Reminder for Upcoming NIH Deadlines
We are fast approaching the NIH February and March deadlines (i.e. February 5, February 12, February 16, March 5, March 12, March 16, etc.) which is a high volume proposal time for Sponsored Programs. We are already aware of 60 proposals due in February alone. Your assistance in notifying us of your intention to submit a proposal for the upcoming deadlines and submitting the final proposal according to Boston University’s Proposal Submission Policy will help ensure a smooth and successful submission.
As a reminder, according to the submission policy we request all administrative components be finalized 5 business days before the deadline and the final and complete proposal be submitted to Sponsored Programs 3 business days before the deadline. Proposals that become complete on the day of the deadline are at risk of not being successfully submitted given high volumes and system pressures.
For example, to meet the February 5 deadline, we should receive:
- All administrative components complete and final by Wednesday, January 29;
- Final and complete proposal, including all final technical components, by Friday, January 31.
Adherence to this time frame will allow Sponsored Programs to conduct a thorough review of your proposal and submit it with enough time to address any unexpected system issues in advance of the deadline. As we get closer to the deadlines, we have experienced significant delays in receiving submission confirmations and system-wide crashes due to the sheer volume of proposals processed nationwide by grants.gov. Thorough review of proposals and submitting well in advance of the deadline will help mitigate these unexpected issues. For all NIH proposals, please use ASSIST to develop your application.
We will review proposals as we receive them and will make every effort to submit each proposal, but we cannot guarantee a successful “on time” submission for proposals that do not adhere to the proposal submission policy. We will complete review and submission of proposals submitted on time before turning to proposals received after the submission policy guideline deadlines.
Thank you for your assistance and please feel free to reach out to your Sponsored Programs contact should you have any questions.