Strategy for NIH Funding
Communicating With NIAID—How to Get Help
On this page, you'll see whom to contact at NIAID and NIH at each phase of application and award and get tips for what to do if you are having trouble getting a response.
Table of Contents
Know Who Helps You at Each Stage
At each stage, NIH and NIAID have staff whose job it is to help you. Here's a summary of "who, what, when, and how" by stage.
You can find basic contact information for NIAID staff at Contact Staff for Help in Start Here to Use the Strategy for NIH Funding.
| Stage of Process |
Who Can Help |
| Before and as you prepare your application |
Get help from a program officer, colleagues, and your grants business office.
To find people at NIAID who can give you advice and answer your questions, go to Contact Staff for Help or leave a message at one of these general numbers.
While still in the early stage of planning your application, contact a program officer to do the following:
- Get our preapproval for these application types:
- Applications requesting $500,000 or more in direct costs for any year.
- Conference grants (R13 or U13).
- Investigator-initiated clinical trial planning and implementation awards.
- Assess the Institute's enthusiasm about a research area or application topic and get ideas for potential topics.
- Ask about high-priority topics and new scientific directions you could use to apply as investigator-initiated research.
- Get more information about an initiative—a request for applications or program announcement.
- Get help to identify a study section.
- Ask which activity code (grant type) may be best for you.
- Find out about meeting requirements for special areas such as human subjects and vertebrate animal research.
On our Web pages, look for contact information for people who coordinate an activity you are interested in.
Use our portal pages by audience:
If you are already working with a program officer, reference that person and any correspondence you've had if you get in touch with another office, such as our training or international office.
For inquiries about a funding opportunity announcement, find contact information in the Guide notice.
Our Resources for Researchers have contact information for each entry.
|
| When your institution registers you for the eRA Commons |
For registration help, contact the eRA Commons Help Desk. Read about the registration process at Get Ready Now to Apply Electronically in Part 2.
|
| As you fill out the application forms |
Contact the Grants.gov Help Desk for assistance with technical aspects of the electronic forms.
Also see Complete the Forms in Part 3 and Strategy for a Successful Submission in Part 4.
|
| While preparing to submit or having submission issues with Grants.gov |
Talk to your institution's signing official to arrange your submission. You or your signing official may contact the Grants.gov Help Desk if you need help.
Learn more about submission and validations in Part 4. Submit Your Application.
|
| After your application moves to the eRA Commons |
Contact the eRA Commons Help Desk to ask about Commons validation, report system issues, or get advice on the viewing window.
Read more at Next Step: eRA Commons Validation in Passing Validations in Part 4.
Work with your business office to address problems.
|
| Two weeks after submission |
Log in to the Commons for assignment information, and know whom to contact if you're not happy with your assignments to a study section (at first it may be only the broader initial review group) or institute.
Read Ensure You Get the Right Assignments in Part 5.
|
| Before peer review |
Contact your scientific review officer with any initial peer review-related questions. See the peer review section of Contact Staff for Help in Start Here to Use the Strategy for NIH Funding. Learn more in the Strategy for Assignment and Review in Part 5. |
| After peer review |
Contact your program officer to discuss funding possibilities and options. Go to How NIAID Makes Funding Decisions in Part 7.
Go to After Peer Review in Start Here to Use the Strategy for NIH Funding.
|
| After approval for funding or while managing your award |
Talk to your grants management specialist about negotiating your grant and complying with policies. Discuss science issues with your program officer.
Learn more about this stage at Strategy for Your Grant and other pages in Part 7. Funding.
|
Make the Most Out of Your Contacts With Program Staff
Once you've used the information above to know when to contact our program staff, take these steps toward a productive and timely conversation.
Explain why you are contacting us and describe what you want. Then, follow up a phone call with email; if you started with email, follow up with a phone call.
Provide additional contact numbers and email addresses if you have them. And be sure to state how urgent the matter is, or give a time or date by which you need a response.
You should expect to wait longer than normal if you contact a program officer immediately after the release of a funding opportunity announcement or NIH Guide notice. We get a spike of inquiries whenever we publish new opportunities or policies, and it takes time to respond to everyone.
If you have difficulty getting a response after following the steps noted above, try someone else. Email the branch chief, or try calling the division's general number listed above.
Get a Speedy Response From Grants Management
Start with an email after reading the information above to confirm that contacting your grants management specialist is the right move.
In your email, do the following:
- Provide your grant or application number.
- Copy your program officer.
- Clearly explain why you are getting in touch and describe what you want.
- Provide any other contact numbers and email addresses you have.
- State how urgent the matter is, or give a time or date by which you need a response.
Grants management specialists typically respond by the end of the next business day. However, from July to September workloads get heavier, so it may take two business days to get back to you. If you can afford to wait, please do.
If you do not get a reply and your issue is urgent, take these steps to escalate your request.
- Follow up with a call to the grants management specialist.
- If you still don't hear back, contact the most appropriate branch chief; find his or her name at Grants Management Program Contacts.
- If the branch chief doesn't reply in two business days, contact the Grants Management Program chief, Mary Kirker, with a copy to Matthew Fenton, director of the Division of Extramural Activities.
Strategy for NIH Funding
Learn more at
Start Here to Use the Strategy for NIH Funding
Table of Contents for the Strategy
We welcome your comments, questions, or suggestions. Email deaweb@niaid.nih.gov.