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Information and Guidelines for Electronic Submission of NIH Grant Applications

Please note: If you are having difficulty transmitting your application or if the system is not responding, please contact:

Help Desk Email commons@od.nih.gov, Phone 1-866-504-9552 or 301-402-7469

NIH Forms and Applications:

SF424 (R&R) Application and Electronic Submission Information:

Program Announcements (PAs) and Requests for Applications (RFAs) will continue to be posted in the NIH GUIDE. All solicitations will be posted to http://grants.gov as Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) along with the appropriate application packages.

New Terminology:

NIH TERM SF424 (R&R) TERM
New (T-1) New
Competing Continuation (T-2) Renewal
Revision or Amendment Resubmission
Competing Supplement Revision
PA and/or RFA Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA)
PI PD/PI
Authorized Organizational Official (AOO) or Signing Official (SO) Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR)
Other Support Current & Pending Support
Literature Cited (Part G. of PHS 398 Research Plan) Bibliography & References Cited (SF424 (R&R) Other Project Information Component)
Consortium Budget Subaward Budget

Preparing for Electronic Submission - Registration
It is critical for institutions to begin the registration process at least 4 weeks before applications are due. An applicant may not submit an application if his/her institution is not registered at both the Federal Government site (Grants.gov) and the NIH site (eRA Commons) as described below.

You Must register at both:

Grants.gov AND eRA Commons

    Grants.gov

    eRA Commons

Preparing for Electronic Submission - Technology
Applicant institutions must establish the capacity to complete fields required by applications.

Applying for Grants at Grants.gov

Every application must respond to an FOA. After finding the grant opportunity on Grants.gov:
  1. Download the grant application package. PureEdge software is required to view it.
  2. Complete the application.
  3. Submit the application, processed through Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR), to Grants.gov. The application must be submitted as a series of files which will be processed as an application.
  4. Track the status of the submitted application package until you are notified it has been retrieved by NIH.
  5. eRA software checks the application against NIH business rules. NIH notifies PI and AOR via e-mail to check the eRA Commons for results of NIH rule checking.
  6. When the application does not pass NIH rules, errors and warnings are listed. Fix errors and resubmit to Grants.gov.
  7. When the application passes NIH rules, the eRA system assembles the grant image with a Table of Contents, and headers (PI name) and footers (page numbers) on all pages. Then the SF424 (R&R)-based grant image appears for review by PI and AOR. If acceptable, PI and AOR must verify the application in eRA Commons within two business days. If not acceptable, the PI or AOR rejects the application in Commons, makes changes, and resubmits via Grants.gov.
  8. After verification, data and grant image are saved an application begins getting processed by NIH staff.

    Submission = Grants.gov
    Receipt = Verification via eRA Commons
     Submit in advance of a due date.

Questions?