Office of Research and Project Administration

We've survived another set of NIH deadlines and everyone has done a terrific job of getting these applications out the door.  Below and attached, are best practices and lessons learned from the past two months of submissions.  Please review and share with your faculty.  Contact your ORPA RA with any questions or concerns.

Cheryl K. Williams 
Assistant Director 
Office of Research and Project Administration
University of Rochester
518 Hylan Building
Rochester, New York  14627
585-275-1503, telephone
585-275-9492, facsimile
cwilliam@orpa.rochester.edu

Anthony Beckman - x5-1502

Donna Beyea - x5-8037

Marlene Boutet - x3-3960

Brenda Kavanaugh - x5-1504

Jane Tolbert - x5-4210

 

Best Practices and Lessons Learned

from the NIH Grants.gov February and March 2007 Deadlines

 

1. The internal deadline is a life saver!

a.      Grants.gov  operation got slower and slower as the deadlines neared

b.      Strange, unexpected errors occurred in the Commons – some familiar errors cropped up, but most of them were mistakes that should not have stopped the proposal in its tracks, but did, or a problem in the Commons did – the result was the same.  The proposal had to be resubmitted.  Without the internal deadline of 5 business days prior to the NIH deadline, these errors could have been big problems

2. Even though the grant proposals are submitted electronically, a paper University sign-off must still be circulated.  This should be done before the proposal is moved out on SharePoint.
3. Don’t forget the new guidelines for Appendix material.  This is available at http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-07-018.html
4. Faculty review of the entire proposal, administrative forms and all uploads, must take place prior to ORPA submission.  THIS REVIEW IS CRITICAL.  COMMONS REVIEW SHOULD BE FOR TRANSMISSION ERRORS, NOT PROOFREADING.  NIH guidelines state: 

“While the assembled application image is not available to view until it has passed the NIH validations and received no errors, each attachment should be reviewed carefully and printed prior to submitting to ensure it’s ready to go.  Applicants are strongly encouraged to start the application process early and submit before the deadline to ensure time for corrections PRIOR to the submission deadline.  Once the application is submitted via Grants.gov it is similar to dropping the old paper application into the FedEx box and there is not an opportunity to take it back to make changes.”

5. Avoiding errors – each deadline reminds us that we are initially submitting proposals to inflexible machines -- there is no wiggle room

a.      In a resubmission (not a changed/corrected application) the Federal Identifier (the previous grant number) must be correct.  If a digit is missing or incorrect, the Commons will reject the application

b.      In the detailed budget, personnel section, the PI must be identified as the PD/PI or Commons will reject the application

c.      Including a detailed budget, as well as a modular budget will result in an error at the Commons

d.      Uploaded documents must be pdf, not Word docs.  One Word doc will cause the entire application to be rejected at the Commons level.

e.      The PI’s Commons ID must be included.  If you are submitting a multiple PI application, all PIs’ Commons IDs must be added.

f.        While it is possible to submit an error-free application, it is not easy and requires a keen eye and attention to the smallest detail!

1.      Information must match institution profile on the NIH Commons

1.      DUNS # must be 041294109

2.      FWA Human Subjects # must be 0000009386

3.      Animal use # must be A329201

4.      The PI’s name (with or without middle initial) and title (on the SF 424 Face Page, box 15) must match the PI’s name and title in Commons (found under the Employment tab in the Personal Profile)

5. The PI’s degrees (listed on the 398 Supplement Cover Page) must match the degrees for the PI on the Commons as well as their academic title.  This can be found under the Employment tab in the Personal Profile (must Edit the UR profile under Employment under Personal Profile to get to the place to enter the academic title)

g.      Appendices do not have to be scanned and uploaded as one single file.  They can be uploaded as individual files but it will create an individual image/link for each appendix file uploaded rather than one single appendix image so it depends on what the PI prefers.