ezFedGrants Application Review Process - Individual Review · ezFedGrants Application Review...

ezFedGrants Application Review Process Completion of Individual Review

Job Aid

ARP – Completion of Individual Review Job Aid 1/18 3/2/2017

Purpose

This job aid provides details on the Individual Review stage of the Application Review Process (ARP). During the Individual Review stage, Panel Members assigned as Readers or Reviewers must complete either the Reader Comments or an Individual Scorecard based on their evaluation of the application.

The Procedure section of this document has been divided into the following subsections:

Reviewers: Individual Scorecards: Panel Members assigned as Reviewers provide comments and numerical scores based on application criteria determined during opportunity creation.

Readers: Reader Comments: Panel Members assigned as Readers must complete Reader Comments for the application.

Once complete, the Individual Reviews are sent to the Program Manager for review of the Individual Review Summary. Once the Individual Review Summary is approved, the application advances to the Consensus Review stage of the ARP.

Trigger Perform this procedure once you (a Reader or Reviewer on a panel) receive an Individual Review work item. You will receive this work item once the Program Manager has accepted the Conflict of Interest (COI) Summary and advanced the application to the Individual Review stage.

Prerequisites

You must have access to the ezFedGrants External Portal with user role and permissions to review the application during the ARP.

You must have been assigned to an application’s panel as either a Reader or Reviewer

You must have the Reviewer user role o The Reviewer role may be your only role. o If you have another role in the ezFedGrants External Portal, and you indicated your

willingness to participate in panels on your user profile, you will have the Review role in addition to your primary role.

The Program Manager must have accepted the COI Summary and advanced the application to the Individual Review stage of the ARP.

You must have completed the Conflict of Interest (COI) work item and have no conflicts of interest with the current application.

o If you did not complete the COI work item or indicated a conflict of interest with the application, you will not receive a work item for the Individual Review.


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Menu Path Use one of the following menu paths to begin this procedure:

Internal Users: FMMI Portal > Grantor Management > Grants and Agreement Management > Grants and Agreement Management External Portal

External Users: eAuthentication > ezFedGrants External Portal Home Screen


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Helpful Hints

Reviewers can be either internal (USDA staff) or external (recipients/cooperators) users.

To save your progress or to exit the review and complete it later, click the Save button at any time while reviewing the application.

On certain screens you may need to scroll to view additional data fields.

The exact content of screens, menus, etc. may differ from the screenshots in this job aid based on your agency/office and user category (internal or external). However, the general procedure remains the same.

Certain screenshots may display only a portion of the screen. Note that when working within a system, only the center body of the screen will change. The navigation options along the left side of the screen and the header bar across the top of the screen will remain the same.

Note: Data used in this procedure is a representative sample for the purpose of training. Actual data may vary based on agency and scenario.


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Procedure

Reviewers: Individual Scorecards 1. Start the procedure by accessing the Reviewer Home screen on the ezFedGrants External Portal.

Note: If you have more than one user role in the ezFedGrants External Portal, you will need to switch to the Reviewer role by clicking your user name in the upper right hand corner and selecting the Reviewer role from the dropdown menus. For more information on switching between user roles please refer to one of the following documents:

ezFedGrants External Portal Overview and Navigation for Internal Users Job Aid

ezFedGrants External Portal Overview and Navigation for External User Job Aid


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2. Click the Actionable Items tile to open the Actionable Items for Past 90 Days popup window. This will display any work items assigned to you over the last 90 days. Once you complete a work item, it is removed from the list.

3. On the Actionable Items for Past 90 Days popup window, locate the application you would like to review and click the link in the Transaction ID column.

This window only displays work items sent to you within the last 90 days. Click the View All Actionable Items link to view work items sent to you more than 90 days ago.


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4. Upon clicking the View All Actionable Items link, the Actionable Items screen will appear. This screen displays a table of all your pending work items. Locate the relevant application you would like to review and click the link in the Transaction ID column.

Note: The small arrow icon in the title cells of each column indicate filter options. Click an arrow to view associated filtering options. Please refer to the ezFedGrants External Portal Overview and Navigation Job Aids for more information on filtering.


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5. Once you have clicked the Transaction ID link, the Peer Review screen will open. Locate the Application section and review the application by clicking the available tabs.

Note: This job aid moves quickly through the various steps required to submit an Individual Scorecard in the ezFedGrants External Portal. However, when actually participating in the ARP, it is recommended to review the application fully and thoroughly before submitting your Individual Scorecard.


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6. Once you have reviewed the application, locate the Individual Review section. Read the Reviewer Instructions section, which provides some information on scoring criteria.

Note: If your Individual Scorecard is rejected by the Program Manager, you will see the Program Manager’s Return Comments in the Individual Review section in addition to the Reviewer Instructions.


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7. Below the Reviewer Instructions is the Scoring Summary Table section. This table lists all scoring criteria and contains the following four columns:

Criterion: This column includes the name of each scoring criterion. o These criteria are defined by the opportunity creator during opportunity creation.

