General Guidance

Grant applications (new, renewal applications, resubmission, and revision) from foreign (non-U.S.) institutions and international organizations must include only detailed (non-modular) budgets. See NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-06-096 http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not-od-06-096.html.This does not apply to applications submitted by domestic institutions with a foreign subaward; those institutions must follow existing NIH policy to determine whether a detailed or modular budget should be submitted. Note, a detailed subaward/consortium budget component is required only when the prime grantee is submitting a detailed budget.  The Notice of Award will indicate if a detailed budget is required in the future years of the project.

All requests for funds and financial reports must be stated in U.S. dollars.

Once an award is made, NIH will not compensate foreign grantees for currency exchange fluctuations through the issuance of supplemental awards.

All communication with NIH must be in English.

Cost Principles

Cost Principles define what can and cannot be requested in a grant budget. The applicable cost principles depend on the type of applicant organization (educational institution, hospital, government, business), which can be found here: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/compliance/compliance.htm.

General information about Cost Considerations may be found at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/nihgps_2003/NIHGPS_Part5.htm#_Toc54600115.

Allowable and Unallowable Costs

Costs that are generally allowable under grants to domestic organizations also are allowable under foreign grants, with the following exceptions:

• Major Alterations &Renovations (>$500,000). Unallowable under foreign grants and domestic grants with foreign components.
• Minor Alterations & Renovations (<$500,000). Generally allowable on grants made to foreign organizations or to the foreign component of a domestic grant, unless prohibited by the governing statute or implementing program regulations. Minor A&R costs may be included and justified in any detailed budget of a competing application. Rebudgeting of active grants to accommodate minor A&R is also allowable; however, this does require NIH prior approval of the GMO.
• Customs and import duties. Unallowable under foreign grants and domestic grants with foreign components. This includes consular fees, customs surtax, value-added taxes, and other related charges.
• Patient Care Costs.  Patient care costs are provided only in exceptional circumstances.

Limited Facilities & Administrative (F&A) costs

With the exception of American University of Beirut and the World Health Organization, full F&A costs will not be allowed. However, NIH provides limited F&A costs (8 percent of total direct costs less equipment) to foreign institutions and international organizations to support the costs of compliance with NIH requirements. Some examples of NIH compliance requirements are the protection of human subjects (including the required education in the protection of human research participants), animal welfare, invention reporting, financial conflict of interest and research misconduct. NIH will not support the acquisition of, or provide for depreciation on, any capital expenditures, or support the normal, general operations of foreign and international organizations.  These expenses should not be requested as a Direct Cost budget expense.

See March 29, 2001 NIH Guide Notice: http://grants2.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-01-028.html.

Note: For help accessing PDF, RTF, MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, RealPlayer, Video or Flash files, see Help Downloading Files.