Switching Institutions

Are you a PI who has switched institutions?

PIs moving from one institution to another do not need to establish a new Commons account. In fact, if you are a PI, you should maintain a single Commons account throughout your career. You'll just need to affiliate your new institution to your existing Commons account.

There are many benefits to maintaining a single Commons account including:

  • Your grant record history will be kept together instead of being split across multiple accounts 
  • If you have served as a Reviewer, your service on study sections will be recorded properly and will be accounted for in determining eligibility for continuous submission (Policy: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/peer/continuous_submission.htm) 
  • Records maintained by NIH will be more accurate 
  • With one account, your degree information will be kept in one place and is more likely to be reviewed in consideration for Early Stage Investigator eligibility

Follow these steps if you switch institutions:

  1. Request that the SO at your new institution/organization affiliate your existing Commons account with your new university/organization. You will need to provide the SO with your Commons ID.

    The SO can follow the steps listed in the Create Affiliation topic of the Accounts Management System Online Help.

  2. If you have left the other institution/organization, request that the SO at your old institution/organization disaffiliate you from that institution.

    NOTE: It is possible to have multiple affiliations tied to one Commons account. You do not need to disaffiliate your account from the first institution if you still remain there.

  3. Contact the eRA Service Desk if you realize that you have more than one Commons account. They can help you merge the accounts together.
  4. Keep your Commons Personal Profile updated. This includes the address fields and the end dates of your employment.

IMPORTANT: While a PI can keep the same Commons account when switching institutions, system users with the SO role must create a new account within the new institution/organization.