Score: This column is automatically updated whenever you provide a score for a criterion.

Weight: This column displays the weight placed on each criterion score. o These weights range from 0 (no bearing) to 100 (absolute importance) and are defined

by the opportunity creator at the time of opportunity creation.

Calculated Score: This column displays the calculated, or weighted, score for each criterion. o This is the product of the entries in the Score and Weight columns for each criterion.


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8. Below the Scoring Summary Table section are sections for each individual criterion. Scroll down the page to view each criterion. Each criterion section contains a description, the Score field, and the Reviewer Comments field. The format of each criterion section is as follows:

Criterion title and weight percentage (for example “Introduction/Strategic Analysis (35%)”)

Criterion description

Scoring table

Score field

Reviewer Comments field


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9. Once you have reviewed the criterion description and considered whether the application addresses the criterion, review the criterion’s Scoring Table to determine your score for that criterion. Click the Score field and enter your numerical score based on your analysis.

Note: You can review the application again at any time while scoring by simply scrolling down to the Application section and clicking the tab for the section of the application you would like to review.

10. Use the Reviewer Comments field to clarify the reasoning behind your score.

Note: This field is limited to 20,000 characters. The counter below the Reviewer Comments field

will display the number of available characters remaining.


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11. Repeat steps 8-10 for each of the scoring criteria. You will not be able to submit your Individual Review until you have entered scores and comments for all criteria.

As you enter scores for each criterion, the Scoring Summary Table section will automatically update to reflect the scores you assign and the associated calculated score. The final row of the table displays the sum of all calculated scores.

Note: In the case of a zero-weighted opportunity (an opportunity where scores are not calculated), scores will be prepopulated with “0” and the fields will not require user input. The final score for the Individual Review will be zero.


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12. To save your Individual Review, click the Save button.

Note: This does not submit your review to the Program Manager. This only saves the review. This is

useful if you need to exit the review and come back to it later. If you are completing a fairly long or

detailed review, it is recommended to save often to avoid losing progress in the event your Internet

connection is lost.

13. Once you have entered scores and comments for all criteria and are ready to submit your Individual Review to the Program Manager, click the Submit button.

Note: To exit the Peer Review screen without saving your comments or scores, click the Cancel button. This will erase any scores or comments entered since the last time you clicked the Save button.


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Readers: Reader Comments 1. Start the procedure by accessing the Reviewer Home screen on the ezFedGrants External Portal.

Note: If you have more than one user role in the ezFedGrants External Portal, you will need to switch to the Reviewer role by clicking your user name in the upper right hand corner and selecting the Reviewer role from the dropdown menus. Please refer to the relevant External Portal Overview and Navigation Job Aid for more information on switching between user roles.


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2. Click the Actionable Items tile to open the Actionable Items for Past 90 Days popup window. This will display any work items assigned to you over the last 90 days. Once you complete a work item, it is removed from the list.

3. On the Actionable Items for Past 90 Days popup window, locate the relevant application you would like to review and click the link in the Transaction ID column.

Note: As this window only displays work items sent to you within the last 90 days, click the View All Actionable Items link in the bottom left corner to view and access work items sent to you more than 90 days ago.


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4. Once you have clicked the Transaction ID link, the Peer Review screen will open. Scroll down to the Application section to review all portions of the application by clicking the available tabs.

Note: This job aid moves quickly through the various steps required to submit Reader Comments in the ezFedGrants External Portal. However, when actually participating in the ARP, it is recommended to review the application fully and thoroughly before submitting your Reader Comments.


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5. Once you have reviewed the application, scroll up to the Individual Review section. Click in the Reader Comments field and enter your comments in regard to the application.

Note: This field is limited to 20,000 characters. The counter below the Reader Comments field will display the number of available characters remaining.

6. Once you are satisfied with your comments, click the Submit button in the top right corner.

Note: Clicking the Save button will save your current progress without submitting your comments. This is useful if you need to exit and return later, or to ensure against lost progress in the event your Internet connection is lost.

Clicking the Cancel button will exit the Peer Review screen and discard any changes made since the last time you clicked the Save button.


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Comments

Additional Materials

Refer to the following additional materials: Internal Users:

ezFedGrants Agency-Specific Reference Guides

ezFedGrants Panel Creation and Management Job Aid

ezFedGrants External Portal Overview and Navigation for Internal Users Job Aid

External Users:

ezFedGrants External Portal User Profile Management Job Aid

ezFedGrants External Portal Access Request Submission Job Aid

ezFedGrants External Portal Overview and Navigation for External Users Job Aid

ezFedGrants External Portal User Roles Definitions

Version Control

Name Date Changes Made

April Murphy Prior to 02/15/2017

Initial Document Created

April Murphy 2/15/2017 Corrected used of heading styles, added version control table, and corrected document title and author. Clarified the information in the first paragraphs of the Purpose section. Corrected referenced job aid and document titles throughout. Clarified prerequisites. Generally clarified information throughout. Corrected typo in the Comments section

ezFedGrants Application Review Process - Individual Review · ezFedGrants Application Review...

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