The Division of Research Grants (DRG) is responsible for the receipt, referral and review of individual investigator-initiated research grant applications. In addition, the DRG captures from these applications the data stored in the Public Health Services: (PHS) IMPAC and CRISP data systems. Faced with a growing number of applications submitted for review and funding every year (now approximately 37,000), the DRG has initiated a major project to enable the transition of most of the application review and award administration activities in the PHS to be carried out with electronic, rather than paper-based, data. With all application data in electronic form, the DRG expects to be able to reduce the flood of paper generated by the duplication and processing of these applications, accelerate the movement of applications through the review process, improve the access of all program offices in the PHS to application data, reduce the incidence of erroneous or inconsistent data in applications and the PHS data bases and out the cost of grant application processing. As a first step in streamlining its administrative activities, the DRG has developed and is now testing a free-standing, personal computer-based program - the Automated Grant Application System (AGAS). AGAS will enable an investigator and an applicant organization to prepare the application, Form PHS 398, in an electronic medium in lieu of the traditional paper application. This is a free-standing computer program available in DOS and Macintosh versions. This electronic application will be sent to the NIH via a computer network. The purpose of this contract is to obtain support services during the field testing and introduction of ASAS in the scientific research community. The contractor's activities shall fall in two general categories: 1) maintenance of a user assistance service to provide rapid response to AGAS users"""""""" questions, and, 2) production of a series of user workshops to orient new users to AGAS.
