NIH Grants.gov Application Information (from the NIH Electronic Submission Listserv)

Starting July 18, 2006 NIH will begin accepting grant applications using new form packages (see NIH Guide notice NOT-OD-06-078). The new form packages will be rolled out as follows:

The General Rule

Release/Posted Date of FOA	Expiration Date	Grant Mechanism	Use New Forms
Before June 15, 2006	On/Before Dec. 31, 2006	All mechanisms	N/A - will be allowed to close gracefully with no form change.
Before June 15, 2006	After Dec. 31, 2006	R03, R15, R21, R21/R33, R33, R34, R36 and XO1	After July 18, 2006
Before June 15, 2006	After Dec. 31, 2006	SBIR/STTR (R43, R44, R41, R42), R13/U13	After Sept. 15, 2006
On/After June 15, 2006	Any	All mechanisms	Immediately – initial posting will include new form package.

Exceptions to the General Rule

The following group of eleven FOAs will be held for reposting of the Version 2 forms until 9/15/2006, since the next submission dates for these FOAs are too close to the update dates in the general rule.

Announcement	Issuing	Release	Opening Date	Expiration	Activity	Title
Number	Organization	Date		Date	Code(s)
PAR-06-095	NIDCD	3/2/2006	5/2/2006	2/23/2007	R21	NIDCD Translational Research Grants (R21)
PAR-06-118	AHRQ	1/13/2006	3/10/2006	4/11/2008	R36	AHRQ Grants for Health Services Research Dissertation (R36)
PAR-06-217	NIMH	3/3/2006	3/3/2006	1/3/2008	R36	Mental Health Dissertation Research Grant To Increase Diversity (R36)
PAR-06-293	NCI	3/29/2006	5/2/2006	4/10/2008	R21	Quick-Trials for Imaging and Image-Guided Interventions: Exploratory Grants (R21)
PAR-06-294	NCI	3/29/2006	5/2/2006	11/22/2008	R03	Small Grants Program for Cancer Epidemiology (R03)
PAR-06-313	NCI	4/4/2006	5/2/2006	12/21/2007	R03	Cancer Prevention Research Small Grant Program (R03)
PAR-06-420	FIC	5/17/2006	5/17/2006	8/24/2007	R21	Brain Disorders in the Developing World: Research Across the Lifespan (R21)
PAR-06-448	AHRQ	6/7/2006	6/24/2006	11/25/2008	R03	AHRQ Small Research Grant Program (R03)
PAR-06-451	NCI	6/9/2006	6/9/2006	12/10/2007	R21	Quick-Trials for Novel Cancer Therapies: Exploratory Grants (R21)
PAR-06-458	NCI	6/12/2006	6/12/2006	12/23/2008	R03	Small Grants for Behavioral Research in Cancer Control (R03)
PAR-06-460	NINDS	6/14/2006	7/18/2006	4/21/2009	R34	NINDS Clinical Trial Planning Grant (R34)

 

In addition, the following AHRQ R13/U13 FOA was moved from the 9/15 round to the 7/18 round, since it uses standard research submission dates:

 

Announcement	Issuing	Release	Opening Date	Expiration	Activity	Title
Number	Organization	Date		Date	Code(s)
PA-06-378	AHRQ	4/28/2006	4/28/2006	2/2/2009	R13,U13	AHRQ Grant Program for Large Conference Support (R13) and (U13)

 

The nine FOAs below have not opened yet.

 

