Dual Assignments

Purpose

To allow the NIH Center for Scientific Review (CSR) to assign grant applications to more than one institute for funding consideration, based on NIH referral guidelines.

Procedure

Dual assignments acknowledge shared interests of institutes in a scientific area and inform appropriate institutes of an application.

Applications may receive primary and secondary assignments. CSR assigns applications to institutes with programmatic interest in the proposed research or training. The institute with the most relevant program is designated primary; others are secondary. PIs can ask CSR for a dual assignment in their cover letters.

Program officers may also request a secondary assignment when 1) an application is assigned to another institute but is of substantial interest to NIAID, 2) NIAID is considering funding, or 3) an applicant has requested it.

NIAID staff can request a secondary assignment to an application either before or after initial peer review but not after award. Alternatively, staff can request deletion of a secondary assignment if the science is not relevant to NIAID.

An application is given Council consideration by both the primary and secondary institutes. If the primary does not intend to make an award, the secondary has the opportunity to do so.

For funding implications and other information, see the Request for Primary IC Assignment SOP.

Investigators

• In your application's cover letter, you can request secondary assignment of your application to an institute.
• After your application has been assigned to an institute, you can ask a program officer to request a secondary assignment.

Program Officers

• To request the addition or deletion of NIAID as a secondary assignee, email the following information to DEA's Contact for NIAID Staff (Do not send a 901—Request for Assignment Change form.):
  • Full grant number, e.g., 2R01AI12345-06A1.
  • PI's full name.
• If NIAID, as the secondary assignee, wishes to fund an application, send a 901 Request for Assignment Change to the NIAID referral liaison,Contact for NIAID Staff in DEA, who will forward it to CSR.
• If either an applicant or another institute requests a secondary assignment to NIAID, it's a good idea to agree.
• If another institute wants to be listed as secondary, this is helpful in case we cannot pay the application.

Division of Extramural Activities Staff

• Contact for NIAID Staff can add or delete NIAID as a secondary assignee on applications in IMPAC.

Contacts

For assignment or review questions, contact the Center for Scientific Review, or if the application will be reviewed at NIAID, contact the NIAID Scientific Review Program or the appropriate program officer. For more information, see Contact Staff for Help in the Strategy for NIH Funding.

Contact for NIAID Staff

If you have knowledge to share or want more information on this topic, email deaweb@niaid.nih.gov with the title of this page or its URL and your question or comment. Thanks for helping us clarify and expand our knowledge base.

Links

Cosponsorship of RFAs and PAs SOP

eRA Management and Solutions

IMPAC SOP

NIAID Funding Policy and Process SOP

Program Assignment in NIAID SOP

Program Assignment Change Requests in NIAID SOP

Request for Primary IC Assignment SOP

Changing the Locus of Peer Review SOP