xTrain Promises Streamlined Electronic Admin of Research Training Grants

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) invites all Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) members to participate in a pilot of xTrain, a new feature of the NIH electronic Research Administration (eRA) Commons that provides institutional users the ability to electronically prepare and submit appointment forms and other documents required for Kirschstein-NRSA research training grants.  Currently, the xTrain system can accept appointment forms and termination notices for T32 and T34 research training grants, and will be used by NIH staff to review and approve appointments and terminations submitted electronically.

We invite interested institutions and training grant directors to obtain more information, reference sheets, and other training materials by visiting http://era.nih.gov/services_for_applicants/other/xTrain.cfm.

The xTrain system is part of the eRA Commons, an online interface where grant applicants, grantees, federal staff – and now trainees – share information.  The current version of xTrain incorporates feedback from nine Commons Working Group institutions that participated in a small-scale pilot test in late 2007 and early 2008.  A number of improvements were made to the system based on feedback from the initial pilot participants, and with those enhancements now in place, NIH now expands the pilot to all FDP members.