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Standard Operating Procedure Table of Contents
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Purpose
To support unsolicited research
projects or training grants with total direct
costs of $500,000 or more in any year of the grant.
Procedure
Investigators must have NIAID
approval before submitting an investigator-initiated new, renewal, revision,
or any amended or
revised version of the original application requesting $500,000 or
more in direct costs for any year; for
details, see the October
16, 2001, Guide notice. This $500,000 limit excludes any consortium
facilities and administrative
costs.
NIAID
accepts a limited number of large grant applications, and we weigh their prospects
carefully. The Center for Scientific Review will return applications if they lack documentation
of our acceptance.
Although investigators can ask for $499,000 without our preapproval, it's to their advantage to contact us because of the following:
- If you ask for $499,000 in the first year, the out years could be more than $500,000, even if you don't request an annual increase.
- We may not have money to fund the application. NIAID funds few big grants each year because they strain the budget and compromise grant numbers, which Congress monitors.
- For planning purposes, our program divisions should be aware of big-dollar applications.
NIH's big grant policy also applies to multiproject
applications even
if none of the individual projects requests $500,000 or more. It
does not apply to applications submitted in response to RFAs or
other programs with budgetary limits over $500,000, such as SBIR or STTR phase
II applications.
Clinical trial applications follow their own process -- go to Investigator-Initiated
Clinical Trials Resources for more information.
Investigators
- You must obtain NIAID preapproval before submitting an unsolicited big
grant application. CSR will not accept your application without documentation
of our acceptance.
- Before writing an application, discuss your plans to seek funding with your program officer, who can advise you on the feasibility of gaining an award.
- Seek IC staff's agreement to accept assignment at least six weeks
before you anticipate applying. If the requested dollars are significantly
greater than $500,000, approval should be sought even earlier.
- When submitting your application, include the documentation of NIAID's
agreement to accept your application and a data
sharing plan. Work with your institution to ensure that your plan
complies with grantee-specific regulations, NIH policies, and the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
- Submit your application by the CSR standard submission
date.
Program Officers
- Advise investigators on their data sharing plans so that they comply
with all policies and regulations, including the NIH
data sharing policy and HIPAA.
- In deciding whether to accept assignment of a big grant application, consider program relevance, feasibility, scientific priority, and budget.
- To accept a big grant application, do the following:
- If NIAID's Scientific Review Program is reviewing the application, contact SRP to arrange receipt date and peer review dates.
- Note: Do not save copies of the forms below locally; bookmark them to ensure you are using the latest version.
Be sure to fill in the "return to:" section of the ARA form
if you wish to be informed of any action taken by DEA.
- Complete a big grant email acceptance form, which must include your division director's approval. Route this form through your division coordinator.
- After you receive Institute approval, fill out an ARA form.
- In the Reason for ARA field, enter this text: NIAID will accept assignment of this application which may request $500,000 or more in annual direct costs.
- Email the form to Contact for NIAID Staff who will complete the form and send it to CSR.
- Prepare a big grant acceptance letter that includes the division director's signature, and send it to the investigator. He or she must include this as a cover letter in the big grant application package.
Contacts Applicants with questions should Contact Staff for Help.
Contact for NIAID Staff
Contact for NIAID Staff -- NIAID Budget and Financial Management Branch
If you have knowledge to share or want more information on this topic, email deaweb@niaid.nih.gov with the title of this page or its URL and your question or comment. Thanks for helping us clarify and expand our knowledge base.
Links
Big Grant Applications questions and answers
Data Sharing for Grants: Final Research Data SOP
Data
Sharing for Grants: Genome-Wide Association Studies SOP
NIAID Funding Policy and Process SOP |