T32 and T35 Training Grants -- Key Administrative Information

Receipt Dates

• Noncompeting continuation, or Type 5 progress report. The PHS 2590 is due four months before the anniversary date, e.g., a Type 5 application starting July 1 is due March 1. Please use the following mailing address:
  • Division of Extramural Activities Support, OER
    National Institutes of Health
    6705 Rockledge Drive, Room 2207, MSC 7987
    Bethesda, MD 20892-7987 (Use this ZIP Code for the U.S. Postal Service, including express mail.)
    Bethesda, MD 20817 (Use this ZIP Code for commercial carriers such as FedEx and UPS.)
• New or renewal T32 and T35 applications have only one receipt date: September 25. See the PHS 398 for other information and the application. Send applications to:
  • Center for Scientific Review, NIH
    Suite 1040
    6701 Rockledge Drive
    Bethesda, MD 20892-7710 (Use this ZIP Code for the U.S. Postal Service, including express mail.)
    Bethesda, MD 20817 (Use this ZIP Code for commercial carriers such as FedEx and UPS.)

Grants Issued Without Carry Over Authority -- Funded After FY 2004

• You do not need NIAID approval to rebudget funds except for restricted categories or to extend the last budget period of the project period up to 12 months.
• You must have prior approval to carry over unobligated funds.
  • Submit a written request signed by a business official.
• Include a detailed budget (PHS 2590, Form Page 2) and a strong justification for why the carryover funds are needed.
  • Program and grants management staff will review requests and if approved, the grants management specialist will issue a revised award authorizing the carryover.

Grants Issued With Carry Over Authority -- Funded Before FY 2005

• You do not need NIAID approval to rebudget, i.e., move funds from one budget category to another, except for restricted categories: stipends, tuition, fees, and health insurance. See the T32 program announcement for more information.
• You may carry over unobligated balances to the next budget period provided the amount is reflected in the Financial Status Report (FSR). You may carry over but not rebudget unobligated trainee costs -- stipends, tuition, fees, and health insurance -- and you may use them only for these purposes in future years.
• You may extend the last budget period of the project period up to 12 months without NIAID approval. The grantee business official must send a letter to the grants management specialist 10 days before the termination date stating that the grant will be extended. Include the new end date. Fax or mail the letter to:
  • (Grants management specialist listed on the Notice of Award)
    Grants Management Program, NIAID
    6700-B Rockledge Drive, Rm 2119
    Bethesda, MD 20892-7614

Trainee Appointments

• New trainees must be initially appointed for at least nine months except for T35 short-term training grants, which are usually two to three month appointments. Use one PHS-2271 Statement of Appointment form for each trainee. Reappointments are not restricted to a minimum number of months.
• New trainees may not be appointed during a no-cost extension without prior written approval from the Grants Management Program. Reappointments do not require prior approval.
• New NRSA postdocs must sign a PHS-6031 payback agreement form that is submitted with the PHS-2271. Payback service is required for the first 12 months of support and may be fulfilled through an additional 12 months of T32, F32, or F33 postdoc fellowship support.
• Predocs incur no payback obligation and do not sign a payback agreement.
• Only U.S. citizens, non-citizen nationals, and permanent U.S. residents may be appointed to a T32 or T35. Trainees with non-citizen national status must have a valid Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-551). Send a notarized statement verifying permanent residency status with the PHS-2271. Anyone on a temporary or student visa is not eligible.
• Trainees may be appointed to the training grant on any day during the budget period, up to and including the last day.
• Financial Status Reports: Obligate trainee costs for the full 12 month appointment from the budget period in which the appointment began, even though the appointment may extend beyond it. Trainee costs include stipends, tuition, fees, and health insurance for all awards issued with funds up through FY 2006; stipend, tuition, and fees for FY 2007 competing awards and noncompeting awards issued as competing in FY 2006.
  • Report these funds for trainees with appointments extending beyond the budget period as unliquidated obligations.
  • If they are incorrectly reported as unobligated obligations, NIAID will use them to offset the future year award, and you will not have enough funds to support the trainees' costs in the grant year for which the FSR was submitted.
• View the appropriate NRSA Guide notice and stipend table for stipend levels. These frequently change from one fiscal year to the next. Postdocs receive the stipend level according to their level of postdoctoral experience, usually calculated from the date of the first doctoral degree.
• One additional trainee over the number awarded (pre- and postdoctoral if a pre- and postdoctoral training program) may be appointed without NIAID prior approval. To appoint additional trainees beyond this, you must obtain prior written approval from the Grants Management Program. NIAID does not allow more than two additional trainees over the number awarded.
• By rebudgeting, you may substitute one predoc for one postdoc or vice versa in a combined predoc and postdoc training program without NIAID approval.
• Short-term summer trainee slots require a Statement of Appointment (PHS-2271).

Things to Do After the Award

• Send NIAID trainee appointment forms (PHS-2271) no later than three months before the start of the next budget period, regardless of a trainee's appointment date. For example, all PHS-2271 are due April 1 for a T32 with an anniversary date of July 1.
  • Trainees may be appointed up to the last day of the budget period, but we need the PHS-2271 by the due date. Call the grants management specialist listed on your Notice of Award if there are extenuating circumstances for not meeting this due date.
  • If your PHS-2271s are not received by the due date, NIAID will not be able to issue the Notice of Grant Award for the upcoming year and may delete unfulfilled slots from all future years.

Note: If you're having difficulty filling slots, please contact your grants management specialist before this deadline.

• Send a Termination Notice (PHS-416-7) for each trainee immediately when they terminate from either a T32 or a T35. We must have the trainee's home address and phone number for tracking purposes. Also, postdocs with a payback obligation must notify the Payback Service Center at 301/594-1835 of any change in address or phone number.
• Mail all your NIAID trainee documents (PHS-2271s, payback agreements, and termination notices) to:

Shellie Wilburn
Grants Management Program
DEA, NIAID, NIH, HHS
6700B Rockledge Drive, Room 2233
Bethesda, MD 20892-7614
Express Mail: Bethesda, MD 20817
Phone: 301-594-9676
Fax: 301-493-0597

• File a Financial Status Report annually, no later than 90 days following the end of the budget period. Reports of expenditures are required as documentation of the financial status of grants according to the official accounting records of the grantee organization.
  
  • Financial or expenditure reporting is accomplished using the FSR.
  • The report must be submitted for each budget period no later than 90 days after the close of the budget period.
  • Institutions should register with the eRA Commons to file FSRs online. You must submit all financial status reports electronically through the Commons.
  • Failure to submit an FSR on time will delay NIAID's issuing renewal (Type 2) and noncompeting (Type 5) awards.
  • Failure to submit complete, accurate, and timely reports may indicate the need for closer monitoring and possible enforcement actions by NIH.

  Read more information regarding FSR filing in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

Links to Other Web Resources

• T32 Program Announcement
• T35 Program Announcement
• NIAID-specific training information
• August 18, 2006, Guide notice, Revision: Notice of New NIH Policy for Funding of Tuition, Fees, and Health Insurance on Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards

If you have any further questions about your training grant, please call the grants management specialist listed in Section III -- Terms and Conditions on the last page of your Notice of Award.