Research Resources

New Policy Requires Grant Applications to be Complete Upon Initial Submission

In a policy that became effective for grant applications submitted for the September 25, 2010 receipt date, certain types of late grant application materials will no longer be accepted. The new NIH policy encourages applicants to submit completed grant applications that are ready for review in order to expedite and provide uniformity in the review process.

However, NIH understands that unforeseen circumstances may still require late submission of certain materials to ensure an informed evaluation of the application. Post-submission material exceptions, which must be received 30 days prior to the initial peer review, include:

• Revised budget page(s) (e.g., change in budget request due to new funding or institutional acquisition)
• Biographical sketches (e.g., change in senior/key personnel due to the loss of an investigator)
• Letters of support or collaboration resulting from a change in senior/key personnel due to the loss of an investigator
• Adjustments resulting from natural disasters (e.g., loss of an animal colony)
• Adjustments resulting from change of institution (e.g., PI moved to another university)
• News of an article accepted for publication

A few other exceptions are outlined in the notice, which can be viewed on NIH’s Office of Extramural Research Web site: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not-od-10-091.html.

My NCBI Tool replaces eRA Commons for
Bibliography Management

NIH strives to streamline the process of information management and sharing. With 27 Institutes and Centers any attempt to integrate processes and procedures is integral in advancing science from both the perspective of the laboratory and the library. The Electronic Research Administration (eRA) Commons systems provide information technology solutions to support the grants administration process from electronic grant submission, processing, review, and bibliography management. eRA Commons allows research program directors and principal investigators to use the publications page of their personal profiles as a library for publications resulting from their funded grants. However, the current eRA system for bibliographic management was not meeting the needs of the NIH community. Because of this, the NIH has partnered with the the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) to link NCBI’s personal online bibliography management tool “MyNCBI” [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/] with the current eRA Commons personal research profile bibliography Management system.

The NCBI system is a more efficient and accurate way to manage professional bibliographies and ensure compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy, available here: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/. The change, effective July 23, 2010, required users to use the NCBI “My Bibliography” tool. This tool helps maintain a list of authored works, such as journal articles and manuscripts accepted for publication. For more information on the integration and how to better use NIH eRA and NCBI information organizing tools, visit the redesigned eRA web site at http://era.nih.gov/.

Career Development Awards Recipients Get Advice on Managing Their Grants

Selecting and applying for a NIH Career Development Grant award, or K award, as they are known, is a high honor, as well as an intense commitment. Questions can arise on how to select the correct award, how to submit applications and how to maintain the integrity of one’s work while advancing a career in a way that is beneficial to both the grantee and NIH.

Dr. Henry Khachaturian, Director of Policy and Liaison Activities, Division of Loan Repayment, discusses using Career Development Awards to achieve independence in a new podcast available from the Office of Extramural Research.

The podcast is available on the OER website: http://grants.nih.gov/podcasts/
All_About_Grants/index.htm [titled Using Career Development Awards to Achieve Independence (June 21, 2010)]