Before You Start
Proposal Format
Required Sections
Budget Information
Special Requirements
Approval Process
Sponsor Links

Before You Start

Important Reminders:

Grants.gov proposals must be submitted ONE WEEK prior to the agency's posted deadline. This advance submission will allow time to correct any errors that may be detected by the agency.

eRA Commons

• The PI must complete a one-time registration in the eRA Commons. Commons is NIH's "virtual meeting place" where NIH will communicate with the PI about their proposals and projects. Access to the Commons is vital for all steps in the process after application submission. Your PA will register you.
  
  
• The Commons recommendation is to allow two weeks for the registration process to be finalized.
  
  
• Once the PI receives an e-mail confirming his/her registration with Commons, the PI must verify that all Personal Information located within the Personal Profile tab in Commons systems is correct. This information MUST MATCH the PI's information on the Grants.gov proposal. Only PIs have access to the PI's Personal Profile information in Commons. Please double check your information.

Senior Personnel

For all key senior/key personnel (those who contribute in a substantive, measurable way) the following information should be provided to the PA several days in advance so that it may be entered into the Grants.gov proposal:

Preface to name
First, Middle, and Last Name
Suffix to name
Position/Title, Department, Organization Name
Street address, City, County, State, ZIP
Phone number, Fax number
E-mail address
COMMONS ID user name (if they have one set up)

Note: Senior Personnel generally does not include students.

Proposal Format

PDF Files

NIH requires all text attachments be submitted as a PDF file.
The PI should prepare text attachments using MS Word and then
convert those files to PDF before sending to the PA.

Format Specifications for All Files

Font

• Use an ARIEL, HELVITICA, PALATINO LINOTYPE, OR GEORGIA typeface.
  
  
• Type density can be no more than 15 characters per inch (CPI).
  
  
• Type may be no more than six line per inch.

  Page Margins

• Use standard paper size (8 1/2" x 11).
  
  
• Use at least one-half inch margins (top, bottom, left, and right) for all pages.

  Headers & Footers

  Do not include any information in the header or footer of the attachments. A header will be system-generated that references the name of the PI. Please inform anyone sending their biosketch of this also. Page numbers for the footer will be system-generated.

  Figures, Graphs, Diagrams, Charts, Tables, Figure Legends, Footnotes, and Color

  A smaller type size may be used but it must be in a black font color. Color can be used in figures but all other text must be black.

  Page Limits

  Standard NIH page limits apply. For R01s, the narrative limit is 25 pages. Agency validations will include checks for page limits.

  Page Numbers

  Grants.gov will generate page numbers for NIH proposals.

Required Sections

Below is a list of the files that need to be sent to the PA to complete the Grants.gov submission:

Project Summary/Abstract

Two components:

• Project Summary - must be no longer than 30 lines of text
  
  
• Project Narrative - Relevance - Using no more than 2 or 3 sentences, describe the relevance of this research to public health. Use language for lay audience.

Read program specific guidelines for detail on what abstract should contain.

Bibliography & References Cited

This section was known previously as the Literature Cited. It is a separate section from the text.

Facilities & Other Resources

Laboratory animal, computer, office, clinical and other

Equipment (separate upload)

List major items of equipment already available for this project and, if appropriate, identify location and pertinent capabilities.

Research & Related Senior/Key Person Profile

The PA will complete a sheet in the proposal for each person listed on the RESEARCH & RELATED Senior/Key Person Profile.

There are two categories here:

1. Senior/Key Personnel generally describes those at a PostDoc level or above who have measurable time committed to the project.
2. Other Significant Contributors (OSC). OSC includes key personnel who do not have measurable time on the project.

Biographical Sketch

For each of the key personnel, a biographical sketch will be needed. The file name should be as follows: BIOjohndoe.pdf. Each bio will need to be sent to the PA as a separate file. Do not include a name in the header of the biosketch. Do not include any page numbers on the bio. A maximum of four pages is allowed for each bio.

Note: Biosketches must be done on the PHS 398 09/04 forms.

Note: Each person listed in the RESEARCH & RELATED Senior/Key Person Profile must include a biosketch.

Research Plan

The Research Plan will be uploaded in many different sections. Each section should be labeled at the beginning with the section headings below. Each should be sent to the PA as a separate PDF file.

1. Introduction to Application (for RESUBMISSION or REVISION only)
2. Specific Aims
3. Background and Significance
4. Preliminary Studies/Progress Report
5. Research Design and Methods

The sum total of the above four sections must be no more than 25 pages.

