electronic Research Administration | www.era.nih.gov | eRAinfo@mail.nih.gov
Page 1 of 9
Last. June 22, 2023
Application Submission and Tracking – Business Process Guide
Department of Commerce (DOC) grant applicants are responsible for identifying a Notice of Funding
Opportunity (NOFO), preparing an application, and following the NOFO’s requirements. DOC grant
applications are submitted via Grants.gov and are received in eRA systems, where applicants can review
them before they are considered for potential award.
Preparing the Application
Applicants should follow the NOFO’s instructions when completing their application. Failure to include
required information can result in system validation errors from both Grants.gov and eRA Commons.
A Project Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) eRA Commons account user ID must be included in the
application. DOC utilizes the standard form sets within their application package. The PD/PI username must
be included on the standard SF-424 form in the “4. Applicant Identifier” field.
Figure 1: A valid PD/PI user ID must be included in the SF-424 form's "4. Applicant Identifier" field.
The Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) must also be included on the standard SF-424 form in the “8.c. UEI” field.
Figure 2: The primary UEI assigned to the applicant organization must be included in the SF-424 form’s “8. C. UEI” field.
Failure to include a PD/P user ID or the UEI will result in an error in eRA Commons that prevents the
application from moving forward for review. The application will not be accessible in eRA Commons.
Submitting the Application in Grants.gov
All applications are submitted via Grants.gov and should receive a Grants.gov Tracking Number. Applicants
should track their application within Grants.gov using their tracking number.
Figure 3: All applications are submitted via Grants.gov and should receive a Grants.gov Tracking Number.
electronic Research Administration | www.era.nih.gov | eRAinfo@mail.nih.gov
Page 2 of 9
Last. June 22, 2023
Applicants may see one of the following statuses in Grants.gov:
Agency Tracking Number Assigned: The application did not receive any errors from Grants.gov and
should be available in eRA Commons for tracking.
Received by Agency: The application did not receive any errors from Grants.gov but the application
is not available in eRA Commons for tracking. This may be because the applicant organization is not
registered with eRA Commons or the UEI provided within the application does not match the
primary UEI associated with the applicant organization.
Rejected with Errors: The application received errors from Grants.gov and the application did not
reach eRA Commons. Errors must be addressed, and the applicant must re-submit until they receive
the “Agency Tracking Number Assigned” status.
Tracking Applications in eRA Commons
All applicants are encouraged to log into eRA Commons to check the status of their application. Users with
a Signing Official (SO), Administrative Official (AO), or PD/PI role can access the eRA Commons “Status”
module.
Reminder: Applications must have the “Agency Tracking Number Assigned” status in Grants.gov for it to
appear in eRA Commons.
Figure 4: The Status module can be accessed through the "Apps" dropdown menu or by clicking on the “Status” tile on the eRA
Commons landing page.
electronic Research Administration | www.era.nih.gov | eRAinfo@mail.nih.gov
Page 3 of 9
Last. June 22, 2023
When the SO logs into eRA Commons and clicks on the Status module, the default “Search Type” filter will
reflect “General Search.” Using the dropdown menu, users select “Recent/Pending eSubmissions.”
Figure 1: The Status module’s landing page “Search Type” field can be changed to “Recent/Pending eSubmission” to search for
applications that have not been forwarded to review for award consideration.
After selecting the “Recent/Pending eSubmission” option from the “Search Type” dropdown menu, the
“Recent/Pending eSubmission” search tool automatically loads.
Users with the SO or AO role have the required privileges to search and access all applications/grants that
were submitted by their organization. Recently submitted applications should automatically appear or they
can search via the Grants.gov tracking number.
electronic Research Administration | www.era.nih.gov | eRAinfo@mail.nih.gov
Page 4 of 9
Last. June 22, 2023
Figure 2: The "Recent/Pending eSubmissions" search tool provides options to perform a date-ranged search for recent and
pending applications by “Accession Number,” “Grants.gov Tracking Number,” “eSubmission Status,” or by date range alone.
PD/PIs click on their Status module landing page’s right arrow button to view recent and pending
eSubmissions or perform a search on the Grants.gov tracking number.
