Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)/National Institutes of Health (NIH)

FYI: Restructured NIH Application Forms and Instructions for Submissions for FY2011 Funding

Between now and December 2009, NIH will publish new Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) without accompanying electronic application packages.  By December 2009, NIH will post the new application packages for all active FOAs, with the exception of the following, which will be available in early 2010: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR [R43/R44])/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR [R41/R42]) applications,
Conference (R13/U13) grant applications, and Individual Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Fellowship applications (F30, F31, F32, and F33). New parent announcements will be issued when the new application packages become available. Additionally, all active FOAs will be updated. Please note, applicants will not be able to use previously downloaded application packages for applications targeting due dates of January 25, 2010 or later; applicants must return to the FOA or the reissued parent announcement in December to download the new application forms and instructions.

New Application Structure and Length:
 
To coordinate with the enhanced peer review criteria, changes will be made to the following sections of the application forms and instructions: (1) Research Plan, (2) Resources, and (3) Biographical Sketch.
 
Research Plan: Three sections of the current Research Plan (Background and Significance, Preliminary Studies/Progress Report, and Research Design and Methods) will be consolidated into a single section within the Research Plan entitled “Research Strategy.”  The new Research Strategy section will be sub-divided into three parts: Significance, Innovation, and Approach.  The Approach sub-section will include both Preliminary Studies for New Applications and Progress Report for Renewal/Revision Applications.

The page limit for the new Research Strategy section will be 6 or 12 pages, depending on the FOA.  One additional page will be allowed for Specific Aims.  As always, if the FOA requires page limits that differ from the application instructions, the FOA page limits should be followed.  For resubmission and revision applications for most programs, the Introduction will be limited to one page. For individual Career Development (K) applications, the Research Strategy includes Candidate Information, and will be limited to 12 pages. The Program Plan for Institutional Career Development and Research Training (T) Awards, including K12, Ruth L. Kirschstein Institutional NRSA Applications, International Training Program Planning Grants and Grants in Epidemiology (D43 and D71), and Education Projects (R25) remains at 25 pages, or as indicated in specific FOAs.

Resources: The Facilities and Other Resources section will be changed to require a description of how the scientific environment will contribute to the probability of success of the project, unique features of the environment, and for Early Stage Investigators, the institutional investment in the success of the investigator (e.g. resources, classes, etc.).  The Facilities and Other Resources section is part of the R&R Other Project Information in the SF 424 (R&R) application, and part of the Resources Format Page in the paper PHS 398 application.

Biographical Sketch: A new Personal Statement will be incorporated as Part A, changing the parts formerly called A, B, and C to Parts B, C, and D.  Applicants should limit the list of selected peer-reviewed publications to no more than 15.  These 15 publications should be chosen on the basis of recency, importance to the field, and relevance to the proposed research.  

Concurrent with the implementation of Enhancing Peer Review changes, NIH will also be transitioning to the most recent version of the OMB-cleared application forms that include the changes required by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA).

Additional information about the restructured forms can be found in NOT-OD-09-149, available at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-09-149.html.  For detailed information on  NIH’s Enhancing Peer Review effort, visit http://enhancing-peer-review.nih.gov/.