Announcement	Issuing	Release	Opening Date	Receipt Date(s)	Expiration	Activity	Title
Number	Organization	Date			Date	Code(s)
RFA-HL-07-005	NHLBI	6/5/2006	7/24/2006	September 25, 2006, and September 25, 2007	9/26/2007	R33	NHLBI Exploratory Program in Systems Biology (R33)
PAR-06-389	NIMH	5/5/2006	7/25/2006	September 25, 2006; September 25, 2007; September 25, 2008	9/26/2008	R01	Basic and Translational Research Opportunities in the Social Neuroscience of Mental Health (R01) [SF424 (R&R)] -  MULTI-PI
PA-06-388	NIAID	5/5/2006	8/1/2006	Multiple dates	5/2/2009	R21/R33	HIV Proteins and Their Cellular Binding Partners (R21/R33)
PA-06-243	NHLBI	3/24/2006	8/12/2006	September 12, 2006; September 12, 2007; September 12, 2008	9/13/2008	R21/R33	New Approaches to Non-Viral Systems for Gene Transfer Applications for Heart, Lung, and Blood Diseases (R21/R33)
PAR-06-287	NHLBI	3/28/2006	8/12/2006	September 12, 2006, September 12, 2007, and September 12, 2008	9/13/2008	R21/R33	Innovative Application of Nanotechnology to Heart, Lung, Blood, and Sleep Disorders (R21/R33)
PA-06-443	NIA	5/31/2006	9/1/2006	Multiple dates	7/2/2009	R03	Human Biospecimen Resources for Aging Research (R03)
PA-06-453	NIA	6/9/2006	8/1/2006	Multiple dates	9/2/2009	R03	Behavioral and Social Research on Disasters and Health (R03)
PA-06-452	NIA	6/9/2006	8/1/2006	Multiple dates	9/2/2009	R21	Behavioral and Social Research on Disasters and Health (R21)
PAR-06-247	OBSSR	3/17/2006	3/17/2007	5/17/2007	5/18/2007	R21	Community Participation In Research (R21)

The updating of announcements began this week. Whenever an existing Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is updated, Grants.gov sends out an automated notification to anyone that provided their email at the time of download. For this reason, some of you may receive a lot of email notifications. There is no way to suppress the automated emails from Grants.gov.

Some Q & A

Q:  True or False. Once an FOA is updated with the new (Version 2) form package, the old (Version 1) form package will still be accepted by Grants.gov and NIH.

A:    If an FOA is updated with the new Version 2 form package, Grants.gov will no longer accept applications with the older package and NIH will not receive it – so the answer is FALSE. You must use the updated form package. The only way to migrate an application “in the works” is the cut-and-paste method.

Q:  How can you tell if you are using Version 2 of the forms?

A:    NIH will label the new forms packages as “Version-2-Forms” in the Competition ID field of the forms. The Competition ID is shown on the Grants.gov download screen as shown in the screenshot below.

The Competition ID also can be seen on the cover component when opening the application in PureEdge as seen in the following screen shot:

 

Q:  For a short period of time you may be given the choice of two form packages when you get to the Grants.gov download screen. How will you know which one to choose?

A:    Whenever there is a choice, the package labeled “Version-2-Forms” in the Competition ID field should be used. We have carefully chosen transition dates to ensure that the new form package is posted after the last submission date that NIH will accept the old form package.

If you search for funding opportunities using the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts you may have noticed the following new splash screen appear when you press the “Apply for Grant Electronically” button contained in the announcement. The splash screen will remind applicants to choose the “Version-2-Forms” package.

Q:  True or False. The same Application Guide can be used for both the old and new form packages.

A:  FALSE. For a period of time NIH will need to maintain multiple form packages AND multiple Application Guides. The FOA will continue to link you to the appropriate Application Guide.

Application Guide SF424 (R&R) – Version 2

The Grants.gov Application Guide SF424 (R&R) for NIH and other Public Health Service Agencies – Version 2 is now posted and available for review.

• Each major version of the application guide starts fresh, so you will not see the familiar purple text indicating changes to the document. A summary of changes to the document is located in the Foreword.
• Version 2 of the application guide should only be used with Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) that use Version 2 of the forms (remember the Competition ID field will be blank for Version 1 form packages and will include “Version-2-Forms” for Version 2 form packages). The existing and revised Application Guides will be labeled Version 1 and Version 2, respectively, on the cover page and within the footers.
• When you download a forms package, it is always best to download the application guide at the same time to ensure you have a matching set.
• The SF424 (R&R) Application and Electronic Submission Information page includes links to Version 1 and Version 2 of the Application Guide and a short overview of notable changes in each version.

Helpful Hint – Navigating the Research & Related Project/Performance Site Locations Component

When reviewing the newly updated SF424 (R&R) forms we ran into a quirk with the Research & Related Project/Performance Site Locations Component. We have already brought it to Grants.gov’s attention. In this component no default is provided for the Country field (all other forms in the Research & Related set default to USA). The State field (which comes before the Country field when stepping through the application) will not become active until “USA” is supplied in the Country field. Supply the Country value and go back to enter the State field.