Guidance on Resumption of NIH Extramural Activities Following the Recent Lapse in Appropriations

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Notice Number: NOT-OD-14-003

Key Dates
Release Date: October 18, 2013

Related Announcements
NOT-OD-14-002

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Purpose

This Notice is to provide NIH’s extramural community with information on how NIH is resuming operations after the government shutdown.

eRA Systems Availability
eRA systems will be available for use by the applicant/grantee/reviewer community on Monday, October 21. 

Rescheduling October Application Due Dates

• All October grant application due dates have been rescheduled as follows:

Standard Due Dates:

Activity Code	Original Due Date	New Due Date
R01s, U01s (New)	October 5	November 12
Ks (New)	October 12	November 12
R03s, R21s, R34s, R36s (New)	October 16	November 18
R15s (All)	October 25	November 18

Special Due Dates:

Funding Opportunity	Original Due Date	New Due Date
Various RFAs, PARs, PAs	Due dates not listed above	November  1*

*Exceptions:

Funding Opportunity	Original Due Date	New Due Date
PAR-13-277	October 1	November  14
PAR-13-351	October 23	November 14
RFA-AI-13-043	October 23	November 14
PAR-13-086	October 24	November 14
PAR-13-087	October 24	November 14

• The NIH Loan Repayment Program application due date has been extended from November 15 to December 2.
• November grant application due dates will not change (with the exception of the Loan Repayment program deadline listed above).
• Grants.gov will continue to accept applications for funding opportunity announcements with October closing dates, even if those dates have passed.

Processing of Applications Submitted During the Shutdown
Applications submitted since October 1 have been held at Grants.gov and will be processed by NIH’s eRA systems on Monday October 21st, once NIH makes eRA systems available.

• All error free applications submitted during or in the two days prior to the shutdown will be held for viewing in the Commons on Tuesday and Wednesday Oct 22 and 23 to ensure applicants have 2 full business days to check their application image before it moves on to NIH’s Center for Scientific Review (CSR) for processing.
• Please proactively check the Commons late on Monday or on Tuesday for the status of any application submission. The timing of system notifications may not be quite right during the first few days of processing. Note it may take a number of hours to process the queue of applications in Grants.gov, so please be patient. 

Replacing an Application that was Submitted for an October Due Date
Since October application due dates are moving to November, NIH is giving applicants who have already submitted an application for an October due date the opportunity to replace the submission with a “refreshed” application.  Follow the guidance below if you choose to submit a replacement application:  

• If an application has an image in the eRA Commons and is within the two day viewing window the institutional Signing Official should first reject the application in the Commons to keep it from further processing, then submit the refreshed application.  
• If there is no option to reject the application in the Commons (meaning the application has moved beyond the viewing window for further processing by NIH), applicants should withdraw the application before submitting a refreshed application.
• Applications that have been submitted but have errors (thus have no application image), can submit a changed/corrected application.

Note: Replacing the application submission with a “refreshed” application does not count as a resubmission (A1), meaning that an application submitted for an October due date as a “new” application should be submitted as a “new” application. A “resubmission” should be submitted again as “resubmission”.  A “renewal” should continue to be a “renewal”.

Rescheduling Peer Review Meetings
The shutdown required that NIH cancel over 200 peer review meetings, impacting the review of over 11,000 applications.  The volume of missed meetings complicates NIH efforts to catch up, requiring NIH to handle peer review meetings as follows:

• Applications that were reviewed before the shutdown will go to January council as originally planned. Review meetings for most small business, AIDS and fellowship applications will continue as planned and those applications will be considered at January councils as well.
• Many review meetings for research grants (R01, R03, R21, R15, etc) and career development applications that were missed or will be missed due to the shutdown will be rescheduled for February/March and these applications will be reassigned to the May council round. 

Opportunity to “Refresh” Applications that are Reassigned to May 2014 Council
Applicants whose review meetings are rescheduled and whose applications are reassigned to the May 2014 Council and will be notified via email to the principal investigator and the signing official listed on the grant application.  In addition, meeting dates listed in the eRA Commons for these applications for will be changed to 09/09/9999 so they can be identified.

Applications will proceed to the February/March 2014 review without any action from the applicant.  However, NIH is giving applicants the option of withdrawing and submitting a refreshed application.  If you choose to replace your application, follow the steps below carefully:

• Withdraw the existing application by November 8.
• Submit the application to the original funding opportunity announcement (FOA), if possible. If that FOA has closed, submit to the appropriate parent announcement. If there is no parent announcement for that activity code, send an e-mail to[log in to unmask] with the previous FOA number and we will work with you to get the application submitted.
• Submit a cover letter with the refreshed application. Indicate that you are refreshing your application for the new council round, include the previous application number, and provide the previous study section assignment.
• Make the application a “new” or “resubmission” to match the withdrawn application.
• All replacement applications are due by November 20. No late applications will be allowed for this special due date.
• Only applicants who are rescheduled for May 2014 Council round may submit at the November 20th deadline.  Any other applications to this deadline will be returned without review.

Early Stage Investigator Eligibility
NIH will automatically adjust the Early Stage Investigator (ESI) status for applicants whose status has changed during the period of delay caused by the shutdown.  

K99/R00 Eligibility
Information updating timelines for the K99/R00 NIH Pathway to Independence Award program will be issued separately.

Payment Management System
Payments through the Payment Management System (PMS) should be processing as usual.  If grantees received a communication during the shutdown that a drawdown request was on hold, please contact PMS directly to determine the status of that pending request.

Award Actions
NIH anticipates beginning to release awards sometime after November 1.

Financial Operations under a Continuing Resolution
NIH soon will publish a Notice on our financial operations under a continuing resolution.

NIH will continue to provide the community with guidance on resumption of extramural activities after the shutdown as necessary.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to: 

NIH Grants Information
Telephone: 301-435-0714
Email: [log in to unmask]

 

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Weekly TOC for this Announcement
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices 

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