Part 12. Renewal Application

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Table of Contents

• Are You Ready for This Part?
• Renewal Strategy
• Renewal or New Application?
• What Qualifies as a New Application?
• Timing Your Application
  • Considerations for Applying Early
  • No Time Limits . . . But
• Renewal How To
• How to Fill Out the Forms for a Renewal
• Planning a Budget
  • Strategies for Dealing With a Budget Cap
  • When Funding Is Tight
• Staying Funded
• Strategy to Keep Funds Flowing

Are You Ready for This Part?

Part 12. Renewal Application helps you maintain support once your research is funded.

Before reading this page, you may want to refresh your understanding of grant planning and writing by reading other parts of the NIH Grant Cycle:

• Know how to use this tutorial and where to find tools. Read How to Use the NIH Grant Cycle in Start Here. Find helpful Tools: application samples, checklists, timelines, and contacts.
• If you have never applied electronically -- see Part 7. Applying.
• Understand R56-Bridge awards and selective pay -- read Part 10. Funding Decisions.
• If you need to resubmit, read Part 11b. Not Funded, Reapply.

Renewal Strategy

At some point during your grant, you will need to apply again for NIH support and undergo initial peer review if you wish to continue funding.

This step is a tough one for many investigators and a common failure point. Below we give you a strategy to help you succeed.

Your renewal should fit into your multi-year plan for your research career. We cover that topic in Part 2. Game Plan.

Our Advice: Have a Plan Well Before Your Grant Ends

When developing a strategy to continue funding, answer these questions:

• Will I continue the current project at roughly the same level of resources?
• When should I apply?
• How will I maintain funding if I don't succeed on the first try?

On the next pages, we will help you find answers that work for you.

Find more information online:

• Part 11b. Not Funded, Reapply if your renewal isn't funded
• Renewal Funding SOP
• Renewal Application questions and answers

Renewal or New Application?

To re-establish funding, you have two choices. You can renew your current grant, called a renewal, or submit a "new" application.

Your situation and the science dictate which route is most advantageous.

With a renewal application, you request funding to continue your research toward the end of your grant's project period. When you apply, peer reviewers will hold you to the standard of what you accomplished, compared to a new applicant, who is judged on potential.

With a new application, you may pursue a path in the same area as the expiring grant, but the research must be significantly different.

Peer reviewers will judge the research you're proposing, its relationship to your previous research, and your success using NIH dollars to further science and public health.

• Whether you apply with a new or renewal, be sure to tie your application to your previous work.
• Describe your research and successes in your progress report (for a renewal) or the Background and Significance section of your Research Plan (for a new application).

Our Advice: Ponder Several Points

When deciding, consider your situation and the science; then contact your program officer for advice.

If your research has gone well, peer reviewers are likely to give you an edge no matter which approach you take because you have a proven track record, and they know it takes time to build a successful research team.

Even so, many people feel it is advantageous to apply with a renewal if you have made progress and plan a logical continuation of your project using the same funding mechanism. Going in a new direction or expanding the scope of the research calls for a new application.

Apply with a renewal if you . . .

• Plan a logical continuation of the previous project using the same funding mechanism. Make sure the Specific Aims of your next application differ from those of your current grant.
• Have made progress and accomplished some of your Specific Aims.
  • You didn't have to follow your original Research Plan precisely.
  • It's key to show that you successfully conducted relevant research, got results, and then used those results to pursue the next set of experiments.
• Submitted under a request for applications and the bullets above apply.
  • If the RFA no longer exists, you can submit an investigator-initiated renewal.
  • Always use the parent program announcement; for example, an R01 uses PA-07-070.
  • Keep in mind that you are playing by new rules, for example, new receipt dates and review criteria. Read the parent PA carefully.

Apply with a new application if you . . .

• Want to significantly change or expand the scope of your research. See next section.
• Want to start over with a new idea.
  • For example, you may decide to do this if the grant is not going well, or you have not made progress (i.e., accomplished several Specific Aims).
• Though your application needs substantially different Specific Aims, it could be a spin off of the original line of research.
• Be sure to use a new title.
• Read our Renewal Funding SOP.
• Prefer a new funding mechanism.
• Applied under a request for applications and the bullets above apply. The application is new even if you are continuing the same line of research. Follow all procedures for a new application.
• Have used up your one allowed resubmission. Read more in the next section. (NIH allows you to resubmit an application submitted on January 25, 2009, and later only once. You may resubmit an application sent before that date twice and must do so by January 7, 2011.)

