May 22, 2007
News Articles
Opportunities and Resources
Advice Corner
New Funding Opportunities
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News Articles |
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Be Careful When Timing Your Renewal
We'd like to clarify our advice on the Research Funding site about timing your renewal. Our site advises you to submit a renewal application one or more review cycles early, if you have sufficient data, rather than wait until your grant is ready to expire.
Generally this is sound advice since less than a quarter of renewals are fundable after the first try.
Applying early works well if your application gets a great score or if your grant ends in the same fiscal year that the renewal goes to our advisory Council for a funding recommendation. You can figure out the latter on NIH's Review and Award Cycles table, part of Standard Due Dates for Competing Applications.
But an early application may pose a problem if you are applying in one fiscal year and your grant ends in the next. We cannot fund the renewal application until your grant ends, and we would follow the funding policies, including the payline, for that fiscal year.
If your application crosses fiscal years, you cannot know what payline it will be subject to, making it harder to plan your strategy. The situation is even cloudier when we are operating under a continuing resolution, and the final budget picture is unknown.
When deciding what to do, you need to weigh the benefits of submitting early and getting earlier feedback on your application with the difficulty of applying while not knowing the payline for the following fiscal year.
Without that information, it's hard to gauge how much you would need to revise should your renewal not succeed and you need to resubmit, or whether you should wait to see if you are funded through selective pay. It's a good idea to contact your program officer for advice.
On the plus side, a resubmission would not harm your chances of getting funded. We can reactivate the earlier application if your resubmission receives a worse score.
We have added this information to our Early Grant Awards and Renewal Applications questions and answers.
Commons News: eSNAP and Other Changes
You may find it easier to fill out your electronic streamlined noncompeting award progress report, thanks to changes to the eSNAP function in the eRA Commons.
These enhancements are bringing the system in sync with last year's PHS 2590 revisions, which we wrote about in our April 19, 2006, article "Attention Applicants -- These Changes Affect You!"
Here are some of the features:
- Updated PI signature assurance language used in the sign-off process.
- Serves as an institution's record of the PI signature assurance.
- No need for a separate assurance, except for multiple PI grants. For those, investigators other than the contact PI must provide a separate assurance.
- Separate checkboxes for changes to select agent research and multiple PI leadership plans.
- Effort measurement in person months reflected in two places:
- Edit Business/Org Info screen for PI effort.
- Edit Business/Key Personnel screen for key personnel effort.
Along with these upgrades, you'll notice other improvements, including a new menu choice that lets PIs give their assistants permission to view an application's status. Read more in "Your 'ASST' Can Check Application Status in the Commons" below.
For details on all the Commons changes, read the May 1, 2007, Guide notice.
New PI Definition Is Evolving
NIH's definition of a new investigator has recently changed. The list of grants that do not interfere with "new" status now includes Shannon (R55) and High-Priority, Short-Term Project (R56-Bridge) awards. You are still "new" even if you have been a PI on one of the following awards:
- Small Grant (R03)
- Academic Research Enhancement Award (R15)
- Exploratory/Developmental Grant Phase I (R21) -- except R21/R33
- Shannon Award (R55)
- High-Priority, Short-Term Project (R56-Bridge)
- Some career awards (K01, K08, K22, K23, K25, or K99/R00)
but not one of these awards:
- R01
- R21/R33
- R29 (no longer awarded)
- Other senior career awards (K02, K06, K24, and K26).
For more information, check out our previous April 10, 2007, NIAID Funding News -- Special Issue for New Applicants.
Planning a Medical Defense
The Department of Health and Human Services, NIH's parent organization, has drafted a roadmap for the government to develop and purchase medical resources against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats.
Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise Implementation Plan for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Threats outlines how HHS will prioritize purchases of vaccines, drugs, and medical diagnostics, including those made under Project BioShield.
For more information, go to the Office of the Biomedical Advance Research and Development Authority Web site and the April 23, 2007, Federal Register. You can submit comments on the plan through July 13; read more in the May 2, 2007, Federal Register.
You can also sign up for a workshop from July 31 to August 2, 2007, in Washington, D.C. Go to Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise Stakeholders Workshop.
Late Arrival for Acrobat Application Forms
For the June 5 submission date, you will apply using the current PureEdge application forms. We still don't know when the new Acrobat-based forms will be ready.
Once a transition plan is final, NIH will notify the community through the NIH Guide and the eSubmission listservs. Watch "What's New This Week at Grants.gov" at the bottom of the Grants.gov front page for this and other announcements.
If you do not have Windows, continue to use the options listed at Download Software. Your institution's grants office can give you more guidance on which approach to take.
The Adobe eSeminar we mentioned in our last issue is being rescheduled due to third-party technical difficulties. Grants.gov has already posted some seminar materials including Adobe and PureEdge FAQs and links for installing Adobe Acrobat Reader. Watch for the new seminar date at Program Status.
Council Member Rothenberg Gets Pediatric Research Award
Kudos to Dr. Marc Rothenberg for earning a prestigious award from the Society for Pediatric Research.
A member of NIAID’s advisory Council, Dr. Rothenberg received the E. Mead Johnson Award for Research in Pediatrics for his research in allergic and eosinophilic disorders. The annual award is in recognition of outstanding scientific contributions to pediatric-related research.
Dr. Rothenberg discovered the first gene associated with eosinophilic esophagitis, a disease whose symptoms mimic acid reflux. The Journal of Clinical Investigation published this study in its February 2006 issue. Read the full article, "Eotaxin-3 and a uniquely conserved gene expression
profile in eosinophilic esophagitis."
