Instructions for Using the NIH Electronic Council Book
(For NIDDK Advisory Council Members Only)
What is the NIH Electronic Council Book?
The Electronic Council Book (ECB) is an online system that provides a variety of services in support of the second level of review of grant applications by a review group (hereafter referred to as the Advisory Council) at the funding agency.
The data in the ECB, and the codes you use for access to those data, are confidential and must be protected. Since the ECB contains confidential data, you should not leave it unattended. Use it and then disconnect. If for some reason you are inactive for approximately one hour, the system will automatically disconnect, and you will have to login again.
How do I get started?
Logging in to the new Electronic Council Book (ECB):
- Council Members should receive an email from NIH eRA that is inviting them to access the eRA Commons Homepage. Click on the link within that email (If needed, check your spam folder). Alternatively, the ECB can be accessed at https://public.era.nih.gov/ecb.
- Use your eRA Commons username and If you do not know your login information, click the Forgot Password/Unlock Account, or contact the Commons Help/Service Desk to re-establish your credentials.
- The new council member electronically agrees to necessary acknowledgments, such as responsibilities in protecting peer review, confidentiality, and conflict of interest forms, whereupon they land on the council information screen in ECB.
Please note: If you have problems, please email NIDDKAdvisoryCouncil@nih.gov or call the NIDDK DEA Office of the Director (301.594.8843). If you have entered an incorrect USERNAME, you can click on CLEAR, and enter the information again.
How do I use the system?
The ECB Council Information screen is the landing page for council members. Each council round, a new Council Information page is set up; these pages can consist of tabs, sections, subsections, text, links, and documents.
To initiate a search
ECB allows you to search for applications for the current council round using several criteria on the Application Search screen.
- Click the Search tab in the ECB menu at the top of the screen. The Application Search screen is displayed.
- To search for a specific summary statement, enter either the application number or the Principal Investigator’s last name in the appropriate box. You do not need to enter the entire grant number or full PI name; the system will find all applications that meet your criteria.
- To search for a group of summary statements that meet certain search criteria (such as all the applications reviewed by a particular SRG, projects in a range of priority scores or percentiles, or all applications reviewed in response to a particular RFA or any other combination of information), simply enter that information in the appropriate boxes.
- To search for all applications on a specific scientific topic, simply enter the appropriate term in the boxes labeled “Summary Text Contains.” This search criterion has two boxes and a drop-down menu between them that allows use of a Boolean logical operator (AND, OR, and NOT) to connect two-character strings. Note: If one is searching for a topic such as “endocrine disruptors” consider the two words as a single character string and enter both words in the left box separated by a space rather than one in each box. You may use these fields to search the Summary Statement, the Project Title, or both of these items.
Search criteria examples
Project Type searches for one or more project types. Enter a type, then select it from the drop-down list of potential matches. Note that you can select the Exclude checkbox to include all project types except the specified type(s).
Activity Code searches for one or more activity codes. Enter a code, then select it from the drop-down list of potential matches. Note that you can select the Exclude checkbox to include all activity codes except the specified code(s).
ICs searches for one or more ICs. Enter the IC abbreviation, then select it from the dropdown list of potential matches. Note that you can select the Exclude checkbox to include all ICs except the specified one(s). Electronic Council Book (ECB) for Council Members User Guide Electronic Council Book (ECB)
Serial Number searches for the six-digit number assigned within an IC.
Support Year searches for the two-digit number indicating the segment or budget period of a project. Suffix searches for the suffix appended to an application (e.g., A1 is a resubmission).
PI First Name searches for applications based on the PI's first name.
PI Last Name searches for applications based on the PI's last name.
Institution Name searches for applications where the primary investigator is affiliated with the specified institution. Note that this performs a contains search and wildcards are not necessary.
Project Title searches for applications based on the project title. Note that although you may use wildcards, you must enter three characters before a wildcard can be entered.
