NED v5.4 is going live, so we would like to share a few of these important functionality changes to the NED Portal as well as several minor enhancements. For full information about these NED Release 5.4 updates, please look here.
Recent NED Change #1: Ability to update NED Portal data in bulk.
AOs can update a Point of Contact, Servicing AO, Project Officer or Supervisor for up to 150 NED records at a time. Records can be selected individually for all positions and also by SAC for a Point of Contact or Servicing AO bulk update.
Recent NED Change #2: Simplified re-activation.
AOs/ATs can reactivate an inactive NED record during registration; and NED populates personal information (e.g., title, legal name, social security number, mobile phone number, personal email, etc.).
Recent NED Change #3: Required enrollment for all SAC investigation type badge renewals.
If an IC has a volunteer, most of these individuals only get a fingerprint check as part of the badging process. Their badges are good for one year and can be renewed with another fingerprint check. Prior to this recent NED change, volunteers were not being notified via the standard NED emails that they needed to get fingerprinted again for their new badge. Behind the scenes, we’ve been doing this manually. However, with this recent NED release, volunteers will now get the standard badge renewal notifications directly from NED.
Recent NED Change #4: Entry on Duty (EOD) is now considered when calculating a person’s badge renewal date for new staff.
When an AO requests a badge in NED, the system automatically calculates the maximum length of time a badge can be valid (e.g., 6 months for short-term staff). Prior to this recent NED release, the badge expiration date for new staff was calculated using the day the request was being entered into NED as opposed to the person’s EOD date. EOD is the date when an employee starts working at NIH.
The problem this created is that the initial ID badge someone receives on their EOD is not valid for the maximum length of time possible since AOs must enter new staff into NED prior to their actual start date. For instance, an employee may be entered into the system in June, but they actually start in August, so then the NED system started considering their badge from that date in June rather than their EOD in August. This is not problematic for long-term staff, but for short-term staff this can be a serious issue. Before this recent NED update, some short-term staff who planned to be at NIH for 6 months were receiving an ID badge that was only valid for 4-5 months since they were entered into NED 1-2 months before their EOD.
Therefore, we have made an update in the NED system to have the badge expiration date based on the greater of EOD and request date during Registration. For instance, if someone is entered into NED for a short-term badge (such as for 6 months). This employee may start in June and end in December but may be entered into the NED system in April to get their background check process started early. So rather than having their badge expire 6 months from April, the new NED update is now having the employee’s badge expiration date calculated from their EOD, which in this case will be 6 months from June and not have it expire early.
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SPECIAL NOTE #1: This NED update does not apply to individuals receiving the 3-year Restricted Local Access (RLA) badge. Due to the current configurations in the HHS Smart Card Management System (SCMS), the expiration date of the 3-year RLA badge will still be calculated based on the date the request is entered in NED as opposed to the EOD date.
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SPECIAL NOTE #2: This NED update only applies to calculating the expiration date for an individual’s first ID badge at NIH. Expirations dates for badge renewals are calculated based on the expiration date of the previous badge.