Some applicants subdivide their project into two applications: one for the new work and a renewal to continue the existing research.

If you go that route, be careful not to dilute the applications' quality and risk receiving an unfundable priority score. State in your cover letter that you are using that approach.

What Qualifies as a New Application?

Investigators often ask to what extent an application must be different so it qualifies as "new."

A new application should be substantially different in content and scope from the previous one, for example, new Specific Aims and a materially different Research Design and Methods section.

Read more in Option 3: Create a New Application in Part 11b. Not Funded, Reapply.

NIH's Center for Scientific Review generally leaves the new versus renewal determination up to the applicant.

However, CSR will question a renewal status for two reasons:

1. After an unsuccessful resubmission, you submitted a new application without sufficiently revising.

The scientific review officer will contact you and give you a chance to rebut CSR's decision. If CSR disagrees, it will return the application to you without a review.

2. You included a progress report and applied as new.

CSR will work with you to correct the problem. Depending how much time remains before the review meeting, you may need to withdraw the application and submit for the next receipt date (assuming there is one).

If you need help deciding which application type to use, talk to your program officer.

Timing Your Application

Consider whether to apply early rather than wait until the last possible receipt date before you would incur a funding gap.

Our Advice: Apply When Truly Ready, Plan for a Resubmission

Applying one or more review cycles early is often a good idea because you may have to resubmit. In FY 2007, less than a quarter of R01 renewals got a fundable percentile on the first try.

Gain Time to Revise and Resubmit

Applying early gives you time to revise and resubmit if you do not get a fundable score, limiting the possibility of such nasty consequences as losing personnel or animals or having to close your lab.

For very complex projects, e.g., program projects (P01), definitely apply early.

But Apply When Truly Ready

Remember that no matter when your application arrives, reviewers expect to see data indicating progress. Your timing hinges on your comfort with your data and progress, the length of the grant, and the complexity of the project.

Applying early is feasible if you have sufficient data to show progress.

• If your work is progressing slowly, it's better to wait to get results that you can describe in the application.
• If you have a three-year award, you may not have enough data to apply early.

When to Consider a Delay

• At the end of the fiscal year (June-July non-AIDS receipt date, September-October Council), you often have to wait several extra months before you get an award because the Institute does not yet have a budget for the following fiscal year.
• If you wait to submit for the October-November non-AIDS receipt date instead, you could lose just a month or two before you actually get an award.
• See the NIAID R01 Application to Award Timeline for more information.
• Go to NIH's Review and Award Cycles table for receipt date and funding timeframes.

Considerations for Applying Early

Our Advice: Weigh the Pros and Cons of Applying Early

Your choice depends on your situation. Weigh the pros and cons, and contact your program officer for advice.

Keep in mind that if your grant ends in the next fiscal year, we will make the award at that time if it is within the next fiscal year’s payline. We cannot fund the new grant until shortly before the old one ends.

Pros

• If you apply early, you can get earlier feedback on your application.
• You can gain time to revise and resubmit if you do not get a fundable score.
  • A resubmission would not harm your chances of getting funded.
  • eRA Commons keeps both versions of your application, so we can fund an earlier one if the resubmission receives a worse score.

Cons

• If you apply before your research has yielded significant results, you could use up the initial goodwill of the reviewers. They won't appreciate spending their time on a premature application.
• Your application will be affected by the next fiscal year's payline. You have no budget information for the year in which your application would be funded. That fact could make it harder to plan your strategy.

No Time Limits . . . But

Another timing issue is: how long can you wait to submit a renewal after your grant ends?

NIH does not set a time limit, but reviewers will probably be concerned by major gaps between projects because the science has likely changed. Take this into account when writing the application.

Our Advice: Prepare a New Application If Your Research Is No Longer Current

If the research is still current with the latest science, include the following points:

• Explain that your planned research is in sync with the science of your field.
• State what you have done during the hiatus.
• Highlight any new preliminary data.

Renewal How To

A renewal should clearly link back to your previous grant's Specific Aims, show progress, and not duplicate the aims of the previous grant.

Our Advice: Know These Do's and Don'ts

Avoid a gap. Apply as early as you can before the end of your grant to avoid a break in funding. See Timing Your Application.

Get preliminary data. Make sure you have data.

• If you are writing a new application or your application is not funded after the second try, you could apply for an Exploratory/Developmental Grant (R21) or Small Grant (R03) application to get preliminary data for a new approach.
• Make sure that grant doesn't overlap with your plans for an R01.

Revisit the science. Review your Research Plan, especially Background and Significance.

• Make sure it reflects the latest research in your field.
• Show the flow of the project in terms of your past and next steps. Show how it logically extends your research.
• Describe the significance of the renewal in the larger science and health context.
• Include most of this information in your progress report as well.

Showing progress is enough. You don't have to do everything you promised.

• Reviewers care more about whether you got meaningful results than conducted all the experiments you outlined in your application.
• Changing direction is okay as long as you have not changed the project's scope.
• Describe your work and highlight your successes in your progress report, and note in the Background and Significance section of your Research Plan.

Revise even if your R01 application is nominated for selective pay.

• You may still need to wait until the end of the year to get funded even if your application is approved for selective pay.
• Even if you resubmit and get a worse score, we can fund the previous application and make the award provided the score is within the payline.
• Read Part 11b. Not Funded, Reapply for information on resubmissions.

Keep up with your peers. Assess what the outside world (including reviewers) thinks of your research.

• Know who's in your field and make sure they see you as a leader.
• Funding is about both science and self-marketing. Recognition primes others to consider you as a leader.
• Show accomplishments though publications, invitations to present, and conference abstracts.
• Request enough travel money to attend two or three meetings a year.
  • Be specific about which meetings, where, and why in your budget justification.
  • Meet reviewers at meetings.

Publish before you apply.

• Don't wait till the end of your grant to publish!
• Get your papers published or papers accepted for publication before you apply.

How to Fill Out the Forms for a Renewal

Your electronic renewal uses the most current Grant Application Package for your funding opportunity, the same as for a new application.

Renewals follow the same format and page limits as a new application with a few exceptions:

• PHS 398 Research Plan form
  • Instead of preliminary studies, include a Progress Report.
  • Attach a Progress Report Publication List.
  • If you are conducting clinical research, fill out the Targeted/Planned Enrollment Table.
• PHS 398 Checklist form
  • Fill out the information on Inventions and Patents. For more detail, see Invention Reporting Has Four Parts.
  • Check the Grant Application Guide and the funding opportunity announcement for instructions.
• SF 424 (Cover Page) form -- several items; see the Grant Application Guide.

Our Advice: Change Title If Needed, But Let NIH Know You're Submitting a Renewal

• While it is often best to keep the same title, use a different title if it's a better fit.
• If you do, check the box indicating that your application is a competitive renewal on the checklist (the last page) of the grant application, and enter your grant number.
• That way, NIH will know that the title is new, but the application is a renewal.

Planning a Budget

We always advise that you request the amount of money you need to perform the research.

But renewals have an extra consideration: for the past several years -- which we expect to continue -- NIAID has limited the amount of money you can request for a renewal R01.

Our advice. Factor in the cap when planning your budget. NIAID rarely makes exceptions to the cap, and you are taking a risk if you expect that to happen.

The cap is part of NIAID's financial management plan, which we post on our Budget and Funding page.

Here's how we compute it. We base the cap on the direct costs of the last noncompeting award minus the following:

• Facilities and administrative costs for all subawards
• Supplements
• Equipment
• Alterations and renovations

We then increase that amount by 20 percent to get the cap level.

The cap affects all applications, modular and nonmodular, regardless of funding level.

Your grants management specialist will discuss your actual funding level when negotiating your award with you.

Strategies for Dealing With a Budget Cap

Our Advice: Ask for Enough Money

As we said above, always request a budget level needed to adequately fund the science, although our budget cap may make that job harder. Institutes will not allow you to skirt the cap by requesting a larger budget after the first year.

