R01 on-line submission is pushed back by 6 months

R01 on-line submission is pushed back by 6 months

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently announced postponement of the target date for on-line submission of R01 proposals, its main research project mechanism. Electronic submission will be required starting February 2007 rather than October 2006/

In a notice released on February 7 in the NIH Guide to Grants and Contracts, the agency said the decision was based on "carefully considering input from the applicant community, analyzing the results of our first few submission rounds, and examining the timing of key submission dates in relation to other NIH initiatives."

The transition date for research cooperative agreements (U01s) also has been delayed, with electronic submission required now set to start in October 2006.

According to the grapevine, NIH’s transition to the electronic portal of Grants.gov has been bumpy. The first mandatory electronic grant submissions started with the non-AIDS related Small Business Research Innovation Program and Small Business Technology Transfer Program grants due Dec. 1. Reportedly, the NIH help-desk was overwhelmed with calls from grant applicants, with a volume of only about 1800 proposals.

NIH also intends to implement an improvement that will let applicants do a test electronic submission, before formally submitting their proposal. The test option should allow submitters to confirm that they have used the correct university name or the right DUNS number, for example, in an effort to keep minor errors from sabotaging the application once an entire, completed form has been submitted.

For more information and updates about the status of the transition to electronic submission and the new set of application forms, go to the NIH eRA Electronic Submission of Grant Applications Web site at http://era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt/index.htm.