Post-Submission Grant Application Materials

Post-submission of application materials is not required. Adding materials to reviewer workload may be counterproductive, so applicants should carefully consider the need to send post-submission materials. For materials that are submitted after the initial grant application submission but prior to initial peer review, NIH will only accept such materials resulting from unforeseen administrative issues. This policy does not modify the Just-in-Time requirements or any other requests for additional information after the initial peer review.

For all research and research-related applications, individual fellowship, and individual career development awards, acceptable materials include:

• Revised budget page(s) (e.g., change in budget request due to a new funding or institutional acquisition of equipment)

• Biographical sketches (e.g., change in senior/key personnel due to the hiring, replacement, or loss of an investigator)

• Letters of support or collaboration resulting from a change in senior/key personnel due to the hiring, replacement, or loss of an investigator

• Adjustments resulting from natural disasters (e.g., loss of an animal colony)

• Adjustments resulting from change of institution (e.g., PD/PI moved to another university) • News of an article accepted for publication (a copy of the article should not be sent) All post-submission materials must conform to NIH policy on font size, margins, and paper size as referenced in the applicable application instructions. Any material using established forms/format pages (e.g. budget pages, biographical sketches) must follow standards for those pages. If post-submission material is not on a required form/format page, each explanation or letter is limited to one page. If the application has subprojects or cores, each subproject or core is allowed explanations or letters, but each explanation or letter is limited to one page.

Unacceptable post-submission materials include:

• Updated Specific Aims or Research Strategy pages • Late-breaking research findings

• New letters of support or collaboration that do not result from a change in senior/key personnel due to the hiring, replacement, or loss of an investigator

Exceptions to this policy include:

• Applications submitted in response to an RFA that has only one due date. Updated Specific Aims or Research Strategy pages, late-breaking research findings and new letters of support or

collaboration will be allowed. If additional material is not required on a form/format page, post- submission materials for these applications are dependent on the number of pages of the Research Strategy section:

o When the Research Strategy is fewer than 12 pages, additional materials are limited to one printed page.

o When the Research Strategy is limited to 12 pages, additional materials are limited to two printed pages.

o When the Research Strategy is greater than 12 pages, additional materials are limited to three printed pages.

o When the application has subprojects or cores, additional materials follow the page limit of the Research Strategy of each subproject or core as indicated above.

• Certain FOAs may allow specific other types of post-submission materials to facilitate the goals of the program. Such stipulations will be explained in the FOA.

For institutional training and training-related applications, including institutional Career Development Awards, up to three pages of post-submission materials will be allowed to present new information or data that was not available at the time of the application submission. Acceptable material includes:

• Updated information and data on the applicant pool, admissions, enrollment, appointments and/or achievements

• Updated faculty research support

• For training-related programs (e.g., R25) acceptable post-submission materials will be detailed in the FOA

For all types of applications, materials such as devices, videos, or other media that are considered

essential to the review and generally are accepted by the IC for that type of application will be accepted at the discretion of the SRO managing the review.

Additional materials should be sent as a PDF attachment to an e-mail. E-mail communication is strongly encouraged whether the original application was submitted on paper or through Grants.gov. NIH

recommends producing the documents electronically using text or word-processing software and then converting the document to PDF. This will allow the text to be searched electronically (i.e. do not scan files that have text as an image, scan as text file only). If e-mail is not feasible, send in a hard copy. The materials must be submitted to the NIH SRO one month (30 calendar days) prior to the peer review meeting. Post submission materials will be not be accepted if fewer than 30 calendar days remain before the peer review meeting. The content of the additional materials may originate from the PD/PI, Contact PD/PI for multiple PD/PI applications, or organizational officials. However, the communication to the SRO must include the concurrence of the AOR of the applicant institution; either the AOR should send the materials directly to the SRO, or the AOR may send their concurrence to the PD/PI who forwards the materials and the concurrence to the SRO. Materials sent without evidence of such concurrence will not be accepted. A communication from the PD/PI only or with a “cc” to the AOR will not be accepted. The original application is kept intact. The SRO is responsible for uploading acceptable additional materials in the official electronic grant file. The PD/PI can check the application via the eRA Commons to see these materials in the section titled “Additions for Review”. This allows the information to be available to reviewers in a secure manner. Post-submission grant application materials used in the peer review process will be retained as part of the official grant file and remain part of the permanent record for that application.

The opportunity to submit additional materials should not be a means of circumventing submission deadlines, page limitations, or content requirements and should not substantially enhance, alter or add to the originally submitted application.

After the initial peer review phase is completed, the Chief GMO of the IC is the NIH official responsible for accepting additional materials. Most of the material submitted after peer review can be submitted as part of the Just-in-Time process.