NIH Guide Notices Updates

Dear Colleagues:

Below are summaries of a recent NIH Guide notices. Please review the notices and forward it to faculty, researchers and staff, as appropriate. Questions regarding these notices should be directed to your Contract and Grant Officer.

(NOT-OD-21-151)
National Institutes of Health
The purpose of this notice is to remind the extramural research community of best practices regarding submission of grants policy related inquiries to NIH. As a reminder, inquiries regarding general grants-policy matters are best directed first to the recipient’s Office of Sponsored Programs; specifically, the AOR. In rare instances where these contacts are not able to assist in resolving the inquiry or determine a need to seek guidance from NIH on a complex or unusual policy circumstance, recipient/applicant’s AOR, not the PD/PI, may submit policy-related inquiries on the organization’s behalf to the NIH grants policy inbox.  Please review the notice for additional information.


This Notice describes the National Cancer Institute (NCI) guidance on the minimum level of effort that will be a part of the funding consideration for NCI-funded grants. In addition to previously established guidance for specific grant mechanisms that have been described in funding opportunity announcements (FOAs), Principal Investigators (PIs), including Project Leaders on multi-project grants, will be required to commit a minimum level of effort to be eligible for NCI funding through R01, U01, P01, and R21 grant mechanisms. Effective immediately, competing applications that do not meet the minimum criteria will not be considered for funding unless the level of effort is raised to comply with the guidance. In addition, a request to reduce the PI’s level of effort in subsequent years of funding will not be approved if the proposed level of effort falls below the minimum level. The minimum effort guidance described in this notice will not apply when the grant is in a no-cost extension. Please review the notice for the minimum level of effort for each mechanism and additional information.

Nancy Lewis
Executive Director, Sponsored Projects Administration
Office of Research
University of California, Irvine
160 Aldrich Hall
Irvine, CA 92697-7600
Ph-(949) 824-2897

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