As of January 1, 2011, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will require the use of the eRA Commons xTrain system to electronically prepare and submit PHS 2271 Statement of Appointment forms and/or PHS 416-7 Termination notices when required for institutional research training and career development awards, individual fellowships, and research education awards. After January 1, paper appointment forms and termination notices will not be accepted. Paper submissions will be considered non-compliant, and grantees will be required to resubmit appointment forms and termination notices electronically using xTrain.

This requirement applies to the following activity codes:

• Kirschstein-NRSA undergraduate institutional training grants (T34 – appointment forms only)
• Kirschstein-NRSA predoctoral and postdoctoral institutional training grants (T32, T35, T90, TL1, and TU2)
• National Library of Medicine institutional training grants (T15)
• Kirschstein-NRSA fellowships (F30, F31, F32, and F33 – termination notices only)
• Research education awards (R25, R90)
• Institutional career development awards (K12, KL2, KM1)*

*For research education and institutional career development awards, grantees should check with the NIH awarding Institute/Center to determine if the R25, R90, K12, KL2, or KM1 program requires the use of the PHS 2271 Appointment form and/or the PHS 426-7 Termination Notice, and, therefore, submission via xTrain. All other activity codes listed above require electronic submission of the PHS 2271 and/or PHS 426-7 as indicated.

Potential users of xTrain are encouraged to review the training resources and instructions for using the system available on the eRA web page for Institutional Research Training and Career Development Awards. 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 eRA Commons Demo site.

To facilitate appointment-making through xTrain, NIH recommends that institutions routinely establish eRA Commons accounts for training-grant-eligible students and post-doctorates.

For all existing trainees, an eRA Commons account is required before a Termination Notice can be processed in xTrain. to avoid delays in submitting Termination Notices, institutions are advised to establish eRA Commons accounts for current trainees before a Termination Notice is due.

Emory users should select an OGCA person (Margaret Matkins, Valeria Rainey, Roy Bourne) as the Business Official for termination notices, not Holly Sommers even though she is listed.

Reproduced from NIH Announcement NOT-OD-11-026. The full announcement can be found here