2015 SBIR's electronic Contract Proposal Submission (eCPS)

SBIR’s version of eCPS is customized to include the following changes from this user manual.

eCPS SBIR Vendor Portal: https://ecps.nih.gov/sbirsttr/Home/Index

eCPS SBIR Internal: https://ecps-internal.nih.gov/sbirsttr

The TEP Role and Process

The TEP (techncial evaluation panel) role and review process is eliminated as the SBIR solicitation is R&D.

OA Review – Sending for Scientific Review

When the solicitation closes and the CS for their topic clicks on Action/OA Review, the CS will see the buttons "Complete Review" and "Do NOT Review" instead of "Send Technical Proposal to SRP" and "Do NOT send technical proposal to SRP".

For the awarding components that have the electronic Reviewer Support Site (eRSS), clicking “Complete Review” queues up the technical proposal to send to eRSS for scientific review. The awarding components who currently have eRSS are NIAID, NLM, NHLBI, NCI, NINDS and NCATS. The scientific review officer for each awarding component will pull queued technical proposals into their eRSS systems.

For the awarding components that do not have eRSS, clicking “Complete Review” tags that proposal as complete as part of OA’s review and no other action is done by the system. The CS/CO shall then send the technical proposal for scientific review as they normally do, for example via CD or attached in an email.

OA Review – Redactions

For the awarding components that have eRSS, once the CS/CO clicks “Complete Review”, the redacted version of the technical proposal is sent to eRSS.

For the awarding components that do not have eRSS, the CS shall copy the redacted technical proposal for scientific review and send it via CD or email as they normally do.

(pages 10 and 11 of this manual detail how to upload a redacted proposal)

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NIAID electronic Contract Proposal Submission for Office of Acquisitions

v.2.04.00 July 2015

User Guide for CS, COR, and TEP

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Contents Overview ................................................................................................................................................................................... 3

eCPS & ePDS Workflow ............................................................................................................................................................ 3

User Roles for eCPS .................................................................................................................................................................. 4

User Roles for ePDS .................................................................................................................................................................. 4

ePDS Internal Portal.................................................................................................................................................................. 4

Notification Emails .................................................................................................................................................................... 4

CS - Assign Users to Solicitation ................................................................................................................................................ 5

COR - Review/Redact Proposals ............................................................................................................................................... 7

TEP - Review ............................................................................................................................................................................. 8

CS - Review/Redact/Send to SRP .............................................................................................................................................. 9

Administrator .......................................................................................................................................................................... 12

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eCPS – Electronic Contract Proposal Submission

Contract Specialist Contracting Officer Representative Technical Evaluation Panel

Overview

eCPS – Improving Contract Proposal Submission

The electronic Contract Proposal Submission (eCPS) is a component of NIAID’s integrated, secure system for the submission, capture, tracking and review of proposal responses to solicitataions. eCPS was developed for the purpose of streamlining proposal review processes, eliminating paper submissions, thereby reducing costs associated with storage of large paper files.

eCPS & ePDS Workflow

Overview of the proposal submission & review process

eCPS and ePDS can be viewed as two halves of the same proposal submission process:

1. Vendor Portal – eCPS Allows Vendors to easily submit proposals.

Vendors are requested to access eCPS for self-registering and submitting proposals.

2. Internal Portal – ePDS Allows Office of Acquistions (Contract Specialists) and Program Staff (Contracting Officer

Representative) to track, review, and forward proposals for consideration by the SRP, or Reject and return it to the Vendor

ePDS is also the internal portal for eRDS – the contract deliverables submission program

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User Roles for eCPS

eCPS has one external role

Vendor Admin (VA):

A vendor who has registered through eRA Commons and is assigned a NIH EXT account.

User Roles for ePDS

ePDS has three Internal roles

Contract Specialist (CS):

Assigns COR and any additional CS to solicitations

Invite TEP to review non-R&D solicitation proposals

Upload redacted documents as appropriate

Contracting Officer Representative (COR):

As a member of the Program Staff, reviews (read-only) the Technical Documents in the proposal

Upload redacted documents as appropriate

Technical Evaluation Panel (TEP):

Invited to review non-R&D solicitation proposal documents

Review period is 90 days, and unlike the COR, is independent of

Read-only access to the proposal documents Technical Docume

ePDS Internal Portal

NOTE: The Vendor portal (https://ecps.nih.gov/sbirsttr/Home/Index) is actually labelled “eCPS” which they access using their

NIHEXT / eRA Commons account. Instructions for vendors can be found on the vendor portal and in a separate user document

Internal Portal: https://ecps-internal.nih.gov/sbirsttr

1. Internal users access a site labelled Electronic Proposal and Deliverable Submission (ePDS) with their NIH account

2. The CS, COR, and TEP will land on the Review Proposals page

a. If not, availible through eCPS → Review Proposals from the menu

Notification Emails

Notifications contain assignment details and a link to the proposal page

1. Internal users can also connect to ePDS through email notification links they receive when solicitation proposals for assigned contracts are received:

2. Upon login, user is redirected to the proposal details

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CS - Assign Users to Solicitation

The Contract Specialist (CS) assigned to the solicitation must assign a COR to complete the review. If the solicitation is

for a non-R&D contract, they may also assign a TEP reviewer.

