we are using the Grants.gov programming to compile the application.
• When the application is compiled at NIH those pages won't be there.  The NIH compilation system is smarter than the Grants.gov one that we are able to link to.  

Funding Opportunities

The PI gave me the wrong Grants.gov funding opportunity, but I can't change it in eSRA.

When you select the Grants.gov funding opportunity, programming happens in the background that links a specific eSRA proposal to a specific SF424 application package.  They cannot be unlinked.  Proceed as follows:

• Use the “Copy proposal” activity. 
• Use the link in the history section to go to the new eSRA proposal.
• Information from the eSRA funding proposal will copy, but not the solicitation number, and not the linked SF424 application.
• Any information, including the budget, entered directly in the SF424 application will have to be re-entered.
• Any documents uploaded in View 8 may have to be uploaded again.
• Remember to discontinue the eSRA proposal with the incorrect funding opportunity.  There is an activity in the proposal workspace to do this.

Received error message: “Cannot Save View 3.x” after selecting Grants.gov funding opportunity

This message indicates we could not connect to the Grants.gov website to connect and retrieve the funding opportunity.

• Check with the Grants.gov website to see if they are reporting technical difficulties. 
• Confirm the solicitation you selected has not expired.  Generally, expired Funding Opportunities will not even be available to select, but we've had a few glitches on the Grants.gov side on this issue.
• If the above two issues are not the cause, submit a help request for troubleshooting and technical assistance.
• Include the eSRA proposal number and the Grants.gov solicitation number

In View 3.1, the Grants.gov Required Proposal Forms doesn't "look" right

Information in this View doesn't match the Funding Opportunity from the Sponsor.  eSRA does not control this information.  It is downloaded with the funding opportunity as hidden meta data provided by the sponsor of the funding opportunity. In most cases, there is nothing to be concerned about.  This view is for information purposes only. 

• Sections 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 are the most important.  If you find a Grants.gov form that is not supported, submit a help request for assistance with how to proceed.
• In all cases so far, we've found that the information posted in the Funding Opportunity from the sponsor supersedes the information displaying in section 4.0 of View 3.1. 
• For most discrepancies, we’ve found that View 3.1 displays the standards for the general type of proposal, not a specific solicitation which contains exceptions. 
• We've seen situations where the maximum number of years, or the yearly cost limit is different than what is stated in the funding opportunity.
• One example is an NIH R21 solicitation indicating in View 3.1 a maximum of 2 years although the Funding Opportunity indicates 3 years are allowable. 
• Another example is an NIH R01 RFA indicating in View 3.1 a yearly direct cost limit of  $500K although the Funding Opportunity set a higher limit.
• If you have concerns about a mismatch of information, submit a help request and we would be happy to review your individual situation to make sure there won't be problems upon submission.