Health Grants Management Systems
ICF International provides support for grants management systems, specifically for the design, development, security, and systems engineering and integration efforts to facilitate full life cycle functions among grantees, investigators, and institutions worldwide. Grants management systems must handle large amounts of interconnected data
throughout the life of a grant, from proposal and agreement through closeout,
audit management, and resolution. In addition to tracking funding and budget
details, grants management systems also must reliably track the scope of
the work effort and compliance criteria, which determine levels of success.
Grants management systems must maintain both periodic and unscheduled progress
reporting and be able to handle frequent changes to grant parameters. Grant
processes may differ from one organization to another, so grants management
systems also must be robust enough to track grantees’ details correctly.
Selected Projects in Health Grants Management
Systems Development
eRA Systems
Engineering Support Services
National Institutes of Health, Office of Extramural Research
ICF provides extensive health informatics support services including systems engineering and software development to the electronic Research Administration (eRA) program through multiple contracts to help the National Institutes of Health (NIH) achieve its vision for the paperless transfer of extramural research grant application and administrative data. Comprising 30 integrated systems that support more than 200,000 users, eRA is NIH’s infrastructure for conducting interactive electronic transactions for the receipt, review, monitoring, and administration of NIH grant awards to biomedical and behavioral investigators worldwide.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) selected eRA as
the enterprise system for research grants management, which awards more than
60,000 competing and non-competing grants and $24 billion in grant funding
each year. eRA, with ICF’s on-site architecture, requirements analysis, testing,
integration, and development team has been collaborating with the following
HHS operating divisions to centralize and integrate their research grants
processing under the NIH eRA system: the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ),
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). ICF also supports the integration
of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) intramural research grant programs
under the NIH eRA system.
HIV/AIDS Prevention Programs
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) leads the nation in
protecting our health through the prevention and control of disease, injury,
and disability. ICF has supported the Prevention Program Branch (PPB) grants management process to award and monitor
grants exceeding $350 million a year to fund interventions, strategies, and
resources in state and local public health departments, community-based
organizations, and other non-governmental organizations. The PPB of the Division of HIV/AIDS
Prevention (DHAP) coordinates programs and activities implemented in all
U.S. states and territories to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.
ICF provides a wide-range of information technology support by developing
information management systems, processes, and procedures to support grants
management, quantitative and qualitative data gathering and analysis, formative
evaluation, needs assessments, technical assistance, records management,
decision support, and evaluation services. Activities include developing
and implementing funding opportunity announcements; compiling, analyzing,
and summarizing program monitoring and evaluation data; reporting on the
status of programs and activities; and automating the grants management system
to provide greater accessibility to program monitoring and evaluation data.
ICF developed a system of interactive databases to automate all grantee submissions,
and conduct Special Emphasis Panels (SEPs), predecisional site visits, and qualitative
data gathering and analysis.
