Notice of Requirement for Electronic Submission of Just-in-Time Information and Related Business Process Changes Beginning April 20, 2012

Notice Number: NOT-OD-12-101

Release Date:  March 30, 2012  

NOT-OD-10-120: Revised Policy on Applicant Institution Responsibilities for Ensuring Just-in-Time Submissions are Accurate and Current Up to the Time of Award

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Certain NIH programs and award mechanisms use Just-in-Time (JIT) procedures to enable specific elements of a grant application to be submitted later in the application process, following review when the application is still under consideration for funding.   This procedure reduces the time to award while ensuring the accuracy and timeliness of information needed to award NIH grants. To reduce application confusion and to minimize requests from NIH staff for JIT submissions, NIH is revising its business processes so applicants will have better information on when JIT submissions are required, and to require electronic submission of JIT information through the eRA Commons as of April 20, 2012.

Policy

Applicants are required to submit their information using the JIT feature of the eRA Commons at least 60 days before the applicant’s proposed project period start date (or sooner if requested by the IC). If the requested JIT information is not submitted, funding may be delayed and the Project Director(s)/Principal Investigator(s) and Signing Official may be contacted directly requesting prompt submission of timely information.  

For information on the eRA Commons visit: https://commons.era.nih.gov/commons/index.jsp

Beginning April 20, 2012, applications receiving an impact score of 40 or less will receive a standard notice and request for submitting JIT information. This level reflects NIH’s new Impact Scoring system and current tightened paylines, though it does not reflect any individual IC’s payline.  Notices will be sent via e-mail from NIH eRA Commons to the Project Director(s)/Principal Investigator(s) two weeks after release of the impact score indicating the importance of beginning the JIT process, particularly the need to obtain any necessary IRB and IACUC approvals. In the future, NIH will review the JIT notification trigger level to determine if additional adjustments are needed to improve the process.

For all applications, t the eRA Commons JIT link will be opened and available for submission of JIT information within 24 hours after the impact score has been released.  This supersedes NIH’s former business practice of only opening the JIT link for applications receiving impact scores within a certain range.  Since the JIT link will be available for all applications, applicants should not rely on this as an indicator of the need to submit JIT information; instead they should rely on the JIT notification described above and any specific requests from NIH staff. 

Several elements of an NIH grant application are not required at the time of submission. Rather, this information is requested by NIH staff later in the review cycle (i.e., Just-In-Time) to ensure that it is up-to-date. The following information is eligible for JIT submission:

• Current Other Support:  Provide active support information for all individuals designated in an application as senior/key personnel—those devoting measurable effort to a project. Other support includes all financial resources, whether Federal, non-Federal, commercial or institutional, available in direct support of an individual’s research endeavors, including but not limited to research grants, cooperative agreements, contracts, and/or institutional awards. Training awards, prizes or gifts are excluded.  Sample format pages are available at https://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/othersupport.doc and https://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/othersupport.pdf, however, there is no specific form provided to report on “Current Other Support.”  Effort devoted to projects must be measured in person-months. 
• For all senior/key personnel, provide details on how you would adjust any budgetary, scientific, or effort overlap if this application is funded.
• For Career Development Award applications, information on all active support for the candidate, sponsor(s), co-sponsor(s), and Senior/Key Personnel may be requested by the awarding component prior to award.
• Certifications:
  • IACUC Approval Date: If the proposed project involves research using live vertebrate animals, the verification date of IACUC approval along with any IACUC-imposed changes must be submitted.  Pending or out-of-date approvals are not acceptable. 
  • IRB Approval Date: If the proposed project involves human subjects research, the certification date of IRB review and approval must be submitted. Pending or out-of-date approvals are not acceptable. 
  • Human Subjects Education:  If the proposed project involves human subjects research, certification that any person identified as senior/key personnel involved in human subjects research has completed an education program in the protection of human subjects must be submitted.
  • Human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESCs): If the proposed project involves hESCs and the applicant did not identify an hESC line from the NIH Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry in the application, the line(s) may be submitted as an “Other Upload” file.
  • Other Information Requested by the Awarding IC: Additional JIT information (i.e., revised budgets, changes to the human subjects, or vertebrate animal sections of the application) may be requested by NIH Institutes and/or Centers on a case-by-case basis.  These should be submitted as an “Other Upload” file.

As a reminder, a notification request for JIT information is not a Notice of Award, nor is it an indicator of possible funding by the NIH. If you have any additional questions contact the Grants Management Specialist assigned to your application. Contact information for these individuals can be found in the eRA Commons Status system.

Please direct all inquiries to:

Division of Grants Policy
Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration
National Institutes of Health
6705 Rockledge Drive, Suite 350
Bethesda, MD  20892
Telephone: (301) 435-0938
Fax: (301) 435-3059
E-mail: GrantsPolicy@od.nih.gov