Note: Attachments 6-10 apply only when you have answered "yes" to the question "are human subjects involved" on the R&R Other Project Information Form.

6. Protection of Human Subjects
7. Inclusion of Women and Minorities
8. Targeted/Planned Enrollment Table
9. Inclusion of Children
10. Data and Safety Monitoring Plan
11. Vertebrate Animal
12. Consortium/Contractual Arrangements
13. Letters of Support
14. Resource Sharing Plans(s) - when PI is requesting $500,000 or more in indirect costs
15. Appendix*

*NEW process for appendix material:

• Publications in press:
  
  Include only a publication list with a link to the on-line journal article or the NIH PubMed Central (PMC) submission identification number. Do not include the entire article.
  
  
• Manuscripts accepted for publication but not yet published:
  
  The entire article may be submitted as a PDF attachment as part of the Appendix material.
  
  
• Manuscripts published but an online journal link is not available:
  
  The entire article may be submitted as a PDF attachment as part of the Appendix material

Table of Contents

Grants.gov will generate this page.

Personal Data Form

NO LONGER NEEDED

Budget Information

Budget Information

The Proposal Administrator will prepare and upload the budget into Grants.gov. Please communicate your budget information to them early in the process.

All NIH budget requirements remain the same. The budget must be modular (increments of $25,000) for budgets of $250,000 or less in direct costs. If requesting more than $250,000 direct costs per year, a detailed budget must be prepared.

If requesting more than $500,000 per year in direct costs, you must seek approval from the NIH program officer before proceeding. Allow six weeks for this approval.

Subcontracts

If subcontracts are involved, detailed (FINALIZED) budget information will be needed from them before the total budget can be finalized.

Special Requirements

Subcontracts

Information needed from subcontractors:

• NIH Face Page (signed)*
• Detailed Budget and Budget Justification*
• NIH Checklist*
• Statement of Work*
• NIH Biosketch
  
  *These items need to be mailed in hard-copy format from the subcontract institution.

Within the Grants.gov proposal, there is a budget form for each subcontractor. The PA will e-mail that form to the subcontractor to complete. They will return it to the PA who will then upload it into the Grants.gov proposal. This must be done early in the process.

Approval Process

AFTER THE PROPOSAL IS SUBMITTED

• Grants.gov will run a basic check on the proposal. If there are problems with the file, the Signing Official (SO) will receive an e-mail with any errors detected by Grants.gov. If no errors are detected, the proposal will be sent on to NIH's eRA Commons server within approximately 48 hours.
  
  
• Once NIH receives the proposal, they will work to assemble one PDF viewable file of the entire proposal. If there are problems during this process (errors or warnings in the proposal file), NIH will send an e-mail to the PI and SO. NIH notes that e-mail is unreliable so the PI and SO should check eRA Commons often to be informed of the proposal status.
  
  
• The SO and PI will have two business days to check the assembled application in eRA Commons. During this two-day period, if the errors or warnings need to be corrected, the SO may "reject" the application and submit a corrected one.
  
  
• If the SO rejects the application before the submission deadline, a changed/corrected application can be submitted to Grants.gov within that two-day viewing window.
  
  
• If the SO rejects the application after the submission deadline for some reason other than system issues, a changed/corrected application can be submitted to Grants.gov but it will be subject to the NIH late policy and may not be accepted. A cover letter will need to be attached to the application package, explaining the reason why the application is late.
  
  
• If no action is taken within the two-day period, the application will automatically move forward for processing so it is imperative that the PI view the assembled file and inform the Proposal Administrator if there are any problems with the proposal.

Note: If you try to correct errors or warnings after the file has been assembled for 48 hours - or after the deadline - it may be too late.

Early submission will allow time to make any necessary corrections before the agency deadline.

See Section 2.12 of the Grants.gov SF 424 guidelines, "Correcting Errors", for step-by step error correction instructions.
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/SF424_RR_Guide_General.doc

Sponsor Links

Research Foundation Proposal Administrators
http://rf-web.tamu.edu/preaward/proposaladm.html

Research Foundation Contact for NIH Questions
Ruth Manning: rmanning@tamu.edu

NIH's website for guidelines
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/424/index.htm

Please review our web-site for information on submitting RF proposals through Grants.gov

1. http://rf-web.tamu.edu
2. Click on Items of Interest - "How to submit Grants.gov proposals through the Texas A&M Research Foundation"