Master the Process for Preparing NIH Grant Applications

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Are you applying for an NIH grant? Follow these steps to help you prepare your application.

Do Background Work

• Develop your research idea.
• Identify a funding opportunity. If there’s no funding opportunity announcement (FOA) specific to your area, look for a “parent” announcement.
• Talk with NIH staff about your idea and where it fits.
• Write a strong proposal that address the following review criteria: significance, investigator(s), innovation, approach, and environment.

Know Your Institution

• Explain your role.
• Detail the roles, including authorized organizational representative, PI, and administrator, that other people play.
• Maintain coordination and respect for each other’s roles.
• Understand your institutional processes and timelines for grant-related activities.

Understand the Registration Process

• Institutions must renew registration annually.
• Many organizations are already registered, so check with your Office of Sponsored Research. New organizations should allow eight weeks to complete registrations.
• Grants.gov is for applicant organizations only. No registration is needed to find opportunities or download application forms.
• eRA Commons is for project directors/principal investigators (PD/PI), application organizations, and signing officials (SO).

Develop Your Application

• Download the application from the FOA.
• Carefully read the funding opportunity and application instructions.
• Learn about the electronic application submission process well before the application due date.

Contact NIH Before Applying

• Getting in touch with NIH is mandatory for applications with budgets greater than $500,000 direct costs for any single year and R13 Conference Grants.
• Reaching out to NIH is optional when requests for applications (RFA) request a Letter of Intent. Contacting NIH is always recommended when you think about applying for any grant.

Adapted from NIH Office of Extramural Research. Original source: NIH Top 10 Steps to Success.