Beginning January 1, 2011, the use of xTrain, NIH’s electronic appointment system, will be required for nearly all NIH institutional research training grants, fellowships, education and career development awards. For more details, see NOT-OD-10-072.
xTrain provides program directors, university administrators and trainees the ability to electronically process and submit appointment forms and termination notices associated with institutional research training grants and career development awards. The xTrain system speeds up the NIH approval process and reduces the chance of data entry errors associated with paper appointment forms. In addition, once a training appointment has been initiated in xTrain, the system provides institutional and NIH users with an ongoing record of its status.
The transition to electronic submission will affect grantees receiving the following training grant and fellowship awards:
- Kirschstein-NRSA undergraduate institutional training grants (T34 — appointment forms only)
- Kirschstein-NRSA predoctoral and postdoctoral institutional training grants (T32, T35, T90, TL1 and TU2)
- Kirschstein-NRSA fellowships (F30, F31, F32 and F33 — termination notices only)
- National Library of Medicine institutional training grants (T15)
For research education awards and institutional career development awards (R25, R90, K12, KL2 and KM1), grantees should check with the awarding Institute or Center to determine if the program requires the use of appointment and termination forms and, therefore, submission via xTrain.
To prepare for electronic submission of appointment and termination forms in 2011, potential users are encouraged to review the xTrain instructions and training resources available on the eRA Commons Web site. xTrain is open to all institutions registered with the eRA Commons; therefore, no special steps are required to begin using the system. For new users who would like to try out the xTrain system and learn about its features in a sample environment, xTrain is also available on the Commons Demonstration site.
To facilitate appointment-making through xTrain, NIH recommends that institutions consider routinely establishing eRA Commons accounts for training-grant-eligible students and postdoctorates. Where useful, PD/PIs may also delegate their xTrain authority to an assistant or departmental administrator.
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