NIH Warns of ‘Serious Consequences’ of Application Non-Compliance

Dear Colleagues:

NIH has issued the following important notice regarding consequences of submitting NIH applications that do not conform to the NIH application guide, the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) and the relevant NIH Guide Notices. This is a reminder that the institutional review conducted by Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) does not include a review of the application to ensure that it conforms with the requirements in the aforementioned documents. (For example, SPA does not review biosketches nor do we review the application to ensure that all elements included in the FOA are addressed). It is the responsibility of the Principal Investigator to ensure that the application follows all instructions contained in the application guide and the FOA, and that the application adheres to all formatting and content requirements.

Please forward this notice to all Investigators that submit proposals so NIH.

Questions regarding this requirement should directed to a member of the SPA management team.

Nancy

NIH Warns of ‘Serious Consequences’ of Application Non-Compliance

A notice issued by NIH on April 15 warned of "serious consequences" for submitting applications with errors. "The purpose of this notice is to remind applicants, both investigators and grants office officials, that to be fair to all concerned the NIH needs to consistently apply standards for application compliance. Be mindful that non-compliance can have serious consequences. NIH may withdraw any application identified during the receipt, referral and review process that is not compliant with the instructions" in NIH’s application guide, "Funding Opportunity Announcement, and relevant NIH Guide Notices," the announcement said. NIH gave examples of non-compliance, which included improperly completed biosketches. "Applications submitted as new but containing elements of a resubmission or renewal application are noncompliant with the resubmission policy," NIH said, in describing another example.

Link: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-15-095.html

Nancy Lewis

Director, Sponsored Projects