PO Name searches for applications based on the PO. Click the drop-down and select the PO you wish to search for.
Percentile allows you to set a minimum value, maximum value, or both for the Percentile score in council review. Note that if an application does not have a Percentile score, it will be filtered out if any criteria are entered here.
Priority Score allows you to set a minimum value, maximum value, or both for the Priority score in council review. Note that if an application does not have a Priority score, it will be filtered out if any criteria are entered here.
Study Sections fields search for the specified criteria.
Program Class Code searches for applications that include the specified class code(s). Use an underscore (_) for a wildcard representing one character and a percent sign (%) for a wildcard representing multiple characters. If you wish to include multiple criteria, separate them with a comma (,). For more information on program class codes, visit https://partners.niehs.nih.gov/program.
Running a search
Once you have selected the appropriate criteria, you are ready to run the search.
- Click the Search button in the lower-right corner of the screen to run the search with the selected criteria. The Project Search Result screen is displayed.
Modifying a search
If your search did not find the expected results, you may need to modify your search criteria.
- Click the Go back link in the upper-right corner of the screen. You are returned to the Search screen and your search criteria are still selected.
- Modify the search criteria as desired.
- Click the Search button to rerun the search.
Application/Grant Number
The identification number is commonly referred to as the application number or grant number, depending upon its processing status. The identification number consists of several parts, each having a distinct meaning. The following example shows the parts of an ID number assigned to an amendment (A1) to a supplemental (Type 3) application for a traditional research project (R01) referred to the National Cancer Institute (CA). The number further identifies the application serially as the 65412st new proposal submitted to the NCI and indicates that this is the first supplemental application (S1) to the fourth year (-04) of support to this project.
Explanation of Grant application/award identification NUMBERING system:
| Suffixes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Application Type | Activity Code | Administering Org | Serial Number | Grant Year | Other |
| 3 | R01 | CA | 65412 | 04 | S1A1 |
Application Type Code - A single-digit code identifying the type of application received and processed. The codes are as follows: 1 New; 2 Competing Continuation; 3 Supplement; 4 Extension; 5 Noncompeting Continuation; 6 Change of Institute or Division; 7 Change of Grantee or Training Institution; 8 Change of Institute or Division (noncompeting continuation); 9 Change of Institute or Division (competing continuation)
Activity Code - A three-digit code identifying a specific category of extramural activity (e.g., R01, R03, R33, T32, F33, R44, U01).
Administering Organization Code (Also referred to as an IC Code or Admin PHS Org Code) - A two-letter code identifying the primary NIH Institute or Center to which the application is assigned. In the above example, "CA" refers to the National Cancer Institute.
Serial Number - A six-digit number generally assigned sequentially to a series within an NIH Institute or Center.
Suffixes - A field composed of the following components:
Grant year - A two-digit number indicates the actual segment or budget period of a project. The grant year number (01, 02, etc.) is preceded by a dash to separate it from the serial number; e.g., AI 12345-02 or CA 00900-04. The grant year number is increased by one for each succeeding renewal year. Thus, the 04 year suffix in the example above identifies a grant in its fourth year.
Supplement - The letter "S" and related number identify a particular supplemental record; e.g., S1, S2. Supplement designations follow the grant year or the amendment designation, as the case may be; e.g., AI 12345-01S1 and CA 00900-04A1S2.
Amendment - The letter "A" and related number identify each amended application e.g., A1, A2, etc. Amendment designations follow the grant year or the supplement designation, as the case may be; e.g., DE 34567-02A1 and HL 45678-01S1A2.
Search criteria examples continued
Text Search
A text word search retrieves applications containing one or two search terms. The search is performed against the summary statement narrative and the Project title and may take slightly longer to return the results. Submitting a search with an entry in the first box will find all summary statements and/or Project titles containing that single word anywhere in the text. To enter two text words, select the correct Boolean logical operator (and, or, not) from the drop-down menu between the two text boxes.
