Investigator Withdrawal of an Application

Purpose

To allow principal investigators (PI) to withdraw their application from funding consideration.

Procedure

If principal investigators decide not to pursue funding after submitting an application, they may withdraw it at any time.

This SOP addresses withdrawing an application after the Division of Receipt and Referral (DRR) in NIH's Center for Scientific Review (CSR) receives it. For information on withdrawing an electronic application in response to validation issues, see Should You Withdraw the Application? in Part 7. Applying of the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal.

PIs should be aware that NIH allows investigators to submit an application up to three times: the initial submission and two revisions. With that restriction in mind, they should consider the following before withdrawing an application:

• Applications withdrawn before initial peer review will not count as one of the three submissions.
• Applications withdrawn after initial peer review will count as one of the three submissions.

To submit an amended application, an applicant does not need to withdraw the previous one.

Principal Investigators

• Request to withdraw your application by emailing or sending a letter to DRR.
  • Include the grant number and title as well as date of submission.
  • Make sure you and your institutional business official sign the request. If emailing your request, be sure to copy your business official.
  • Send emailed requests to Suzanne Fisher, DRR director, at sf28v@nih.gov.
  • Send requests by regular mail to the following:

    Center for Scientific Review
    Attention: Division of Receipt and Referral
    National Institutes of Health
    6701 Rockledge Drive
    Suite 1040
    Bethesda, MD 20892-7710 (for letters sent by USPS regular or express mail)
    Bethesda, MD 20817 (for letters sent using a courier service.

• Alternatively, ask your program officer to withdraw your application.

Program Officers

• If investigators contact you to withdraw their application, submit the following to your division coordinator, who will forward it toStaff Only Contact.
  • A 901 form.
  • Letter from the investigator and co-signed by the institutional business official.

Contacts

Applicants with questions should Contact Staff for Help.

CSR Division of Receipt and Referral, 301-435-1115

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Links

NIH Grants Policy Statement

Withdrawal of a Nonresponsive Application SOP