Assign CS, COR, or TEP

1. As a CS, go to eCPS: https://ecps-internal.nih.gov/sbirsttr and log in using your NIH account

2. Go to eCPS → Review Proposals

3. Select your assigned solicitation and go to Action → Assign CS, COR, TEP

4. On the Provide Access to Proposal page, enter the first and last names of the user, and click Search

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5. The Search window pop-up will open, returning matches as they appear in the HHS Active Directory

6. Click Assign As → COR for the chosen account

7. Click Close after receiving confirmation

8. The Role Assignment list is updated.

9. The CS can remove users from their Roles up until the point they participate in a proposal review. The option disappears after that.

10. Repeat steps to add additional users. There’s no limit to the number of users that can be assigned to a

particular role on a proposal, as long as the user account is authorized in ePDS for that role by the Administrator.

11. The assigned user will receive an email notification as described in section above.

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COR - Review/Redact Proposals

CORs should review proposal documents either on or after the solicitation close date

COR can upload Redacted Technical Document PDFs for R&D solicitations

Status of Proposal is not affected by COR review. No action is required by COR in the eCPS system.

REVIEW

1. COR assigned to a solicitation will receive an an email notification as described in ePDS Internal Portal and Notification Emails sections.

2. On the Review Proposals page, click View

3. Open the Proposal package by clicking the title

4. The expanded proposal package displays vendor details, along with Technical and Business documents. Per the capture below, the layout differs between R&D solicitations and those that are not:

5. Select the Technical and Business document links to open a local copy through your web browser

Documents will always be available in ePDS, so no need to save locally unless redacting.

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REDACT

6. In an R&D solicitation, click the Technical Document PDF to open a local copy through your web browser

7. Redact document in Adobe Pro

Use the Tools to edit or Comment button to edit or add a comment in Adobe as needed.

8. Save As a different name on your desktop

9. Choose Upload under Technical Document

10. After uploading, both the original and redacted document remain in ePDS

ePDS always looks for redacted proposals uploaded and forward these on to SRP in lieu of the original proposal.

SRP may request a copy of the original proposal which will remain in ePDS

TEP - Review

Review period is 90 days regardless of closing dates or proposal status

Non-R&D solicitations only

Status of Proposal is not affected by TEP review. No action is required by TEP in the eCPS system.

1. TEP assigned to a solicitation will receive an an email notification and appropriate ePDS access as described in ePDS Internal Portal and Notification Emails sections.

Note: Since TEP reviews are fixed at a 90 day period regardless of closing dates or proposal status, emails contain an additional line: “You have 90 day period starting from today to review the proposal”

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2. On the Review Proposals page, click View

3. Open the proposal by clicking the title

4. The expanded section displays vendor details, along with Technical and Business documents. Select the document links to open a local copy through your web browser

Documents will always be available in ePDS, so no need to save locally.

TEP can review anytime during the 90 day period

CS - Review/Redact/Send to SRP

CS should review proposals either on or after the solicitation close date, and after COR review is complete

CS may upload Redacted Technical Document PDFs for R&D solicitations

CS must Send or Not Send (reject) the proposal to SRP after the solicitation close date to complete the review process

Review

1. Go to eCPS → Review Proposals

For convenience, closed solicitations display the closing date in red.

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2. Select target solicitation and go to Action → OA Review/Forward

3. Expand the proposal to view information and documents

4. Open the Proposal package by clicking the title

5. The expanded proposal package displays vendor details, along with Technical and Business documents.

Per the capture below, the layout differs between R&D solicitations and those that are not:

6. Select the Technical and Business document links to open a local copy through your web browser

Documents will always be available in ePDS, so no need to save locally unless redacting.

Redact

7. In an R&D solicitation, click the Technical Document PDF to open a local copy through your web browser

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8. Redact document in Adobe Pro

Use the Tools to edit or Comment button to edit or add a comment in Adobe as needed.

9. Save As a different name on your desktop

10. Choose Upload under Technical Document

11. After uploading, both the original and redacted document remain in ePDS

ePDS always looks for redacted proposals uploaded and forward these on to SRP in lieu of the original proposal.

SRP may request a copy of the original proposal which will remain in ePDS

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Send to SRP

12. Click Send Technical Proposal to SRP button after closing date has passed and proposals have been reviewed and or redacted.

Rejected

13. Clicking the Do Not Send Technical Proposal to SRP button changes proposal status to “Rejected”

This can be undone if needed by clicking the Send Technical Proposal to SRP button.

14. Click Review Proposal link in top menu to return to list of solicitations

Administrator

Confirms solicitation details and assigns the Target IC

Review the Pending Proposals Report

Add new users and assign/update their internal role

Check the Approval status of Vendor NIH external account requests

Solicitations

1. Login with account assigned as Administrator

2. Go to eCPS → Solicitations

3. Browse or Search for a target solicitation and click Edit

Skip to step 5 to add a solicitation

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4. The FBO.gov website that ePDS pulls data from doesn’t identify the solicitation’s IC, so it needs to be populated by the Administrator. Click Save and Back to List

Other solicitation detail fields can be edited as well. All are required to have content

5. The SBIR/ STTR program solicitations apply to multiple IC, so these have to be manually created in ePDS.

Click the Add Solicitation button.

6.