# NIH Best Practice Guidelines for Accepting Additional Grant Application Materials

NIH allows applicant organizations to submit materials for peer review
that are an addition to the original application submitted and accepted
according to published receipt deadlines (see NIH Policy on Submission
of Additional Grant Application Materials - [NIH Guide Notice
NOT-OD-08-082](http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-082.html)).

The opportunity to submit additional materials should not be a means of
circumventing submission deadlines, page limitations, or content
requirements. Additional materials should not be a means of
substantially enhancing, altering, or adding to the specific aims,
research plan, or overall strategy of the application.

To ensure fairness and consistency in the acceptance of additional grant
application materials, NIH is providing guidance in the form of best
practices.

## PRE-REVIEW

### General Guidance

-   Applicants have an obligation to check the submitted version of
    their grants to ensure completeness and correctness, which applies
    to both paper and electronic formats.

    -   Required sections of the grant application should be included in
        the original submission or the application may be deemed
        incomplete and not be reviewed.

    -   Required elements are defined in the application forms (e.g.
        SF424(R&R), PHS 398, PHS 416) or by the specific Funding
        Opportunity Announcement (RFA, PAR); required elements may
        include reference letters for career development awards and
        individual fellowships, or any other required element, which
        should be submitted by the deadline as part of the official
        application.

    -   Paper applications should be carefully checked for completeness
        and compiled in accordance with the application instructions.

    -   For electronic submissions, Grants.gov does not have the
        capacity to determine if a page is missing or if the research
        plan included is incorrect or, for example, if a table or other
        parts are incorrectly inserted; this is the responsibility of
        the applicant. eRA validations will not identify such problems
        either. For applications submitted electronically through
        Grants.gov, NIH continues to provide a [two business day
        \"application viewing
        window\"](http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-018.html)
        to allow Program Director/Principal Investigators (PD/PIs) and
        Authorized Organization Representatives (AORs) to examine the
        application and correct any submission warnings.

-   Additional materials will be accepted from the PD/PI or Contact
    PD/PI for multiple PD/PI applications only with the concurrence of
    the AOR. The best way to accomplish this depends on the PD/PI's
    situation; one approach could be that the PD/PI sends the electronic
    materials to the institutional official who can then forward the
    email to the SRO. Alternatively the PD/PI may transmit and cc the
    AOR. Either approach ensures that all relevant parties are informed
    and that the records related to the application are appropriately
    documented.

-   The SRO is the NIH official in charge of the final decision
    regarding acceptance of additional application materials during the
    initial peer review phase.

-   Peer reviewers are encouraged to consider additional materials in
    their evaluations, factoring in the information as the reviewer
    deems appropriate.

-   Published Funding Opportunity Announcements (RFA, PAR) may provide
    stricter or more lenient guidance than the general best practices
    recommended here.

### Acceptable Materials

-   Updated pages --- update existing page in grant application.

-   Supplemental pages --- information not contained in the existing
    application.

-   Letters of support or collaboration

-   Revised budget page(s)

-   Publications --- email indicating that a submitted publication has
    been accepted for publication since submission of the grant
    application. Do not send pre-publication unless requested by the
    SRO. In general, follow NIH guidance on publications contained in
    appendix material policy, see
    <http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-07-018.html>.

-   Biographical sketches --- missing biosketches, or to update
    senior/key personnel changes.

### Unacceptable Materials

-   URLs for web pages; see NIH policy at
    <http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-00-004.html>.

-   Materials submitted after 30 calendar days prior to the peer review
    meeting, or after the date published in the specific Funding
    Opportunity Announcement pertinent to the application.

### Page and Size Limits of Supplemental Information

-   Supplemental information must conform to two printed pages that
    adhere to NIH policy on font size, margins, and paper size (see
    <http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-05-039.html>).

-   If the Research Plan is 12 pages or less, then only one page of
    supplemental information will be accepted.

-   If the application has subprojects or cores, the supplemental
    information page limits apply according to the Research Plan of each
    subproject or core.

-   Exception to page limits: NIH form pages such as budget,
    biographical sketches, and other required forms follow NIH standards
    for required NIH form pages.

-   Additional electronic material may not exceed a sum total of 25
    megabytes.

### Submission and Additions to the Official Grant File

-   Submission via email is strongly encouraged whether the initial
    submission was in paper or through Grants.gov.

-   Transmission of additional materials from the applicant must include
    evidence of concurrence of the AOR or the materials will not be
    accepted.

-   Electronic submission as a PDF attachment in an email is strongly
    encouraged for all correspondence as long as the AOR approval is
    clearly noted in the submission. It is recommended that applicants
    avoid scanning text documents to produce the PDFs. NIH recommends
    producing the documents electronically using text or word-processing
    software and then converting documents to PDF. In this way the text
    can be electronically searchable (i.e., do not scan files that have
    text as an image, scan as text file only).

-   The SRO is responsible for uploading acceptable materials into the
    official electronic grant file maintained in the [eRA
    Commons](https://commons.era.nih.gov/commons/). The PD/PI can check
    his/her application via the Commons to see these materials in the
    section titled "Additions for Review". This information will then be
    available to reviewers in a secure manner.

-   Materials such as devices, videos, or other media that are
    considered essential to the review and generally are accepted by the
    NIH Institute/Center (IC) for that type of application will be
    accepted at the discretion of the SRO. The applicant must contact
    the SRO for process of acceptance; the SRO will then ensure
    transmission to peer reviewers not in conflict and make sure a copy
    is part of the official grant file.

### Deadline for Submission of Additional Material by Applicants

The deadline for receipt of additional materials is one month (30
calendar days) prior to the peer review meeting. Additional material
will not be accepted less than thirty calendar days prior to the peer
review meeting.

**Note:** Submission of additional materials is not required. Adding
materials to reviewer workload may be counterproductive, so carefully
consider the need to send additional materials.

## POST REVIEW

After the initial peer review phase is completed, the [NIH Chief Grants
Management Officer](http://grants.nih.gov/grants/stafflist_gmos.htm) of
the NIH Institute/Center (IC) is the NIH official responsible for
accepting additional materials. Most of the material submitted after
peer review can be submitted as part of the
[Just-in-Time](http://era.nih.gov/services_for_applicants/application_tracking_and_award/just_in_time.cfm)
process.

-   The assigned IC Program Official is the appropriate
    scientific/programmatic contact after peer review.

-   The assigned Grants Management Specialist is the appropriate
    administrative contact after peer review.

Name and contact information for these individuals is found on the
Status screen in the [eRA
Commons](https://commons.era.nih.gov/commons/).

Updated: 06/25/2008