Information on Conference and Scientific Meeting Applications (R13s) Supported at the NIMH
NIH accepts conference grant applications (R13/U13) 3 times yearly, on April 12, August 12, and December 12 (AIDS applications should be submitted for the standard AIDS receipt dates of May 7, September 7, and January 7). Conference applications are required to be submitted electronically. (Click on this sentence for details on electronic submission processes.) After submission, applications assigned to NIMH (given an MH application number) undergo an initial evaluation for scientific and technical merit by peer review conducted in the Division of Extramural Activities at NIMH. The applications then undergo a second level of review with the National Advisory Mental Health Council. Decisions to fund applications are often made around the time of council.
Advance Permission Required
Potential applicants need to contact the NIMH R13 Contact (Dr. Jean Noronha at jnoronha@mail.nih.gov) 6 weeks prior to the deadline, in order to receive advance permission to submit an R13/U13 application. In general, R13/U13 Conference Grants at NIMH are used to support scientific/research symposia, seminars, conferences, workshops where persons assemble to coordinate and exchange research information in an effort to further the scientific research in areas of high relevance to the NIMH. The NIMH R13 Contact will determine appropriateness of the topic of the conference application to the mission of NIMH as well as the appropriateness for support under the R13/U13 mechanism.
Applicants should fill out the following form and submit by email to jnoronha@mail.nih.gov
R13/U13 Request form (Word, 2 Pages)
No conference application will be accepted that would occur sooner than 6 months after the receipt date. This time is needed in order to allow sufficient time for review and processing of grant award.
If the conference is found to be appropriate and acceptable to the NIMH, an approval letter will be send via email, as a PDF file attachment, to the applicant.
Referral and Assignment
After electronic receipt at the Receipt and Referral Office of NIH, applications are assigned to a particular Institute on the basis of the approval letter. Applications assigned to a particular institute are also assigned for review by that institute. Additionally, applications are often given secondary assignments to other institutes that have overlapping interests in the scientific focus of the conferences. Applications assigned to NIMH will be internally assigned to specific divisions/branches in the NIMH based on the topic(s) of the conference and current referral guidelines. Details on these assignments, including the institute primary and secondary assignments, and the project officer's name and scientific review officer's name, are available on the NIH eRA Commons, though sometimes these latter assignments may take some weeks to appear.
Scientific and Technical Merit Evaluation
Peer review is conducted via a mail ballot review to three assigned reviewers. A summary statement is prepared on the basis of these individual evaluations.
Second-Level of Review and Funding
Applications will be sent for action by the second level of review with the National Advisory Mental Health Council.
Special Note on Electronic Submission
Electronic submission to Grants.gov using the SF 424 (R&R) application form or system-to-system transfer of application data, is required for the R13/U13 program. No paper applications will be accepted. Submitting organizations must be registered on both Grants.gov and the eRA Commons sites in order to be able to submit an application to the NIH. PIs must have an individual eRA Commons account. We urge both applicant organizations and PIs to prepare for this process as soon as possible, as the registration process can take 4 weeks to complete. Additional information on preparing your organization for electronic submission and details of NIH’s future plans for electronic submission are available here.
The R13/U13 Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is posted in the NIH Guide to Grants and Contracts, as well as on the Grants.gov site. Please note that the electronic submission process requires either that you: 1) download the specific application package that is posted with the funding opportunity announcement or 2) use what is called a system-to-system transfer of grant application data to enter you application data and transmit it electronically. Sample SF424 (R&R) application forms and the application guide are available here. System-to-system transfer requires the development of a system to transfer application data to Grants.gov and NIH, with your home institution or with a “service-provider“ and should be developed well in advance of a receipt deadline.
For some conference applications, the Project Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) identified is not an employee of the applicant organization. For other conferences, the PD/PI is an employee of the applicant organization. Therefore, for electronic receipt, applicants have the following two options:
- Conference applicant organizations/institutions can name a PD/PI who is an employee of the organization/institution and register that individual in the Commons. It is important to note that only the named PD/PI at the institution will be able to access the Summary Statement, priority score, etc.
- Conference applicants/institutions may continue to use an "affiliated" individual as the PD/PI. In this case, the applicant organization will need to officially affiliate the PD/PI’s current eRA Commons account with the conference organization in the Commons.
Following are the steps to affiliate a PD/PI to an institution:
- PD/PI gives their Commons user ID and email address to the administrator of the new institution (The email address must be the one that is contained in the Personal Profile for the PI.)
- Administrator logs into the Commons (The administrator can be the Signing Official, Administrative Official, or the Accounts Administrator)
- Administrator selects "Administration" tab and then "Accounts" tab
- Administrator selects "Create Affiliation" tab
- Administrator enters the Commons User ID and Email address into the appropriate fields and clicks "Submit"
Note: The account cannot have any other roles attached to it other than the PD/PI and IAR roles. (If you are an NIH reviewer, you have been set up with an Internet Assisted Review (IAR) role already. The userID for IAR should be affiliated with the conference institution for the PD/PI role.)
Please note that in accordance with current R13/U13 policies, applicants are required to submit a copy of the Institute Approval letter with their application to document advance permission to apply. This documentation will need to be added to any other cover letter information and attached as a single PDF file to the agency-specific SF424 (R&R) application component titled "PHS 398 Cover Letter" PDF File.
