ACS PRF Salesforce Registration Help

Registration Key Steps

The ACS PRF online proposal system is a customized version of the Salesforce Community Portal.

Access to the Petroleum Research Fund (PRF) Portal to submit an application or grant requirement requires: 1) ACS User ID, and 2) PRF Portal Registration.  If you have an ACS ID or need to create one, you should verify that you can logon well in advance of the submission deadline since this system is not administered by PRF.   You should also submit your PRF Portal Registration form well in advance of the proposal submission period since access must be approved by PRF.  If you already have an ACS ID, you can bypass Step 1 and go directly to the PRF Pre-Registration Form (Step 2,  PRF Portal Registration, Below).  Please do not hesitate to contact us at PRFSupport@acs.org  if you have any questions regarding access to the PRF Portal.

1.  An American Chemical Society (ACS) User ID:  You can obtain one for free by clicking on the [Don't Have an ACS ID? Create one today] button on the portal logon (See Figure 1, Item #3).  You do not need to be an ACS member to obtain a User ID (Figure 2, Item #2).   If a Member Number is not provided, the system will assign a Customer Number.  The  Customer Number along with the ACS User ID will be needed to submit PRF Portal Registration form.   ACS permits individuals to create multiple IDs so you can create an ID specifically for PRF activities.   If you cannot remember the password, there is a "Forgot User Name or Password" option on the logon screen (Figure 1, Item 2).  


Figure 1. ACS PRF Portal Logon

After providing the necessary information, click the [Create an Account] button at the bottom of the form as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Account Creation Form for ACS Network ID

After creating the ACS ID, a confirmation will be displayed as shown in Figure 3.   To obtain your Customer or Member Number and User Name click on the My Account link (Figure 3, Item #1).

Figure 3. ACS ID Creation Confirmation, My Account Link, and PRF Proposal & Grant Administration Button

The Customer or Member Number and User Name are listed in the My Account Overview Tab as shown in Figure 4 (Item #1).  These two information items will be used to establish a unique contact record in the PRF System which is different from the ACS ID System.  You will need to enter these values in the PRF Portal Registration Form (Figure 4 ).  Please note that the email (Figure 4, Item #2) associated with your ACS ID can be different from that provided on the PRF Registration Form which should be your institutional email.

Figure 4. My Account Overview Tab for the ACS ID

Click the [Back] button on your browser after copying for Customer Number and User Name to return to confirmation screen as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Use [Back] Button to Return ACS ID Confirmation Screen

2.  PRF Portal Registration:   After creating your ACS ID, click on the yellow [PRF Proposal & Grant Administration] button as shown in Figure 3 to start the PRF registration process.  A PRF Pre-Registration Form with entered data and ready for submission is shown in Figure 6.  This form will create a contact record and role--either as a Principal Investigator (PI) or Grant Officer--in the PRF System.   If you are submitting on the behalf of a PI or submitting multiple applications for different PIs, you should choose the Grant Officer option.  The email address that you provide on the PRF Pre-Registration form must be your institutional email address; non-insitutional emails will be rejected (Figure 6, Item #2).  If you are a Co-PI, do not initiate the submission; please work with the PI or grant officers to submit the application.

Figure 6. PRF Portal Registration Form: Ready for Submission

After selecting the role, select an institution from the searchable list of institution names.  If your organization is not eligible or never applied for a PRF grant, it will not be available in the search box.  If you are not able to find your institution and believe you are eligible, please contact PRFSupport@acs.org.  If you selected Principal Investigator as your role, you will need to select a department .  The list of departments is based on the institution selected.   The Department field will not display if the Grant Officer role is selected.  If you are not able to find your department, please enter it into the field shown in Figure 6 (Item #1).

Figure 7. PRF Pre-Registration Form: Role and Institution Selection

After clicking the [Submit] button a confirmation message will be displayed as shown in Figure 8.   PRF will review your Pre-Registration information and notify you via email when access to the PRF Portal is granted.  Once you have been granted access, you will use your ACS ID credentials created in Step 1 above or previously to perform the portal logon .  After logging on to the portal you can initiate the application creation process or perform other administrative activities related to your application/grant.


Figure 8. PRF Portal Pre-Registration Message