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Federal systems: eRA Commons and My NCBI

eRA Commons

eRA Commons is a Web-based system for applicants and institutions to participate in the electronic grant administration process. In eRA Commons ('Commons'), grant applicants, grantees, and federal staff at NIH and grantor agencies can access and share administrative information relating to research grants.

Key features

Depending on your role, you can perform a variety of functions in Commons, including:

  • Track the status of your grant application through the submission process, while viewing errors and/or warnings and checking the assembled grant image.
  • View summary statements and score letters following the initial review of your application
  • View the notice of award (NoA) and other key documents.
  • Submit Just-in-Time (JIT) information required by the grantor agency prior to a final award decision.
  • Submit the required documentation, including the Financial Status Report/Federal Financial Report and
    Final Research Performance Progress Report (Final RPPR) to close out your grant.
  • Submit a No-Cost Extension notification that the grantee has exercised its one-time authority to extend without funds the final budget period of a grant.
  • Submit an annual progress report electronically.
  • Manage personal and institutional profiles.

Access

For Faculty in the School of Medicine that require a new account or a role assignment in eRA commons, please contact the RASR Zone Director that supports your unit.   For Provost area faculty contact ORS  ors-grant@duke.edu.

Helpful resources

my NCBI

My NCBI is a free, personalized account that connects researchers to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)’s suite of databases and tools. Widely used across multiple U.S. federal agencies, it integrates with resources like PubMed, My Bibliography, SciENcv, and the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS). My NCBI is essential for managing publications, creating biosketches, and ensuring compliance with NIH public access policies. Principal investigators are required to use My Bibliography within My NCBI to track and report publications for NIH grant submissions.

Key features

  • My Bibliography: Save and manage citations for publications, presentations, patents, and more. You can import directly from PubMed, a file, or enter manually. Required for NIH grant reporting. More information here.
  • SciENcv Integration: Create and maintain biosketches (CVs) for NIH and NSF grant applications. NSF already requires SciENcv for biosketches, and NIH will adopt this requirement once the Common Forms are implemented (expected in early 2026). SciENcv pulls information from ORCID, eRA Commons, and My Bibliography to auto-populate fields like publications, education, and employment history. A delegation feature allows assistants or collaborators to help manage your content. More information here.
  • PubMed Saved Searches & Alerts: Save citations and searches and set up search alerts.
  • PubMed Site Preferences: Customize display formats including a useful highlighting feature.
  • The NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS) is a free web-based system administered by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to facilitate the deposit of peer-reviewed manuscripts into PubMed Central (PMC). It is strongly recommended that you use your eRA Commons login to access the NIHMS system if your primary funding is from the NIH. NIHMS does support multiple login routes including your Duke login, however, it is best to always use the same method to log into NIHMS. More information here.

Access

Click the "Log In" link in the top right corner of the PubMed homepage. You’ll see multiple options for signing in or creating a My NCBI account:

  • NIH Investigators: Log in with your eRA Commons credentials. This is required to manage NIH Public Access Compliance and to link publications to grants. You may use either the direct eRA Commons login or Login.gov (depending on how you normally access Commons).
  • NSF Investigators: Log in with your NSF account. If you do not see NSF listed, select “More login options”, type NSF into the search box, and choose NSF Researcher Login.
  • Other options:
    • To use your Duke NetID, select "More login options", type Duke into the search box, and choose Duke University from the provider list.
    • Login with your ORCiD account or your Login.gov account.
  • If you do not already have a My NCBI account, you can create one during the login process.

Helpful resources