Carryover Requests

Purpose

To enable grantees that do not have automatic carryover to use unexpended prior year grant funds in a current budget period.

Procedure

Grantees

• Request approval in writing from NIAID to carry over funds from a prior budget period for the following mechanisms unless automatic carryover of authority is indicated on the award:
  • Center grants (P30, P50, P60).
  • Cooperative agreements (U).
  • SBIR (R43 to R44) and STTR grants (R41 to R42). Note that two-year R43s and R41s have automatic carryover from year one to year two.
  • Training grants (T32) with a last competing year of 2006 or later.
  • Fellowships (F).
• Limit carryover requests to actual needs for the current budget period. Subsequent needs will be considered in future budget periods.
• Financial status reports (FSRs) must be submitted and accepted in a timely manner in order for NIAID to consider carryover requests.

For more information on items needing NIAID approval, see the Prior Approvals for Post-Award Grant Actions SOP.

Principal Investigators

• Email the request to your institutional business office, which signs the request and sends it to your grants management specialist.
• Include an explanation of why funds remain, a categorical budget, justification, and scientific rational for use.

Grants Management Staff

• You have 30 days from the time you receive all of the required documents to complete the carryover request.
• Verify that the unobligated balance on the financial status report is equal to or greater than the carryover request.
• Review the electronic grant file for any previous requests. Compare current requests to previous requests to eliminate any overlap. If there is a pattern of not spending money or requesting carryovers, it may indicate that the grant is overfunded, the carryover is not necessary, and the future year commitments may need to be reduced.
• Review a grantee's request for reasonability, and send a copy to the program officer for review.
• If both you and the program officer approve a request, issue a revised Notice of Award to reflect the carryover.
• If either the program officer or you do not approve, email the grantee indicating the reason.
• Upload the request to the electronic grant file.

For more details, read GMP's Carryover of Unobligated Funds from a Prior Budget Period SOP.

Program Officers

• If you receive a carryover request from a PI, keep a copy, and forward the original to the grants management specialist immediately.
• Review carryover requests and approve only if they are reasonable, are within the original scope of the project, and include a justification for scientific need, a budget, and budget justification.
• Email the Grants Management Program of your approval or disapproval or annotate the request letter with a recommendation, signature, and date and forward to GMP. If you disapprove, give the reason.

Contacts

Grantees with questions should contact the appropriate program officer or grants management specialist listed on their Notice of Award. For more information, see Contact Staff for Help.

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

eRA Commons scroll down to Financial Status Reports for electronic progress reports.

NIH Guide notice, "Electronic FSR Submission is Changing as of 12/31/02," October 28, 2002

Send Us an Annual Progress Report in the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal