NIAID Glossary of Funding and Policy Terms and Acronyms: R-S

Interim award that lets principal investigators continue research while reapplying for an R01 grant, or enables new investigators to gather preliminary data to improve their grant applications. Investigators do not apply for these awards; they are selected from R01 applications at the payline margin.

R56-Bridge award recipients receive one year of funding, which ends after they succeed in obtaining an R01 or after one year.

Go to NIAID's Budget and Funding, NIAID R56-Bridge Award SOP, NIAID May Approve Special Funding tutorial page, and R56 and Selective Pay and Funding Decisions questions and answers.

Peer reviewer who serves as a backup for a primary peer reviewer and secondary peer reviewer. A reader reads a grant application thoroughly before an initial peer review meeting but does not necessarily prepare a written critique.

Go to NIAID's SROs Assess Completeness, Assign Reviewers and associated tutorial pages.

For electronic applications, same as submission date, the Grants.gov due date for a funding opportunity announcement. Submission date differs from closing date.

For paper applications, date due to the NIH Center for Scientific Review; differs from submission date.

Investigator-initiated applications have three receipt dates (except NIAID T32 training grants, due September 25 only). Applications and proposals responding to initiatives are due on the date stated in the Guide announcement.

Go to NIH's Submission Policies and Standard Due Dates for Competing Applications. Go to NIAID's Council, NIAID R01 Application to Award Timeline, Assignment SOPs, and How to Submit Electronically on Time tutorial page.

Routing of grant applications arriving at NIH. The referral section of the Center for Scientific Review is the central receipt point for competing applications.

CSR referral officers assign each application to an NIH institute and refer it to an integrated review group using NIH referral criteria. Alternatively, NIH encourages PIs to self-assign. Go to NIAID's Applications Are Assigned to an Institute and IRG tutorial page and Peer Review of Applications -- CSR questions and answers.

Go to CSR and CSR's Standard Due Dates for Competing Applications and Division of Receipt and Referral.

1. Designation by a scientific review group that a grant application merits funding. Such an application gets a priority score and summary statement as a result of initial peer review.

Roughly the top half of applications reviewed are recommended for funding. See also initial peer review, not recommended for further consideration, streamlined review, and unscored. Go to NIAID's Assigning a Priority Score and Noncompetitive Applications Get a Streamlined Review tutorial pages.

2. Action by an advisory Council recommending funding based on program priorities and balance and lack of barriers such as human subjects issues. Go to NIAID's Part 9. Second-Level Review tutorial page.

Funding level recommended for each year of a non-modular budget by an initial peer review scientific review group. The actual amount is subject to NIAID's annual financial management plan and scientific progress (for a renewal).

See escalation factor. Go to NIAID's Budget and Funding.

Bill containing changes in law recommended in the instructions of a budget resolution. If instructions pertain to only one committee, that committee reports the reconciliation bill.

If the instructions pertain to more than one committee, the Budget Committee reports an omnibus reconciliation bill, but it may not make substantive changes to recommendations of the other committees.

Go to NIAID's Planning and Budget Cycle: NIAID Budget and Planning tutorial page.

State in which an inventor has specified an invention in words, drawings, or other means so anyone familiar with the field would be able to make, implement, or perform the invention. It does not mean the inventor has made or performed the invention.

Reallocation of funds between grant mechanisms or from a contract to a grant, which must approved by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Management and Budget , and Congress. Go to the Repooling and Reprogramming SOP. Also see reprogramming.

Initiative sponsored by one or more NIH institutes or centers that stimulates targeted research by requesting grant applications in a well-defined scientific area.

RFAs have a single receipt date and identify funds set aside and the number of awards likely to be made. Institutes publish RFAs in the NIH Guide and in Grants.gov as funding opportunity announcements.

Go to NIAID's Opportunities and Announcements, Requests for Applications SOP, RFAs and NIAID's Peer Review Process questions and answers, and NIAID Funding Opportunity Planning and the Budget Cycle and How Funding Opportunities Work and subsequent tutorial pages.

Initiative sponsored by an NIH institute that requests proposals for a contract to meet a specific need, such as the development of an animal model.

RFPs have a single proposal receipt date and are published in FedBizOpps: Federal Business Opportunities and sometimes in the NIH Guide. Go to NIAID's RFPs on R&D Contracts and Request for Proposals SOP.

Notice used to obtain price, delivery, market information, or capabilities for planning purposes. May be used by the government to collect information before plans to award a contract.

Go to Solicitation and Receipt of Proposals and Information section 15.201e and NIAID's R&D Contracts.

1. Search to achieve new or fuller knowledge or practically apply knowledge.

2. Human subjects term for a systematic investigation, including development, testing, and evaluation, to develop generalizable knowledge. Go to definition 45 CFR 46.102 and full 45 CFR 46.

Research -- search to achieve new or fuller knowledge or practically apply knowledge.

Development -- use of knowledge gained from research to create useful materials or methods.

Required budget form for nonmodular electronic grant applications.

Depending on the funding opportunity announcement, level of support (see modular budget), and use of a subaward, investigators use one of the following components of the Grant Application Package:

• Research and Related Budget component.
• PHS 398 Modular Budget, Periods 1 and 2.
• R&R Subaward Budget Attachments.

Go to NIAID's Strategy for Planning a Budget in the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal.

Required form for electronic grant applications that includes information on human subjects and research animals and attachments for Project Narrative, Project Summary/Abstract, Bibliography and References Cited, and others.

Go to NIAID's NIH Grant Application: Section by Section and subsequent tutorial pages.

Research and Related Senior/Key Person Profile form

and Research and Related Senior/Key Person Profile Expanded form

Required form for electronic grant applications that includes information on the project director/principal investigator and key personnel, the eRA Commons ID field (called agency login), and biographical sketch fields and attachments.

The expanded version accommodates more key personnel. Eventually NIH will use that version in all Grant Application Packages.

Go to NIAID's Senior/Key Person Profile Form: Prepare the Biographical Sketches in the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal.

Grant in the P series supporting shared resources for a multidisciplinary research group of investigators focused on a common research topic.

See NIAID's Other Grant Types and go to Instructions for Preparing a Multiproject Grant Application.

Research Design and Methods

Section of an NIH grant application's Research Plan describing the design, procedures, and analyses to accomplish a project's specific aims. Read Research Design and Methods -- Writing and Research Design and Methods -- Evaluating in the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal.

Fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, reviewing, or reporting research.

• Fabrication -- making up data or results.
• Falsification -- manipulating research resources or processes, or changing or omitting data or results to make the research record inaccurate.
• Plagiarism -- appropriating another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving credit.

Research misconduct does not include honest error or differences of opinion. Also see Office of Research Integrity and PHS Alert System. Go to NIAID's Bars to Grant Awards -- Research Misconduct SOP and Research Misconduct Cases SOP.

Research Plan

Main part of an NIH grant application describing the importance of a principal investigator's proposed research and how the project will be conducted.

A typical Research Plan has four main sections: Specific Aims, Background and Significance, Preliminary Studies/Progress Report, and Research Design and Methods.

Go to NIAID's Part 5. Research Plan in the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal and PHS 398 Research Plan form (for electronic applications).

Budget term referring to the following grant types: R01, R03, R21, R23, R37, R41, R42, R43, R44, R55, P01, P42, U01, U19, U43, and U44. RPGs are research grants awarded to an institution.

R series are single research project grants; P series are multiproject grants. U series cooperative agreements can be either single project -- U01, U43, U44 -- or multiproject -- U19. Unlike a multiproject award, a single project award addresses one research topic even if it involves several sites.

For descriptions of these activity codes, go to NIAID's Grants portals.

Monies that add funds to an existing grant to support and promote diversity, people with disabilities, and people returning to work from family responsibilities.

Go to NIAID's Research Supplements and Training and Career Awards. Also see administrative supplement.

Human subjects research involving individually identifiable human specimens or data and subject to federal and state regulatory requirements. For example, this would include research on living persons using:

• Bodily materials such as cells, blood, urine, tissues, organs, hair or nail clippings, even if collected by others.
• Residual diagnostic specimens, including those from routine patient care, that are kept for research rather than discarded.
• Private information, such as medical information, even if the information was not collected for the study in question. This includes research on genetic information.

Procedure done during some fiscal years to shorten a grant's budget period by giving it a new grant anniversary date, generally to avoid having too many awards start at the end of a fiscal year.

Resetting a grant's start date may affect when a grantee would submit a renewal award. Go to NIAID'S Resetting Grant Start Dates questions and answers.

For electronic applications, the Facilities and Other Resources attachment is on the Research and Related Budget Other Project Information form.

For paper grant applications, Form page in PHS 398 grant application describing all essential resources in an application.

Go to NIAID's Other Project Information Form: Facilities, Resources, and Equipment in Part 6. Other Application Sections.

Special term and condition in a Notice of Award or article in a contract that does one of the following:

• Prohibits a grantee or contractor from using funds or conducting research for human subjects, animal research, select agents, or other area.
• Limits the use of funds to a specified purpose.

It may be lifted or adjusted after requirements are met.

See bar to award, and go to NIAID's Bars to Grant Awards, Contracts Involving Human Subjects, and Contracts Involving Animals SOPs. Go to NIAID's Human Subjects, Clinical Research, Research Animals, and R&D Contracts.

Grant application resubmitted to NIH after an investigator who did not succeed in getting funded revises it based on feedback from the initial peer review. Resubmissions are indicated in the application identification number, e.g., A1.

Applicants may resubmit applications submitted on January 25, 2009, and later only once. Applicants may resubmit applications submitted before that date twice and must do so by January 7, 2011.

Go to NIAID's Part 11b. Not Funded, Reapply in the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal. Go to NIAID's Unfunded Applicants and Resubmission Advice questions and answers.

Member of an NIH initial peer review committee who facilitates discussions of grant applications and contract proposals during the review.

Go to NIAID's At the Peer Review Meeting: Basic Layout of Initial Peer Review tutorial page.

Time span for one NIH Center for Scientific Review initial peer review round from the receipt of grant applications to the date of an initial peer review meeting. There are three cycles a year for investigator-initiated grants.

Go to CSR's Standard Due Dates for Competing Applications and NIAID R01 Application to Award Timeline.

NIH committee of senior peer review staff that advises NIH on extramural review issues. It has one voting member from each institute and several from the NIH Center for Scientific Review.

Written reports from sponsors notifying FDA and investigators of drug-associated or device-associated serious and unexpected adverse events. Go to NIAID's Data and Safety Monitoring Boards SOP.

See 21 CFR 312.32 (c) and 21 CFR 812.150 (b).

Formerly used term. See scientific review officer.

Chartered committee performing initial peer review in either the NIH Center for Scientific Review or an institute. SRGs are managed by a scientific review officer.

Institutes review grant applications with their own review requirements. Also see dual peer review, study section, and integrated review group.

Go to Scientific Review Program for a list of application types reviewed by NIAID. Go to NIAID's NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal and Peer Review Meetings -- CSR questions and answers.

Federal scientist who presides over a scientific review group and coordinates and reports the initial peer review of each grant application assigned to it.

Scientific review officers act as intermediaries between applicants and reviewers and prepare summary statements for all applications reviewed. Also see scientific review group.

Go to NIAID's Who Peer Reviews Your Application? tutorial page and Peer Review of Applications -- CSR questions and answers.

NIAID organization in the Division of Extramural Activities that oversees initial peer review of grant applications and contract proposals with Institute-specific requirements:

• Program projects (P)
• Cooperative agreements (U)
• Training (T) and career development (K) grants
• Contracts (N)
• Investigator-Initiated Clinical Trial Planning and Implementation Grants
• Responses to requests for applications and requests for proposals

For descriptions of these activity codes, go to NIAID's Grants portals. For contact information, go to SRP Contacts.

Human subjects term indicating an initial peer review group's determination whether gender and minority representation conform to NIH guidelines and pertain to the science.

A determination of unacceptable bars funding an application or proposal until NIH staff and the principal investigator resolve the issue. Criteria are different for clinical trials and other clinical research.

Scientific parameters of a funded research project. Grantees cannot change the scope of a project without NIAID approval because that would significantly alter the project the peer reviewers and Council recommended for funded.

See prior approval for grants, and go to What Constitutes a Change in Scope? in the NIH Grant Cycle for the most common changes.

Review generally conducted by an institute's advisory Council that results in funding recommendations to NIAID or other NIH institute director.

Second-level review looks at program priorities and balance and a lack of barriers to funding such as unresolved human subjects issues. It does not reassess the science.

See also expedited second-level review, initial peer review, scientific review group, integrated review group, and NAAIDC. Go to NIAID's Part 9. Second-Level Review tutorial page, Council, and NIAID R01 Application to Award Timeline.

Assignment of a grant application by CSR to an IC as a backup for funding should the primary IC decide not to fund it. Either a program officer or investigator can request secondary assignment.

Also see primary assignment, dual assignment, and receipt, referral, and assignment of applications. Go to NIAID's Requesting an Institute, Applications Are Assigned to an Institute and Integrated Review Group, and Call If You Are Not Satisfied With a CSR Assignment in the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal.

Peer reviewer who serves as a backup for a primary peer reviewer. Both read a grant application thoroughly before an initial peer review meeting to lend their expertise to the group discussion. The secondary peer reviewer may also write a critique. Also see reader.

Go to NIAID's SROs Assess Completeness, Assign Reviewers tutorial page and Peer Review Meetings -- CSR questions and answers.

Secure system peer reviewers use to receive electronic reimbursement for expenses and honoraria that result from participating in initial peer review meetings. SPRS is in the eRA Commons.

See NIAID's Reimbursement for Peer Reviewers SOP.

Biological agent or toxin listed in 42 CFR Part 73, 7 CFR Part 331 and 9 CFR Part 121, or the HHS and USDA Select Agents and Toxins List.

Investigators who possess or use a select agent must register with and get approval from either the CDC Select Agent Program or USDA APHIS Agricultural Select Agent Program, depending on the agent.

Also see overlap select agent, NIAID category A, B, and C priority pathogen, and highly pathogenic infectious agents. Go to NIAID's Biodefense Research and Development page and Select Agent Awards SOP.

For R01 applications at the margin of the payline, the funding of a small number of grant applications that are programmatically important or from investigators who are new, as recommended by NIAID's advisory Council.

Investigators cannot apply for selective pay funding; rather, they are nominated by NIAID program officers.

Go to NIAID's Budget and Funding, Selective Pay SOP, NIAID May Approve Special Funding tutorial page, and R56 and Selective Pay and Funding Decisions questions and answers.

Information that could have a serious adverse effect on a person or an organization's operations or assets if lost, stolen, or tampered with.

Examples include the following:

• Social security numbers.
• Patient and medical information.
• Personally identifiable information.
• Contents of employee invention reports before submission of a patent application.
• Correspondence that includes proprietary information.
• Grant applications and contract proposals.
• Manuscripts that have not yet been submitted whose contents have not been publicly presented.
• Passwords and Access Codes.
• Anything protected by the Privacy Act.

Adverse event that results in death, life-threatening experience, hospitalization or prolongation of hospitalization, significant disability, or a birth defect.

Investigators must file serious adverse event reports with a sponsor and IRB, which reports them to FDA. IND sponsors must notify FDA and NIAID within 24 hours. If applicable, investigators must also file an FDA Adverse Event Report.

Go to FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System and NIAID's Human Subjects, Clinical Research.

Cover page for an electronic Grant Application Package together with the PHS 398 Cover Page Supplement. Term may also be used to signify Grant Application Package.

Also see funding opportunity announcement. Go to NIAID's Grant Application portal and SF 424 (Cover Page) in the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal.

See model organism sharing.

Predoctoral trainee supported for a two to three-month training experience, usually in the summer.

See other significant contributor.

Term used in the Commons to denote person with authority to legally bind an institution for grant matters.

In the Commons, SOs can register an institution, create and modify institutional profile and user accounts, and view all the institution's grants, including status and award data.

Government-wide program that promotes R&D with the potential for commercialization at small business concerns.

See SBIR AT NIAID, SBIR Fast Track, Small Business Technology Transfer, and Bayh-Dole Act. Go to the Small Business Act, NIAID's Small Business Awards, and NIH Small Business Funding Opportunities.

Government-wide program that promotes R&D with the potential for commercialization at small business concerns. It differs from Small Business Innovation Research in requiring a formal collaborative relationship with a university or other non-profit research institution.

See SBIR AT NIAID and Bayh-Dole Act. Go to the Small Business Act, NIAID's Small Business Awards, and NIH Small Business Funding Opportunities.

Notices in FedBizOpps that survey the market to determine if there are potential contractors that can satisfy government requirements. See the Federal Business Opportunities SOP. Go to NIAID's R&D Contracts.

Person or organization that initiates but does not conduct a clinical study, usually a drug or device manufacturer or the research institution that developed a drug.

Sponsors distribute drugs or devices to principal investigators and ensure compliance with regulations, for example, obtaining FDA approval to conduct a trial and reporting results to FDA. Go to definition 21 CFR 50.3, definition 21 CFR 312.3, and definition 21 CFR 812.3.

Negotiated contract usually between an academic institution and a private corporation giving the institution financial support in return for an option for the company to license patentable items coming from the research.

Go to NIAID's R&D Contracts and Office of Technology Development.

Called SNAP, streamlined process to continue support of a PHS-supported grant.

To continue funding, a grantee sends a PHS 2590 form to NIAID's Grants Management Program two months before the beginning of a new budget period, following SNAP procedures in the PHS 2590.

SNAP Financial status reports are due at the end of a competitive segment. A Notice of Award states whether a grant is awarded under SNAP.

See eSNAP, and go to NIAID's eSNAP (Electronic Streamlined Noncompeting Award Process) SOP and Progress Reports and eSNAP questions and answers.

Practice through which grant applications judged unanimously by the peer reviewers as unlikely to be funded are not discussed and do not receive a priority score.

These are roughly in the bottom half of applications being reviewed, though the percentage varies by study section and grant type. NIH sends the investigator the primary and secondary reviewers' critiques as feedback.

Formerly called triage. See also recommended, unscored, and summary statement.

Go to NIAID's Noncompetitive Applications Get a Streamlined Review and Part 11b. Not Funded, Reapply in the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal.

Component of an NIH Center for Scientific Review integrated review group organized around a scientific area, which conducts initial peer review in that field.

Composed of scientific experts, study sections are managed by CSR scientific review officers. Also called scientific review group. See also initial peer review and dual peer review.

Go to NIAID's Requesting a Study Section and Peer Review Meetings -- CSR questions and answers. Go to CSR's Study Section Rosters.

Collaborative arrangement in support of a research project in which part of an activity is carried out through a formal agreement between a grantee and one or more other organizations. Also known as consortium agreement.

Go to NIAID's Subawards for Grants SOP, Consultants or Collaborators -- How They Differ, and Where to Add Consortium and Contractual Agreements.

For electronic applications, date Grants.gov must receive the application. That date differs from a funding opportunity announcement's closing date. Go to NIAID's How to Submit Electronically on Time tutorial page.

For paper grant applications, date by which an applicant must mail an application to (not date received by) the Center for Scientific Review. Go to the Submission Policies section of Standard Due Dates for Competing Applications. This term differs from but is sometimes used interchangeably with receipt date. 

Human subjects term indicating a group further defined by geographic origins, national origins, or cultural differences. Subpopulation data can be defined and reported by self-reporting or other means.

Mixed racial or ethnic descent also applies to subpopulations, and such combinations may have biomedical or cultural implications for the science.

Roughly the number of grant applications funded by an NIH institute, divided by the number of applications referred to it that were peer reviewed. Applications resubmitted during the fiscal year are counted only once.

To learn more, go to Part 10. Funding Decisions of the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal.

Official document showing the outcome of initial peer review, including priority score (and percentile for an R01), codes if areas of concern (e.g., human subjects research), and a recommended budget.

Most summary statements also have a short synopsis prepared by a scientific review officer using peer reviewer critiques. Go to NIAID's Know What a Summary Statement Means and Summary Statements Have Their Limitations in the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal.

See research supplements to promote diversity in health-related research.

See research supplement.

Look It Up

See the Glossary for terms.