Office of Sponsored Research

OSR HomePage Forms and Procedures Useful Data for Proposals

Policies Research Funding  What's New? American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)

Useful Information for Budgets Documents Agreements (MTAs, Research   Agreements, etc.) Schweppe Grant Awards for CMS Faculty

 Office of Sponsored Research

OSR HomePage Forms and Procedures Useful Data for Proposals

Policies Research Funding  What's New? American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)

Useful Information for Budgets Documents Agreements (MTAs, Research   Agreements, etc.) Schweppe Grant Awards for CMS Faculty

Grants.Gov/NIH Transition
Grants.gov has been designated by the Office of Management and Budget as the single access point for all grant programs offered by 26 Federal grant-making agencies. It provides a single interface for agencies to announce their grant opportunities and for all grant applicants to find and apply for those opportunities.

NIH Transition to the SF424 (R&R) Applications and Electronic Submissions through Grants.gov

In August 2005, NIH announced a plan to: 1) transition from the PHS398 application to the SF424 Research and Related (R&R) application; and, 2) simultaneously transition to electronic submission via Grants.gov by the end of 2007.

NIH will transition to the SF424 (R&R) form and electronic submission through Grants.gov by individual research program/funding mechanism. Funding Opportunity Announcements (also known as Request-for-Applications and Program Announcements) will be issued in the NIH guide and posted in Grants.gov as mechanisms are transitioned. The transition by mechanism will include all active Funding Opportunity Announcements for that program/mechanism. Applications in response to these announcements will require electronic submission through Grants.gov.

Proposal Submission Process:

1. PIs must first register for an eRA Commons account. To register please contact your OSR Grant and Contract Officer.
2. PIs must obtain grantsERA (RFUMS system to system application submission) username and password from OSR Grants and Contract Officer. See grantsERA Principal Investigator Training Manual
3. PIs login in grantsERA, retrieve the Opportunity ID to access the particular opportunity and complete the NIH proposal’s package
4. Once the package is ready (except for the research plan that can be in draft form) PIs will click the “Validate”, “Completed”, “Send to Routing” and “Print” buttons (this will allow you to print the package for routing). You must bring the entire hard copy proposal package with the SIGNED Information and Routing Sheet for Grant and Contract Proposals to Public Health Service (NIH, etc.)  to OSR at least 7 business days previous to the deadline to the agency.  
5. OSR will review the hard copy and request any necessary revisions.
6. When OSR informs PIs that the proposal does not need further corrections, and when PIs are finished with their Research Plan, PIs will click the “Validated” “Completed” and “Send to Routing” buttons and the proposal package will be electronically sent to OSR. This final step should be ready at least 3-5 business days prior to the “due date.”
7. PI will notify his/her Grant and Contract Officer by email that the proposal was electronically submitted to OSR. As customary, after the Grant and Contract Officer’s final review, the proposal will be reviewed by the OSR Director. Please notice that even though is a rare occurrence, the Director may require further changes during her final review. After the Director’s approval OSR will submit the electronic proposal to Grants.gov.

SPECIAL COMMENTS

The application is considered “on-time” if submitted on the due date by 5 p.m. local time to Grants.gov. Grants.gov can take 2-3 days to validate, so we recommend “electronic” submission to be done at least 3-5 business days prior to the “due date”.  This allows time for any corrections if necessary. Therefore OSR needs to have the hard copy with the signed routing sheet at least 7 business days previous to the deadline to the agency.

Once the application is validated by Grants.Gov then it is sent to NIH.  NIH has its own validation process:

1. NIH requires that the application be reviewed in eRA Commons within 2 business days of the image being available in eRA Commons.
2. If any changes or corrections are required it needs to be rejected; only the Authorized Officer (OSR) can reject the application. The application will need to be resubmitted again using the above steps.
3. If no changes or corrections are needed, then no action is needed. The proposal will be automatically directed to NIH.

PI needs to check the application for errors in eCommons after the initial submission to Grants.gov (can be 2-3 days). If the PI will not be at the institution during this period, PI needs to designate someone to make decisions/changes to the application on his behalf. The designated person will require the PI’s username and password for eCommons.