For submissions to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Proposals (S2S) includes a specialized validation feature called NIH Validations. This option sends your proposal data directly to the NIH validation system, where it is checked for errors. Any errors or warnings identified are then displayed in Proposals (S2S) for your review.
Before you begin
Before running NIH Validations, confirm the following:
- Your institution has enabled Enable NIH Validation Service in More > Institutional Preferences.
- Your institution's Proposals (S2S) certificate information has been entered in eRA Commons.
- The eRA Commons system account has the SVS_APPLICANT_DATA_SERV role assigned.
- The proposal is being submitted to NIH or an NIH partner agency. The NIH Validation section is only available for eligible opportunities.
- A valid UEI has been entered in the proposal.
- Required proposal information has been completed.
- Required attachments have been added, when applicable.
- Any existing Proposals (S2S) validation errors have been reviewed and addressed before running NIH Validations.
Please note: NIH Validations check proposals against NIH-specific business rules. They supplement, but do not replace, the standard Proposals (S2S) validation process.
Activating NIH Validations
By default, NIH Validations are disabled. An administrator with access to Proposals (S2S) institutional preferences and the institution's eRA Commons System account must complete the required setup before NIH Validations can be used.
To enable NIH Validation:
- Navigate to the More tab > Institutional Preferences.
- Find the setting labeled Enable NIH Validation Service and set it to Yes.
- After setting this to Yes, expand the Certificate Details section. The information displayed here will be used in the next activation step, so please make note of it.
- To complete the activation, your certificate details must be entered into your eRA Commons account so that NIH can verify your requests. Navigate to the Commons login page and log in with your institution’s credentials.
- Open the Account Management Module and search for accounts with a User Type of System and the SVS_APPLICANT_DATA_SERV role. Click Search. If no accounts are returned, continue with the steps below to create a new System account and assign the SVS_APPLICANT_DATA_SERV role.
- You will notice an Import Certificate button directly above the certificate fields. You can safely ignore this button. Enter the certificate details manually using the values displayed in Proposals (S2S).
- At the bottom of the search results page, click Create New Account.
- After the account is created, NIH may offer an optional certificate validation process. This step is not required for NIH Validations in Proposals (S2S). As long as the certificate information was entered correctly, you can skip this step.
Before filling out this form, navigate back to Proposals S2S in a separate tab/window to fetch your certificate information.
Fill in the fields as follows:
- User Type = System
- Primary Organization = This will autofill to your organization name
- Certificate Owner = Copy the value from your Proposals S2S “Certificate Details” section
- Certificate Provider/Authority CN = Copy the value from your Proposals S2S “Certificate Details” section
- Certificate Serial Number = Enter the certificate serial number from the Certificate Details section in Proposals (S2S). If necessary, remove any placeholder text or prefixes from the eRA Commons field before entering the value.
- Certificate Expiration Date = Copy the value from your Proposals S2S “Certificate Details” section
- Contact Information = Enter the name and email address of the person responsible for maintaining your institution’s eRA Commons account(s).
- Roles = Select the SVS_APPLICANT_DATA_SERV role and click “Add Role(s)”
- Click Create. Your certificate is now installed at NIH and you may begin using the NIH Validations feature in Proposals S2S.
Please note: If your institution has multiple certificates, a separate eRA Commons System account must be created for each one, following the steps outlined above.
When to run NIH Validations
Run NIH Validations after the proposal contains enough information for NIH to process it.
Recommended times to run NIH Validations include:
- After completing required proposal fields
- After adding key personnel
- After uploading required attachments
- After resolving Proposals (S2S) validation errors
- Before submitting the proposal to NIH
- After making significant proposal changes that may affect NIH requirements
If NIH Validations are run too early, NIH may return generic or incomplete errors because the proposal does not yet contain enough information for NIH to process the validation request. Continue completing the proposal, address any Proposals (S2S) validation errors, upload required attachments, and run NIH Validations again.
Using NIH Validations
To scan a proposal for NIH-specific validation errors:
- First, open an NIH proposal in Proposals S2S and navigate to the Electronic Submission page.
- A section titled NIH Validation appears above the Electronic Submission section.
Please note: If the proposal’s sponsor is not NIH or any of its partnering agencies, this option will not be visible.
- Expand this section and click Validate Proposal with NIH. This will send the proposal data to NIH’s validation system, where it will be scanned for errors and warnings.
- A pop-up window will appear to display the results of the validation check
- Any errors or warnings detected by NIH are displayed in this window. Review and address NIH errors before submission. NIH warnings should also be reviewed to determine whether changes are needed before submission.
Troubleshooting
Do I need to start a new proposal if NIH returns a validation error?
In most cases, no. NIH validation errors are often caused by incomplete proposal information rather than a problem with the proposal itself.
Before creating a new proposal, complete any missing proposal information, resolve Proposals (S2S) validation errors, and run NIH Validations again.
If the error persists after all proposal information has been completed and validated, contact your administrator or Cayuse Support.
Error: "Failed to load validation data"
This error typically occurs when NIH cannot process the validation request.
Check the following:
- The institution's certificate information has been entered correctly in eRA Commons.
- The eRA Commons System account includes the SVS_APPLICANT_DATA_SERV role.
- The proposal contains a valid UEI.
- The proposal is for NIH or an NIH partner agency.
- The proposal contains enough information for NIH to process the validation request.
Error: "000.6"
This error can occur when NIH is unable to process the application package because required information is missing or the proposal is incomplete.
Check the following:
- Required proposal fields have been completed.
- Key personnel have been added.
- Institutional information, including the UEI, is complete.
- Required attachments have been uploaded.
- Any Proposals (S2S) validation errors have been resolved.
To find the missing data, ensure that all errors displayed in the “Validate Proposal” window are addressed.
Once the “No problems detected” message appears in this window, retry the NIH Validation action.
Error: "Unable to validate: Certificate has not been installed in your institution's eRA Commons account"
This error indicates that NIH could not find the certificate information required to process the validation request.
Check the following:
- Enable NIH Validation Service is set to Yes in More > Institutional Preferences.
- The certificate details from Proposals (S2S) have been entered in the institution's eRA Commons account.
- The eRA Commons System account includes the SVS_APPLICANT_DATA_SERV role.
- The certificate owner, provider/authority CN, serial number, and expiration date match the values shown in Proposals (S2S).
Note: Enter only the certificate serial number shown in Proposals (S2S). Remove any placeholder text or prefixes from the eRA Commons field before saving.
After correcting the certificate information, run NIH Validations again.
Error: The NIH Validation Section Is Not Visible
The NIH Validation section is available only for NIH and NIH partner agency opportunities.
If you do not see the section:
- Confirm the proposal is for NIH or an NIH partner agency.
- Confirm Enable NIH Validation Service is set to Yes in More > Institutional Preferences.
- Open the proposal's Electronic Submission page.
Error: NIH Validation Results Differ from Proposals (S2S) Validation Results
Proposals (S2S) validations and NIH Validations evaluate different sets of rules.
- Proposals (S2S) validations check proposal data within Cayuse.
- NIH Validations check the proposal against NIH-specific validation rules.
It is possible for NIH Validations to identify errors or warnings that do not appear in Proposals (S2S) validation results.
Before submission, review the results from both validation processes and address any reported errors.