Priority Score/Percentile
The system sets a default priority score and percentile to focus on the applications being reviewed by the Advisory Councils. The default for the percentile is between 00 and 30 and for the priority score, between 100 and 300. These defaults can be deleted or changed. Score ranges can be cleared by clicking the “Clear Scores” button below the data entry boxes. If you wish to enter different ranges, highlight the contents of these boxes and enter different numbers.
Advanced search criteria examples
Summary Statements Released Since
A frequent user of the system will be able to retrieve summary statements released into the database since the last time the user logged into the system. For example, to retrieve all summary statements since January 15, 2003, the entry would be 01/15/2003 (mm/dd/yyyy). You can also select applications based on whether or the Summary Statement has been released by selecting the appropriate option in the drop down box.
RFA/PA Number
The IC will provide its Council members with valid RFA/PA numbers. Please use the format as provided on the search screen in the Application ID section. Please note that if you are interested in Common Fund (Roadmap) applications there is a radio button in the Basic Search Options section that allows you to include only Common Fund (Roadmap) applications in your search.
For Common Fund (Roadmap) Search: Click on the Search button in the ECB and in the Trans-NIH Initiatives box, select RM: NIH RoadMap.
Direct Cost Recommended
In the Review/Program Section you can search for applications based on specified budget amounts. For example, entering 1000000 and selecting “Greater Than or Equal To” from the drop-down menu will retrieve a list of applications with budgets of one million dollars or more.
Special Selects
The Special Selects Sections provides options for searching on several different criteria. You may search on one criterion or a combination of criteria. Foreign applications are those applications from organizations outside the boundaries and territories of the United States. In the Special Selects Section, check the box ‘Foreign Grants’ to retrieve a list of summary statements of all foreign applications. Phase 3 Clinical Trials are identified by the Initial Review Group. AIDS identifies applications involving AIDS-related research. You may also search for applications with various human or animals subjects concerns.
Completing your search
Once you are satisfied with the search criteria, click the Search button at the top of the page Please note that there is a default score range of 0 to 100 PERCENTILE and 1 to 100 PRIORITY SCORE. If you need to search ALL applications, please clear these values prior to running your search.
Search results
When a search is completed a hit list will be displayed with the search criteria listed at the top. The hit list will include all data on all applications that meet the search criteria you have selected. The search criteria will be listed at the top of the list of applications for easy reference.
Viewing summary statements
To view a particular summary statement click on the project number. The next screen will be the complete summary statement. Note: Each hit list will list all applications that satisfy the search criteria whether or not the summary statement is currently available. For Netscape users, the grant number will be a different color (usually blue) and underlined if the summary statement is available. Also, there will be a check box on the left margin (see instructions below on downloading one or more summary statements for offline reading).
The Electronic Council Book allows you to retrieve and download groups of summary statements. In addition, the user now has the ability to selectively "tag" and "untag" items in the hit list by checking the boxes on the left margin. This allows the user to create highly customized hit lists for the purpose of downloading summary statements.
Summary statements may be retrieved in several ways
- Download one or more Summary Statements as a single PDF file that can be printed locally (you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer to use this feature). To download a group of summary statements as a single PDF, check the boxes on the left margin for all applications you wish to include.
- Download a collection of Summary Statements as a “Zip” file from which individual summary statements can be viewed or printed. You will need a program that extracts zip files in order to view the summary statements. To download a group of summary statements as a single zip file, check the boxes on the left margin for all applications you wish to include.
- View individual summary statements in the browser without distracting page headers embedded in the text. To view a single summary statement in your browser window, click on the project number.
Viewing IRG/SRG rosters
To view the roster of members for a particular Study Section simply click on the SRG identifier on the hit list The IRG identifier is adjacent to the application of interest.
For assistance please contact
Email: NIDDKAdvisoryCouncil@nih.gov; phone: 301.594.8843 (NIDDK DEA Office of the Director)