Figure 3: The PD/PI’s Status module landing page provides the ability to search for recent and pending submissions or by
Grants.gov tracking number for applications for which they are the designated PD/PI.
If the PD/PI’s user ID was not added to the appropriate field in the application, the PD/PI will not see their
application in Status.
Errors/Warnings
Under Recent/Pending eSubmissions, users will see a list of applications that were recently submitted.
electronic Research Administration | www.era.nih.gov | eRAinfo@mail.nih.gov
Page 5 of 9
Last. June 22, 2023
Figure 4: "Recent/Pending eSubmissions" search results
For applications with no system validation errors, these attributes are listed in the search results table:
• An Accession Number (AN) will have generated in the “Application ID” column
o Clicking on the AN will take the user to the “Status Information” page where they can see
details on their submission along with a preview of their assembled application
• The “eSubmission Status” column will reflect “Pending Verification”
• The SO will have the option to reject the application within a “2-day viewing window”
o This action cannot be undone
o Only the SO can reject the organization’s application during this window
• There will be a link to “Show Prior Errors and Warnings” in the “Show All Prior Errors” column
o Error-free applications should not have any errors noted in this screen, however they may
still have warnings
o Warnings do not prevent an application from moving forward; they alert applicants to pay
close attention to the specific instructions included within the NOFO
Figure 5: The “Show Prior Errors and Warnings” screen shows results for an application with no errors or warnings.
For applications with system validation errors, users can expect the following:
• No AN will be listed nor will there be an option to preview the submitted application
• The “eSubmission Status” column will reflect “eSubmission Error”
• There will not be an option for the SO to reject the application since an application with errors
cannot move forward
• There will be a link to “Show Prior Errors and Warnings”
For the application to move forward, all errors must be corrected. Applicants will need to return to their
application, make the correction, and resubmit the application. After resubmitting, applicants should check
the Status module to ensure there are no additional errors.
electronic Research Administration | www.era.nih.gov | eRAinfo@mail.nih.gov
Page 6 of 9
Last. June 22, 2023
Figure 6: The “Show Prior Errors and Warnings” screen shows results for an application with a fatal error.
Status Information
By clicking on the AN in the “Recent/Pending eSubmissions” search results, users will be taken to the
application’s “Status Information” screen.
On the left side of the screen, they will see:
- Internal DOC agency contacts including review, program, and grants management contact
information
- Latest update on their application
- Contact information of the eRA Service Desk
On the right side of the screen, they will see:
- A grant number (will begin to populate)
- Status
- Other Relevant Documents
o This is where they can see an assembled version of their application by clicking on the ‘e-
Application’ link.
- Review information
- Institute/Center Assignment
- Status History
electronic Research Administration | www.era.nih.gov | eRAinfo@mail.nih.gov
Page 8 of 9
Last. June 22, 2023
Figure 7: Clicking on the AN in the "Recent/Pending eSubmissions" search results loads the "Status Information" screen.
Post-Submission
An error-free application will continue to move forward to the awarding agency (DOC) for review based on
the criteria established in the NOFO. Applicants should continue to monitor the status of their application.
After the 2-day viewing window closes, the application will no longer appear in “Recent/Pending
eSubmissions” search results. The SO should use the Status module landing page’s default “General Search”
tool to continue to monitor the application.
Figure 8: The SO uses the "General Information" search tool on the Status module's landing page to monitor error-free
applications after the 2-day viewing window closes.
electronic Research Administration | www.era.nih.gov | eRAinfo@mail.nih.gov
Page 9 of 9
Last. June 22, 2023
They can search using any combination of the “General” search tool fields or by simply clicking the “Search”
button to pull up all applications/grants.
The PD/PI searches for error-free applications after the 2-day viewing window by clicking on the arrow next
to “List of Applications/Awards.”
Figure 9: A PD/PI uses the right arrow in the "List of Applications/Awards" section of their Status landing page to monitor error-
free applications after the 2-day viewing window closes.
The PD/PI can click on the application’s “Application ID” (which eventually replaces the AN) in the search
results to access the “Status Information” screen for more details on the application’s status.
