Grants: In the age of electronic submission

As more funding agencies transition to electronic systems for proposal submission, tracking and post-award management, an important deadline lies just ahead. Feb. 5 is the due date for electronic submissions for National Institutes of Health R01 applications. Historically, the deadline for R01 grants was Feb. 1.

Because of the many steps involved with electronic submission, the draft application and Attachment A will need to begin the routing process 15 working days before the application deadline for grants and 20 working days before the application deadline for sub-awards. This will give the Office of Sponsored Research (formerly Grant and Contract Administration) approximately five days to complete the necessary review and communicate any foreseeable problems with the principal investigator and his or her coordinator before it is time to move forward with the electronic submission process.

Upon receipt of the final grant package, five days before the deadline, the grant specialist will upload the application into grants.gov. Unlike past submissions, this is not the end of the investigator's involvement — with both grants.gov and NIH system validations taking place, it is possible, upon completion of the error or visual checks, that an application will require resubmission. This timeline will help ensure that the application can be corrected, if need be, and re-entered into the system by the deadline. Sub-awards carry the same expectations and should be finalized and sent to the parent institution by the research coordinator 10 days prior to the deadline.

Because the electronic submission process involves major transitions Centerwide, training will be offered Jan. 4 and 18, with registration available online.

As with all NIH-application mechanisms, upon completion of this electronic transition, the NIH will no longer allow paper applications.

More information and NIH's FAQ can be found at centernet.fhcrc.org/CN/depts/osr/eRA.