Roles in eRA Commons
Overview of Roles in eRA Commons vs SAMHSA Roles ............................... 2
The Signing Official (SO) and Business Official (BO) Roles .................................................................... 2
Overview of Roles in eRA Commons vs SAMHSA Roles ............................... 3
The Principal Investigator (PI) and Project Director (PD) Roles .......................................................... 3
The Financial Status Reporter (FSR) Role ..................................................................................................... 4
The Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) Role ....................................................................... 4
What can the eRA and SAMHSA roles do? ................................................... 5
New Applications ..................................................................................................................................................... 5
Continuation Applications .................................................................................................................................... 5
Post-Award Amendment Changes .................................................................................................................... 5
Resolving Terms ...................................................................................................................................................... 6
Federal Financial Report (FFR or SF-425) ...................................................................................................... 6
Notice of Award (NoA) .......................................................................................................................................... 6
December 2018 Page 2 of 6
Overview of Roles in eRA Commons vs SAMHSA Roles
The Signing Official (SO) and Business Official (BO) Roles
Roles
Key Points
Only individuals with legal signing authority can register
their organization in eRA Commons
. This individual will
have the Signing Official (SO) role in eRA. Individuals
with SO role can create/edit/maintain the organization’s
Institutional Profile (IPF) in eRA.
The SAMHSA Business Official (BO) listed in Part C of the
HHS 5161 Checklist form or the Authorized Organization
Representative (AOR) in the SF-424 must have the SO
role in eRA.
One eRA account with the SO role is automatically
created for the organization during registration.
However, the SO who registered the organization can
create additional accounts with SO roles. The SO can
create/delete/update eRA accounts with other roles (such
as Principal Investigator (PI) and Financial Status
Reporter (FSR)) for their organization staff.
Individuals with SO role will be able to access all active
grants in the organization. If the SO changes
organizations, they would need a new eRA account with
role(s) specific to that organization.
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eRA Commons
Role
SAMHSA Role
Signing
Official (SO)
Business
Official (BO)
in
HHS 5161
Checklist
December 2018 Page 3 of 6
Overview of Roles in eRA Commons vs SAMHSA Roles
The Principal Investigator (PI) and Project Director (PD) Roles
Roles
Key Points
The Signing Official (SO) must create at least one
account in eRA Commons with the Principal Investigator
(PI) role in order to submit an application, even if they are
submitting through the Grants.gov Workspace. During
submission, the applicant/grant recipient must enter the
Commons ID for the account with the PI role in the
Applicant Identifier field in Section 4 of the SF-424
form.
The SAMHSA Project Director (PD) listed in Part C of the
HHS 5161 Checklist form must have the PI role in eRA.
Individuals with the PI role will only be able to access the
active grants for which they are listed as PD in Part C of
HHS-5161 Checklist. The organization may have more
than one PI account, but a PI account holder should have
only one eRA Commons account throughout their career.
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eRA Role
SAMHSA
Role
Principal
Investigator (PI)
Project
Director (PD)
December 2018 Page 4 of 6
The Financial Status Reporter (FSR) Role
Role
Key Points
The recipient official with the Financial Status Reporter
(FSR) role is the individual who electronically signs
section 13 of the Federal Financial Report (FFR or SF-
425) as the Authorized Official (AO). The official with the
FSR role is responsible for the reporting the statement of
expenditures for the award.
The SO/BO can create eRA accounts with the FSR role.
The Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) Role
Role
Key Points
Organizations submitting an application to SAMHSA for
the first time must register their Authorized Organization
Representative (AOR) in Grants.gov as they will be
required to enter their Grants.gov AOR credentials in eRA
Application Submission System and Interface for
Submission Tracking (ASSIST) to complete the
submission process. Upon clicking the Submit button in
ASSIST, the AOR credentials from Grants.gov must be
entered.
The AOR in section 21 of the SF-424 form and the
individual with the SO/BO role in eRA Commons may be
the same. However, they do not have to be the same
individual as long as the DUNS and SAM registration
match with Grants.gov and eRA Commons.
Grants.gov
Authorized
Organization
Representative
(AOR)
Financial Status
Reporter (FSR)
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December 2018 Page 5 of 6
What can the eRA and SAMHSA roles do?
New Applications
Actions
SO (eRA Role)/
BO (SAMHSA Role)
PI (eRA Role)/
PD (SAMHSA Role)
a. Initiate applications
b. Submit applications
c. Access submission and receive email notification on status
d. Receive emails on system or technical issues
e. View assembled (compiled) images
f. View summary statement
Continuation Applications
Continuation applications can only be initiated through eRA Commons and submitted through ASSIST.
Actions
SO (eRA Role)/
BO (SAMHSA Role)
PI (eRA Role)/
PD (SAMHSA Role)
a. View/initiate/edit/save continuation applications
b. Submit continuation applications
c. Receive Requests for Additional Materials (RAMs)
d. Initiate/view/upload/delete Responses to RAMs
e. Submit materials for RAM
c
f. Receive email notifications on submissions
Post-Award Amendment Changes
Requests for post-award amendment changes can only be initiated through eRA Commons and submitted
through ASSIST.
Actions
SO (eRA Role)/
BO (SAMHSA Role)
PI (eRA Role)/
PD (SAMHSA Role)
a. View/initiate/edit/save requests
b. Access Work In Progress (WIP) amendments
c. Submit requests
d. Receive Requests for Additional Materials (RAMs)
e. Initiate/view/upload/delete responses to RAMs
f. Submit materials for RAM
g. Receive email notifications on submissions
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December 2018 Page 6 of 6
Resolving Terms
Actions
SO (eRA Role)/
BO (SAMHSA Role)
PI (eRA Role)/
PD (SAMHSA Role)
a. View status in Term Tracker
b. Submit materials in response to Terms
c. Receive email notifications, warning notices, and late reminders
Federal Financial Report (FFR or SF-425)
Only individual(s) with the FSR role can perform the FFR actions shown.
Actions
SO (eRA Role)/
BO (SAMHSA Role)
PI (eRA Role)/
PD (SAMHSA Role)
a. Assign Financial Status Reporter (FSR) role to organization official
b. Create new/view/edit via the FFR tab in eRA Commons
c. Submit the FFR
d. Receive email notifications on submissions
Notice of Award (NoA)
Actions
SO (eRA Role)/
BO (SAMHSA Role)
PI (eRA Role)/
PD (SAMHSA Role)
a. Receive new and amended NoAs via email
b. Update the email addresses for the NoA.
Email addresses for the NoAs are those persons identified as the BO
and PD in Part C of the HHS Checklist, and the alternate NOA email
address in eRA Grants Management module, if entered.
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