National Institute of Health (NIH)

Office of Sponsored Research

Office of Sponsored Research

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the nation’s medical research agency—making important medical discoveries that improve health and save lives. NIH is made up of 27 Institutes and Centers, each with a specific research agenda, often focusing on particular diseases or body systems.

NIH is the largest source of funding for medical research in the world, funding thousands of scientists in universities and research institutions in every state across America and around the globe. More than 80% of the NIH's budget goes to more than 300,000 research personnel at over 3,000 universities and research institutions. In addition, about 6,000 scientists work in NIH’s own laboratories, most of which are on the NIH main campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The main campus is also home to the NIH Clinical Center, the largest hospital in the world totally dedicated to clinical research.

Successful biomedical research depends on the talent and dedication of the scientific workforce. NIH supports many innovative training programs and funding mechanisms that foster scientific creativity and exploration. The goal is to strengthen our nation’s research capacity, broaden our research base, and inspire a passion for science in current and future generations of researchers.

NIH News

NIH reminds extramural research community about policies affecting NIH Grant Submissions for due dates on or after January 25, 2011.

NIH policy on page limits. The NIH instructs reviewers that they need not consider inappropriate text or materials that have been placed in application sections without page limits (e.g., Protection of Human Subjects), or in the Appendix, as a way to circumvent page limits for the Research Strategy or other page-limited sections. In egregious cases, NIH has the authority to withdraw such an application from review or consideration for funding. See NOT-OD-10-077.

End of two-day correction window. Beginning with due dates on or after January 25, 2011, NIH will eliminate the error correction window from the application submission process. This applies to electronic and paper-based submissions. See NOT-OD-10-123.

NIH policy on post-submission application materials. The NIH restricts acceptable post-submission materials to those resulting from unforeseen administrative issues (with exceptions specified for institutional training mechanisms and certain RFAs). Corrections of oversights/errors discovered after submission of the application will not be allowed. See NOT-OD-10-091.

New form requirements. Applications for Career Development, Institutional Training and Career Development, and Individual National Research Service Award programs must use new ADOBE-FORMS-B1 packages for deadlines on or after January 25, 2011. Applications for all other NIH programs requiring electronic submission may use the new forms now, but must use them for due dates of May 7, 2011 and beyond. See NOT-OD-11-007 and NOT-OD-11-008.

End of the “grandparent” period for legal A2 applications. The last A2 submission (when the A0 application was assigned to August 2009 Council or before) will be received for the January 7, 2011 AIDS date (May 2011 Council). For October 2012 Council (should be October 2011 Council perNOT-OD-11-023) and beyond, no NIH A2 application will be accepted. See NOT-OD-10-135.

New time limit for NIH resubmission applications. For resubmissions submitted for the January 25, 2011 due date and after, the NIH will not accept a resubmission later than thirty-seven months after the date of receipt of the initial New, Renewal, or Revision application. See NOT-OD-10-140.

Notable Changes Made to SF424 (R&R) Application Guides

1/18/2011: New Adobe Version B-1 Fellowship Application Guide: The Fellowship application guide has been updated for the transition to modified Adobe B1 form series, which included minor modifications to the R&R Other Project Information and Project/Performance Site Location forms. A description of the more notable edits is available in NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-11-022.