Frequently Asked Questions
Check Submission Status
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Status
- How can a PI or a Signing Official track their application?
Authorized Organizational Representatives can track their applications through Grants.gov. The AOR also gets an email confirmation both when Grants.gov receives the application and when it passes to NIH. After the application is processed by eRA Commons, the PI or SO can log in to the eRA Commons and view the status of their application. eRA Commons sends email notifications to both the AOR/SO and PI at different stages of processing. Note: It is the applicants' responsibility to track their application through Grants.gov and NIH eRA Commons.
- I submitted my application to Grants.gov but cannot see any status
regarding the application within the eRA Commons.
If you cannot see the status of your application, it may be due to one of these two reasons:
- The application did not contain a valid Project Director/Principal
Investigator (PD/PI) eRA Commons user ID. This field is not marked as
required on the government-wide form, but it is required by NIH.
Action: Check the 'Credential, e.g., agency login:' field in the 'Profile - Project Director/Principal Investigator' section of the Senior/Key Person Profile(s) component of your application to ensure a valid PD/PI eRA Commons user ID. It is important to include the PD/PI user ID and not the Signing Official (SO) user ID in this field. You will need to submit the corrected application through Grants.gov in order to view application status in the eRA Commons.
Be sure to check the Changed/Corrected application box in the Type of Submission field of the SF 424 (R&R) cover component. Once that box is checked you will notice that Grants.gov will require data in the Federal Identifier field. If you are submitting a new project application (including corrected submissions for new applications) simply enter “N/A” in this field. For a continuation, revision, or renewal application, enter the assigned Federal Identifier number or award number (e.g., 1 R01 CA 123456-01).
- NIH has not yet processed the application.
Action: If the AOR has not yet received an email notification from Grants.gov that the grantor agency has retrieved the application, the AOR should work with Grants.gov to check on application status. Otherwise, continue to periodically check the eRA Commons for application status. Although applications are typically processed in a matter of hours, Grants.gov may take up to 48 hours and eRA Commons an additional business day to process an application.
- The application did not contain a valid Project Director/Principal
Investigator (PD/PI) eRA Commons user ID. This field is not marked as
required on the government-wide form, but it is required by NIH.
- Will applicant organizations have a chance to take a look at the
data once NIH has received it?
Yes. After NIH receives an error-free application package, it assembles the final application the way a reviewer would see it. The PI and SO have two full weekdays (Monday - Friday, excluded Federal holidays) to view the application after which the submission process is complete and the application moves forward to NIH Receipt and Referral.
Email Notifications
- What kind of email notifications are sent to applicants by Grants.gov
and by eRA Commons during the submission process?
A detailed listing of the email notifications sent by both Grants.gov and eRA Commons can be found at Chart of Email Notifications. - I am an AOR/SO and I have received my email notification from
Grants.gov but have not received any notifications from eRA Commons indicating
the application has been processed. What do I do?
Since email can be unreliable, it is the applicant’s responsibility to periodically check the eRA Commons for the status of these applications. If you do not receive any notifications from eRA Commons and do not see the application status in eRA Commons after two days, contact the eRA Commons Helpdesk.
Submitting Changed/Corrected Applications
- How are changes or corrections to applications submitted?
It is sometimes necessary to submit changes or corrections to an application submission. For example, if any Errors are identified in a submission they must be corrected and the entire application submitted again in order to complete the process.
Here are the steps to submit a corrected application:
- Make the corrections to the application forms.
- On the first page of the SF424 (R&R) application form, check the
Changed/Corrected application box in the Type of Submission field located
in box 1.
- Once the Changed/Corrected box is checked, box 4, the Federal Identifier,
becomes a required field. If you are submitting a “New” project
application (including corrected submissions for “New” applications),
enter the Grants.gov tracking number of the previous submission attempt
(e.g. GRANT00123456). If you are unable to find the tracking number,
enter “N/A”. For “Renewal”, “Resubmission” or “Revision” applications,
the Federal Identifier field should contain the IC and serial number
of the prior application/award number (e.g. CA123456).
- If after the submission deadline, include a cover letter with an explanation
of your changes and why the application is late. Include information
from any previous cover letter(s) since that information is not retained.
The cover letter must be in PDF format and attached to the PHS Cover
Letter component of the application.
- The entire Changed/Corrected application must be submitted through
Grants.gov.
- Make the corrections to the application forms.
- Is a cover letter required with Changed/Corrected applications?
Changed/Corrected applications submitted before the submission date do not require a cover letter. Any application submitted after the submission date (even if within the five business day correction window that NIH is allowing as we transition) must include a cover letter. The cover letter is not saved from one application submission attempt to the next, so the cover letter submitted with the final assembled application should include ALL the information that you want to convey to NIH. For electronic submissions, the cover letter is an attachment (in PDF format) to the PHS 398 Cover Letter File component found in the Optional Documents section of the application package.
- If the original application came in on the PHS398, how does
a resubmission come in?
Once a grant program/mechanism transitions to electronic submission, all new, renewal, resubmission or revision applications must use the electronic SF 424 (R&R) application (even if the original application was submitted in paper PHS 398 format).
- Can I still view and correct an application after the application due date?
NIH sets the application due date published in the funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) the same as the last receipt date for all FOAs. Unlike other agencies, NIH may accept applications that are submitted after the due date to accommodate our correction window, viewing window and late policy should it apply.