To help you cope, here are several options to choose from:

1. If you need more money because your research has evolved in scope, submit a new application instead of a renewal. See Renewal or New Application? above.
2. In addition to the renewal, submit a second application to fund the work you could not do otherwise.
• The advantage of this strategy is you are complying with the cap policy.
• The disadvantage is that it may be hard to get another grant.
3. Request more than a 20 percent increase. Discuss first with your program officer, keeping in mind that it's rare for investigators to get the extra funds. To receive the money, you have to clear all these hurdles:
   • The study section must recommend funding.
   • Your program officer must agree that you need the funds.
   • Our advisory Council has to concur.
   • NIAID must have funds to pay for your request.
4. If you are a new investigator, get advice from your program officer. Typically new investigators receive smaller awards than do more experienced grantees, so the cap can be a major problem.

If for any reason you don't get the money you need, you can negotiate fewer Specific Aims by letting your program officer know which ones you would not be able to do at the lower amount.

At any point, you can submit another application to fund additional research.

When Funding Is Tight

Our Advice: Be Prepared

During both lean and fat years, we all have to live within our means, as difficult as that may be.

Here are some tips for dealing with a tight budget era:

• Keep expectations modest. Scale back plans.
  • Don't increase your budget by more than 20 percent of the direct costs of the preceding award, since it's very unlikely that you will get more. If that strategy can meet your needs, you won't waste time planning a big expansion.
  • If you need more funds for your research, write another application.
  • Call your program officer for advice.
• Keep the ball moving. Try to apply in plenty of time to resubmit if you need to, and most people do. Read How should I time the preparation of my renewal application? and subsequent questions in Renewal Application questions and answers.
• Stay real. Funding is always dependent on budget constraints, so keep your budgets trim and awards at a reasonable number. If you already have a lot of funding, some peer reviewers may factor that into the review.

Staying Funded

Our Advice: Take Our Tips and Get More Ideas From Other Researchers

Renewing a grant is a big challenge for many first-time PIs who often find themselves running out of money as they revise and resubmit a renewal application.

Experienced investigators use different approaches to avoid a gap in the research and stay funded. Try talking to senior-level researchers in your institution to get ideas.

Renewal funding follows the same process as new applications do. If you want more information on that topic now, read How NIAID Determines Which Applications to Fund.

Strategy to Keep Funds Flowing

Explore all options, including those below, so you will have funds while you try for a renewal.

Another application. After your work is going well on your first project and you have some new ideas, write an application on a different topic.

You should have innovative and promising results that lend themselves to another application.

• Make sure another application is clearly distinct from your funded work.
• Be careful that you don't dilute your best ideas in too many applications. It takes a strong, flawless project to compete successfully.
• Can you juggle all the work? If you are a new investigator, you will need to convince reviewers that you have enough resources and time to do the work and are not stretched too thin.
• Your level of effort must not exceed 100 percent for all your work. How do you determine what level of effort to request?
  • For research grants such as the R01, NIH does not set a minimum. However, reviewers expect to see a level appropriate to the work proposed, i.e., enough time to effectively manage and oversee the project.
  • Read more in Effort in Part 3. Define Your Project.
• Be sure you have sufficient staff to do all the work.
• Your productivity, reflected by publications in peer reviewed journals is important, so don’t neglect this aspect of your career while writing new applications.

R21 or R03. In addition to a second R01, think about applying for an Exploratory/Developmental Grant (R21) or Small Grant (R03) to gather data to explore a new avenue of research.

• You need little or no preliminary data.
• NIAID accepts investigator-initiated applications in response to parent PAs as well as its own requests for applications and program announcements. Find them on our NIH Funding Opportunities Relevant to NIAID.

Bridge awards. If your application missed the payline, ask your program officer about the possibility of an R56-Bridge award. Read the NIAID R56-Bridge Award SOP for details.

Simultaneous applications. Be aware that you can send an application to NIH and another non-Public Health Service organization simultaneously, although you will be able to accept only one award.

Other funding sources. Look outside NIH:

• Perhaps your idea would be well received by the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, NASA, or another agency or foundation.
• Check Grants.gov, proposalCentral, and NIAID's List of Foundations and Other Funding Sources.

Find more information online:

• Renewal Funding SOP
• Renewal Applications questions and answers

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	This is the last module in the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal.

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