December 15, 2006

News Articles

• Polishing Processes for Multiple PIs
• Snowed In Applicants Get Extra Time to Submit
• Two Videocasts for Your Viewing Pleasure

Opportunities and Resources

• Request a Research Supplement for a Special Hire
• Annotated R01 Application Gets a Makeover
• Send Us Your Thoughts on Funding News and Email Alerts

Advice Corner

• Reader Questions
  • New Investigator Status -- Updated February 25, 2008
  • Provisional Paylines and Funding
  • Research Plan Format for Renewal Application
  • Resubmitting and Getting Funded
  • Public Access to Grant Applications

New Initiatives

• See the initiative list.

	News Articles

Polishing Processes for Multiple PIs

As NIH gains experience with multiple PI applications, it is figuring out how the many pieces of this complex change will fall into place. Below are some points you may not be aware of; read more on Take Heed -- You Might Want to Avoid a Multiple PI Application in the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal.

• Multiple PI applications are for collaborative, but not necessarily multidisciplinary, research.
• Though NIH does not set a maximum number of PIs, having too many may hurt an application (which happened during the pilot).
• To qualify as a new investigator, all PIs must meet NIH's definition. After a multi-PI application is funded, its PIs are no longer considered new for future applications. See Are You "New"?
• The quality of the leadership plan will affect your priority score. If the plan is missing, your application will fail eRA Commons validation.
• You can request more than one PI for a renewal or amended application even if the original application had only one PI.
• If you are considering multiple PIs, contact your program officer as soon as you can.
• NIH may consider accepting your application late if any of the PIs serve on an NIH peer review committee during the time that would be used to prepare the application. For the NIH policy for late multi-PI applications, read the December 7, 2006, Guide notice.

And speaking of late applications, we'd like to remind you that, despite what the Guide notices state, NIAID may consider accepting a late application responding to an RFA or PAR.

We wrote about this in our August 23 article "Is a Late Application OK?" and maintain the information permanently on How to Submit Electronically on Time and Rules for Late Applications in the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal.

Snowed In Applicants Get Extra Time to Submit

Were you hit by last month's winter storm? You can submit your application late, following NIH's usual guidelines.

You don't need permission -- just state the reason for being tardy in your required cover letter. Be sure you don't delay your application longer than the time your institution was closed. Read the November 30, 2006, Guide notice for the official word.

Two Videocasts for Your Viewing Pleasure

If you weren't able to attend the following events in person, you can catch the archived videocasts.

Town Hall Meeting on Genome-Wide Association Studies

See what unfolded at NIH's Town Hall meeting on possibly creating a centralized data repository for genome-wide association studies. Held on December 14, the discussion included a review of comments NIH received through its GWAS Request for Information. Go to the GWAS Web site for the videocast.

Training on E-Applications

Applicants gearing up for electronic R01s may want to watch the December 5th training session Preparing for Electronic Grant Application. The videocast features experts from NIH who provide an overview of the e-application process, take you through the SF 424 R&R forms, and share lessons learned.

	Opportunities and Resources

Request a Research Supplement for a Special Hire

With a research supplement, you can accomplish two things at once: 1) get funds to hire an additional person for your project and 2) promote diversity.

To take advantage, you must be a principal investigator with at least two years remaining on a grant that is eligible for supplements, such as an R01, R37, P01, or U01. Read the following program announcements to see who qualifies.

• Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research
• Research Supplement for Reentry
• Research Supplement for Primary Caregiver

For more information, see our Supplements main page and our Advice on Research Training, Career Awards, and Research Supplements starting with Research Supplements.

Annotated R01 Application Gets a Makeover

To help a popular resource stay relevant, we've trimmed our annotated R01 application, keeping only the science-related parts: the Research Plan and summary statement.

Of course, our previous sample application used the PHS 398, so the form sections are no longer useful, and it will not be feasible for us to create a new electronic R01 application for at least a year.

In the meantime, you can still take advantage of the outstanding Annotated R01 Research Plan and Summary Statement. We've broken the Research Plan into its four main sections, as is required for electronic application, and our new index links to information for the other electronic sections.

Send Us Your Thoughts on Funding News and Email Alerts

Is our newsletter meeting your needs for information from NIAID? Do you find Email Alerts helpful? Let us know how we can improve our service to you.

Send your comments by emailing niaid_alerts@niaid.nih.gov. Here's a template you can (but don't have to) use. Copy it into a blank email and then fill it out.

