Important Information
- Contact Research Services Early: If you are the Principal Investigator (PI) of the grant, we recommend that you contact Research Services 2-3 months in advance of submission. If Queen's will be involved as a subaward (i.e., the grant is being led by another institution), we recommend that you contact Research Services at least 3 weeks in advance of the deadline. NIH programs and requirements are complex. A Research Projects Advisor can advise on NIH requirements, help ensure your application matches NIH guidelines, work with partner universities to complete required documentation, and provide an administrative review of your application. The earlier you let Research Services know about your application, the more we can help!
- Institutional Requirements: Queen's meets the institutional requirements for participating in NIH grants (i.e., Queen's is registered in SAM, and has DUNS, UEI, and EIN numbers). Queen's researchers do not have to register as individuals in any of these systems. Applicants will require an eRA Commons ID, which can be created by Research Services.
- Indirect Costs: The NIH budget must include funds for indirect costs. Queen’s NIH indirect cost rate is 8% of the total direct costs (excluding equipment over $5000, tuition, patient care costs, rent, and sub-award costs (after the first $25,000)).
- Types of Funding Opportunities: There are three types of funding opportunities at NIH:
- Parent Announcements: Open funding opportunities that allow applicants to submit investigator-initiated applications. They follow the standard NIH due dates .
- Program Announcements: Funding opportunities issued by one or more of NIH's Institutes and Centres to address a particular area of scientific interest. They are usually ongoing (3 years) with standard due dates .
- Requests for Applications: These are targeted funding opportunities by one or more of NIH's Institutes or Centres aimed at accomplishing specific program objectives. They normally have a single due date and do not reoccur.
- Activity Codes: NIH uses activity codes to differentiate between their programs (e.g., R01 = research project grant; R21 = exploratory/developmental grants). Foreign organizations CANNOT apply to programs with some codes (e.g., R13, K99/R00).
- Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs): The FOA will cover important information such as which NIH Institutes annotated FOA (PDF 224 KB) for an explanation of each section of the FOA.
- IMPORTANT - Always check the eligibility criteria to make sure that foreign (non-US) organizations are eligible to apply.
- It is recommended that PIs contact the Scientific/Research Contact listed in the Agency Contacts section of the FOA. They can advise if your project is a good fit for the FOA.
- Clinical Trials Definition: Each FOA will specify whether or not clinical trials are eligible under the opportunity. Applicants should review the NIH clinical trials definition to determine if their project is eligible.
There are several ways to find NIH funding opportunities specific to your research program.
- Grants.gov: Grants.gov search page has an online database of all funding opportunities from US federal agencies. To search only NIH opportunities, select "National Institutes of Health (NIH)” under the Agency "Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)". Results can be refined by research keywords.
- NIH Funding Opportunities webpage: This NIH webpage lists all active NIH funding opportunities, with an ability to refine the results using keywords. Search results can also be exported as an Excel table.
- NIH Institutes: The NIH Institutes . Applicants can review the information provided by Institutes whose mandates align with their research interests.
- Newsletters: Applicants can subscribe to an Institute's newsletter to receive information specific to that Institute or Centre. For example, the Fogarty International Centre's funding newsletter includes information on global health funding opportunities.
- Subscribe for Weekly Updates: You can sign-up to get a weekly digest of all new NIH funding opportunities and announcements by following the instructions on this webpage .
- Funding Opportunity Information: The funding opportunity announcement (FOA) will specify the deadlines associated with a particular NIH funding opportunity (for example, see this annotated FOA (PDF 224 KB).
- 'Standard Dates': Some NIH FOAs will not specify a particular deadline but will instead note that "standard dates apply ". To determine which dates apply to your program:
- Step 1. Review the FOA to identify the activity code (e.g. R01, R21).
- Step 2. On the standard dates webpage, enter the activity code in the search bar. NIH has multiple submission periods per year (Cycle I, II, and III). Please note that different deadlines will apply for: i) new applications vs. renewals, resubmissions, and revisions, and ii) AIDS-related applications.
The NIH requires the disclosure of all sources of research support, foreign components, and financial conflicts of interest by all senior/key personnel named on a grant application. These disclosures are made prior to grant submission, and throughout the duration of the award.
Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI):
All senior/key personnel must complete the following FCOI forms prior to grant submission, and yearly if awarded, in order to comply with NIH financial conflict of interest policies . These forms will be kept on file at Queen’s.
- National Institutes of Health - Financial Conflict of Interest Form - MEMO Document (PDF 332 KB)
- National Institutes of Health - Financial Conflict of Interest Form - Consent & Disclosure Form (PDF 331 KB)
Biosketch and Other Support Documents:
All senior/key personnel must disclose all positions and scientific appointments, and all resources and financial support for research activities, as part of the NIH Biosketch documents.
- NIH Disclosures – Biographical Sketch and Other Support (PDF 89 KB): A table created by the NIH outlining types of activities to be disclosed pre- and post-award.
- Faculty Memo – Other Support (PDF 103 KB): Details on who, what, and when to disclose Other Support to the NIH.
Mandatory FCOI Training:
The NIH requires that all senior/key personnel complete the NIH FCOI Training Tutorial . Once completed, the FCOI Training Certificate is kept on file at Queen’s.
- US Grants and Contracts Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (PDF 828 KB) – Indirect Cost Rate agreement for US Federal Grant applications.
- U.S. Single Audits – In order to comply with US Federal Grant Regulations , the University has external audits completed yearly.
- US Code of Federal Regulations – US Federal Government regulations for US Federal grants and agreements.
- Faculty Remuneration from Sponsored Research Grants
- Finance FAQs for U.S. Federal Government Funded Research Projects – Queen’s Research Accounting provides answers to frequently asked questions about funded US Federal grants.
Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Plans: As of January 25 2023, NIH requires all applicants planning to generate scientific data to prepare a DMS Plan that describes how the scientific data will be managed and shared.
Please see:
- NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy ;
- Writing a Data Management and Sharing Plan ;
- NIH DMP template ;
- and Sample Plans .
The recommended page limit is 2 pages. DMS Plans should NOT include hyperlinks or URLs .
A Queen's NetID is required to view the following documents.
- Finding & Applying for NIH Funding (PDF 1.7 MB) - Overview presentation on finding & applying to National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding opportunities
- NIH Panel Discussion (PDF 773 KB) - Summary of a Research Services Panel Discussion titled "A PI's Perspective on Navigating NIH Programs"
- NIH Full Application Checklist (PDF 233 KB) - checklist for applicants that highlights key components of NIH grant applications
Contact Information
| Jennifer Robinson, Ph.D. |
|---|
| Research Projects Advisor (Health Sciences) University Research Services / Faculty of Health Sciences Phone: 613-533-6000 ext. 32944 |