NIH Announces New Business Process for Reporting Identified Financial Conflict of Interest for Grants and Cooperative Agreements Beginning October 10, 2008

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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) invites all Federal Demonstration Partnership (FDP) members to participate in a pilot of a Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI) Module, a new feature of the NIH electronic Research Administration (eRA) Commons. The FCOI Module provides institutional users the ability to electronically prepare and submit FCOI reports and other required documents through the Commons. Currently, the FCOI reports are submitted to the Chief Grants Management Officer of the NIH awarding component.

The FCOI Module will allow institutional users to 1) initiate and prepare FCOI reports, 2) electronically submit reports and supporting documents, 3) search and view FCOI reports previously submitted through the Commons, 4) edit or rescind submitted reports with NIH involvement and 5) access history of actions.

The FCOI Module is part of the eRA Commons, an online interface where grantees and federal staff share information. The current version of the FCOI Module incorporates feedback from a small-scale pilot test performed in the summer of 2008 with nine institutions that are members of the Commons Working Group. Based on feedback from the initial pilot participants, NIH now expands the pilot to all FDP members and a small sample of non-FDP members.

Additional information, resources, and a User Guide for the FCOI Module can be found on the eRA Commons page.