	Advice Corner

Reader Questions

New Investigator Status

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Since the publication of this article, NIH changed its definition of a "new" investigator. See Are You "New"? in our New Investigator Guide to NIH Funding.

Richard J. Bennett, assistant professor, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Brown University, asks:

"Does receiving a grant from the National Science Foundation mean an investigator is not considered new for NIH?"

Only PHS grants affect your status as a new investigator for NIH. Read the details on Are You "New"?

Provisional Paylines and Funding

Kent Lai, assistant professor, at the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Center for Medical Genetics, Department of Pediatrics, University of Miami Leonard Miller School of Medicine, asks:

"Under the continuing resolution, will a grant that is outside the provisional payline be funded? Will it likely be funded when the FY 2007 budget is approved? Do all institutes establish a provisional R01 payline?"

Grant applications that score above (worse than) the 10.0 percentile are not automatically funded, but we may fund them at some point in the fiscal year. We have several processes, including selective pay and R56-Bridge awards, to fund grants that score above the payline.

The R01 payline is always a conservative estimate reflecting the number of grants we expect to be able to award. Applications are kept active until the end of the fiscal year when we may have limited funds to award some deferred applications.

In deciding what to do, call your program officer for advice, keeping in mind that options are limited while we are operating under a continuing resolution. After we get our budget, we will use selective pay and Bridge awards to pay some additional grants even if the payline does not rise above the 10.0 percentile.

All institutes put in place some type of provisional funding approach while they await their budgets.

Research Plan Format for Renewal Application

Erica Harris, research coordinator, Boston University School of Medicine and Boston VA Medical Center, asks:

"What format should I use for the Research Plan section of an R01 renewal?"

A Research Plan follows the same format and page limits for a renewal application as a new application, but there are a few differences.

Instead of preliminary studies, you’ll include a Progress Report. NIH recommends six to eight pages for a Progress Report, which will include:

• Start and end dates for the period since your project was last peer reviewed.
• Summary of the importance of your findings in relation to your specific aims.
• Account of published and unpublished results, indicating progress toward achieving the aims of the project.

You should also add a Progress Report Publication List and, if you’re conducting human subjects research, an Inclusion Enrollment Report.

Check the Grant Application Guide of the R01 funding opportunity announcement for further details. For other questions related to electronic application, go to Electronic Application Resources.

Resubmitting and Getting Funded

Yuxiang Sun, instructor, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Huffington Center on Aging, Baylor College of Medicine, asks:

"Can a resubmission hurt my chances of getting funded?"

A resubmission that scores slightly worse than your initial application probably won’t affect your chances at funding, as we could still fund your initial application.

But a resubmission that fares significantly worse probably would hurt your funding prospects since reviewers would have found additional problems that weren’t apparent the first time.

That said, our data show that less than five percent of resubmissions do significantly worse than the initial applications. More than 80 percent get better scores, and for around 15 percent, results are equivalent.

By addressing the issues raised in your summary statement you will increase the likelihood that your resubmission will fare even better than your first try. Just remember that the summary statement isn't an exhaustive critique. See Summary Statements Have Their Limitations in the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal.

Public Access to Grant Applications

Victoria Sutton, intellectual property intern, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, asks:

"Does NIH make a grant application available to the public?"

Though you may ask for a copy of a grant application through the Freedom of Information Act, NIH will not release it until after the grant is awarded. NIH will also withhold portions of the application that could violate personal privacy or reveal confidential commercial or financial information. See Information for Requesters Who Ask for a Grant Application for details.

An exception to this rule is our Annotated R01 Research Plan and Summary Statement, which we’ve published with the permission of the PI.

	New Initiatives

• RFA-AI-07-008, Immune Mechanisms of Viral Control
• PAR-07-161, Innovations in Biomedical Computational Science and Technology Initiative
• PAR-07-160, Innovations in Biomedical Computational Science and Technology Initiative
• PA-07-136, Sarcoidosis: Research into the Cause of Multi-organ Disease and Clinical Strategies for Therapy
• PA-07-107, Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (NRSA) for Individual Postdoctoral Fellows
• PA-07-106, Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards for Individual Predoctoral Fellowships to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research
• RFA-AI-07-002, Asthma and Allergic Diseases Cooperative Research Centers
• RFA-AI-07-003, Cooperative Research Partnerships for Biodefense
• See the NIAID Funding Opportunities List for older initiatives.