eSubmission News and Updates
NIH eSubmission Items of Interest — July 12, 2006
Ready or not... here come the new eSubmission form packages!
Starting next week (Tuesday, July 18, 2006 to be precise) NIH will begin accepting grant applications using new form packages (see NIH Guide notice NOT-OD-06-078). You may recall that the new form packages will be rolled out as follows:
| Release/Posted Date of FOA | Expiration Date | Grant Mechanism | Use New Forms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before June 15, 2006 | On/Before Dec. 31, 2006 | All mechanisms | N/A - will be allowed to close gracefully with no form change. |
| Before June 15, 2006 | After Dec. 31, 2006 | R03, R15, R21, R21/R33, R33, R34, R36 and XO1 | After July 18, 2006 |
| Before June 15, 2006 | After Dec. 31, 2006 | SBIR/STTR (R43, R44, R41, R42), R13/U13 | After Sept. 15, 2006 |
| On/After June 15, 2006 | Any | All mechanisms | Immediately – initial posting will include new form package. |
The updating of announcements began this week. Whenever an existing Funding
Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is updated, Grants.gov sends out an automated
notification to anyone that provided their email at the time of download.
For this reason, some of you may receive a lot of email as we work through
the updating of these announcements. Sorry, we have no way to suppress the
automated emails from Grants.gov. The good news is that the email flurry will
be short lived – a week now and another week in September when we update
the second group of FOAs.
Let’s see if you’ve been paying attention to recent announcements
on forms changes…
Pop Quiz:
Question 1: True or False. Once an FOA is updated with the
new (Version 2) form package, the old (Version 1) form package will still
be accepted by Grants.gov and NIH.
Answer 1: If an FOA is updated with the new Version 2 form
package, Grants.gov will no longer accept applications with the older package
and NIH will not receive it – so the answer is FALSE. You must use the
updated form package. I’m sorry to report the only way to migrate an
application “in the works” is the good old cut-and-paste method
(I know – not what you wanted to hear.)
Question 2: How can you tell if you are using Version 2 of
the forms?
Answer 2: To assist you in identifying the old forms versus
the new forms, NIH will label the new forms packages as “Version-2-Forms”
in the Competition ID field of the forms. The Competition ID is shown on the
Grants.gov download screen as shown in the screenshot below…
The Competition ID also can be seen on the cover component when opening the application in PureEdge as seen in the following screen shot:
Still not sure? Another (less obvious, but also effective) way to determine
if you are using Version 2 of the forms is to look at any address section
of a form in the package. If the “Province” field exists, you
know you are using Version 2 of the forms.
Question 3: For a short period of time you may be given the
choice of two form packages when you get to the Grants.gov download screen.
How will you know which one to choose?
Answer 3: Whenever there is a choice, the package labeled
“Version-2-Forms” in the Competition ID field should be used.
We have carefully chosen transition dates to ensure that the new form package
is posted after the last submission date that NIH will accept the old form
package.
If you search for funding opportunities using the NIH
Guide for Grants and Contracts you may have noticed the following new
splash screen appear when you press the “Apply for Grant Electronically”
button contained in the announcement. The splash screen will remind applicants
to choose the “Version-2-Forms” package.
Question 4: True or False. The same Application Guide can
be used for both the old and new form packages.
Answer 4: FALSE. For a period of time NIH will need to maintain
multiple form packages AND multiple Application Guides. The FOA will continue
to link you to the appropriate Application Guide. (Wow, what a great lead
in to the next Item of Interest…read on!)
Hot off the Presses - Application Guide
SF424 (R&R) – Version 2
What’s summer without a good sequel? The Grants.gov Application Guide
SF424 (R&R) for NIH and other Public Health Service Agencies – Version
2 is now posted and available for your viewing pleasure. I know you are anxious
to dig in to this masterpiece, but here are a few notes before you get started:
- Each major version of the application guide starts fresh, so you will not see the familiar purple text indicating changes to the document. Don’t worry, it will return with future edits to this version. There is, however, a summary of changes to the document in the Foreword – so, you may want to start there.
- Version 2 of the application guide should only be used with Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) that use Version 2 of the forms (remember the Competition ID field will be blank for Version 1 form packages and will include “Version-2-Forms” for Version 2 form packages). The existing and revised Application Guides will be labeled Version 1 and Version 2, respectively, on the cover page and within the footers.
- When you download a forms package, it is always best to download the application guide at the same time to ensure you have a matching set.
- The SF424 (R&R) Application and Electronic Submission Information page includes links to Version 1 and Version 2 of the Application Guide and a short overview of notable changes in each version.
Helpful Hint – Navigating the Research
& Related Project/Performance Site Locations Component
When reviewing the newly updated SF424 (R&R) forms we ran into a little
quirk with the Research & Related Project/Performance Site Locations Component.
We have already brought it to Grants.gov’s attention, but wanted to
pass it on to you as well. In this particular component no default is provided
for the Country field (all other forms in the Research & Related set default
to USA). The State field (which comes before the Country field when stepping
through the application) will not become active until “USA” is
supplied in the Country field. It is easy enough to supply the Country value
and go back to the State field, but it isn’t, shall we say, intuitive
to do so. Pass this helpful hint along and save the Grants.gov support desk
a call or two.