In 2005, Dr. Rothenberg established the Cincinnati Center for Eosinophilic Disorders. He is professor of pediatrics and director of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
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Opportunities and Resources |
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New on Our Site
Check out these two new resources on the Research Funding site.
Model Outstanding SBIR Application
We've just posted an outstanding Model SBIR Phase II Application and Summary Statement, a unique resource for our readers.
Apart from a small amount of confidential information and intellectual property deleted, this application is exactly the same one NIAID funded. We've also included the summary statement with minor omissions to protect confidentiality.
We are exceedingly grateful to RiboNovix's Chief Executive Officer Alison Taunton-Rigby, Ph.D., and PI Cheryl Murphy, Ph.D., for allowing us to post the application. NIH is linking to it at Application Example on the Electronic Submission site. Please remember that only U.S. citizens are eligible to apply for small business awards.
Applying After the Bell? See Our Late Applications SOP
Our new Late Applications SOP expands information in NIH
Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal.
Use it as a guide to NIAID's conditions for accepting a late application as well as whom to contact and what to write in your cover letter for paper and electronic applications.
New Portal Targets Women Scientists
Visit NIH's Women in Biomedical Careers portal for links to awards, seminars, mentoring programs, and other helpful information at NIH, the National Academies, and professional societies.
You can also go to NIH Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers to track the progress of that new committee.
NIH created the Working Group and Web site in response to the National Academies report, Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering.
International Ethics Guidance
Researchers working in international settings often face the task of adhering to regulations in environments where it may be hard to apply ethical guidelines.
World Health Organization's new review, Ethical Challenges in Study Design and Informed Consent for Health Research in Resource-Poor Settings, may help. It examines social, cultural, and ethical issues and includes ten case studies.
Alternative Models of IRB Review
Should your institution consider an alternative to its local institutional review board? A new report, National Conference on Alternative IRB Models: Optimizing Human Subjects Protections, suggests strategies to overcome barriers to using alternatives while still providing human subjects protection.
In case you missed it, you can view Presentations from the 2006 National Conference on Alternative IRB Models. Find the Meeting Program and other links on the main Alternative IRB Models page of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Send Feedback on Pharmacogenomics Report
The Secretary's Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health, and Society needs your help.
After identifying pharmacogenomics as a high-priority field, the committee drafted Realizing the Promise of Pharmacogenomics: Opportunities and Challenges and would like your comments before preparing the final report.
The report describes opportunities and challenges in pharmacogenomics in these areas:
- Research and development.
- "Gatekeepers" involved in facilitating the progression of the field.
- Improvement in health practice outcomes.
Send comments by June 1, 2007. Go to Request for Public Comment for a list of feedback questions and contact information.
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Advice Corner |
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Holidays Count Toward the Application Viewing Period
IMPORTANT UPDATE: On Friday, May 25, NIH reversed its decision to include the Memorial Day holiday in the viewing period. If you receive notice that the application image is ready for viewing on May 24, for example, you now have until May 29 to view it, as the final step.
At NIH, holidays typically move key due dates to the next business day.
But the two-day period to view an application in the eRA Commons is an exception -- it includes holidays.
If you receive notice that the application image is ready for viewing on May 24, for example, you have Friday, May 25, and Monday, May 28 (Memorial Day) to view it, as the final step.
On Memorial Day at midnight Eastern Time, the viewing window will close, and your application will move to NIH's Center for Scientific Review. Read more in If Your Application Passes Commons Validation in the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal.
This approach for holidays could change in the future; stay tuned.
When Can I Expect My Application Assignment?
After you submit an application, it can take a few weeks before you can look up your study section in the eRA Commons.
CSR usually posts the study section assignment within ten days, but it could take as long as six weeks.
Here's the breakout for processing time:
If you don’t see your assignment after two weeks, call CSR’s Division of Receipt and Referral at 301/435-0715.
Your "ASST" Can Check Application Status
As PI, you can now delegate an assistant (ASST) to view the status of your electronic applications in the eRA Commons. Read how to set up this role for any person registered in the Commons under the "Other eRA Commons Changes" section at the bottom of the May 1, 2007, Guide notice.
We updated our All About Grants Tutorials, Glossary, and other pages to reflect the new role.
Mac Applicants: PureEdge Woes and Workarounds
A recent Apple security update is triggering problems for the Macintosh OS X version of the PureEdge application form viewer.
Until IBM resolves the problem, you can try the workaround posted at IBM Workplace Forms (PureEdge) Viewer for Macintosh. Otherwise, you would need to use an NIH-hosted Citrix® server or one of the Service Providers.
Requesting a Big Budget? You'll Need Our Approval First
We would like to remind you again of NIH's requirement to get our approval for a big grant application.
You must contact NIAID when requesting $500,000 or more in direct costs for any year, unless your funding opportunity announcement allows more than that amount. Without our approval in the application, CSR will reject the application.
Contact a program officer while still planning the application, so you don't waste time writing an application we may reject.
Though you could ask for $499,000 without our preapproval, it's to your advantage to contact us because of the following:
- If you ask for $499,000 in the first year, the out years could be more than $500,000, even if you don't request an annual increase.
- We may not have money to fund the application. NIAID funds few big grants each year because they strain the budget and compromise grant numbers, which Congress monitors.
- Our program divisions do not appreciate being surprised by big-dollar applications they have not preapproved.
The big grant policy does not affect requests for applications or small business -- Small Business Innovation Research or Small Business Technology Transfer -- awards. Read the Guide notices when applying for those opportunities.
For more information, see our Big Grants SOP and Big Grant Applications questions and answers.
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New Funding Opportunities |
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See these and older announcements on our NIAID Funding Opportunities List. |
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