Important Information Regarding HSR&D Merit Review Deadlines – Winter and Summer 

Intent to Submit Deadline 

HSR&D requires that Intent to Submit (ITS) information be provided for any application that is 

going to be submitted for the June (Summer) or December (Winter) Merit Review verification 

deadlines. Intent to Submit (ITS) information, including the proposal abstract, must be 

submitted electronically by close of business (8:00 pm Eastern Time) on May 1 (for 

Summer) and November 1 (for Winter) using the form at HSR&D’s ART Website

(http://art.puget-sound.med.va.gov/). [NOTE: the ART Website is a VA Intranet Website 

and is only accessible via the VA network.] The website is available starting April 1 or

October 1 depending on the review cycle. Proposals which have not completed the ITS will 

not be reviewed. 

Submission of Applications 

Applications not submitted in accordance with HSR&D’s RFAs will be administratively 

withdrawn and will not be reviewed. All text attachments must be submitted as Portable 

Document Format (PDF) files, with the required files names, and must conform to the format 

requirements outlined in the SF424 (Section 2.6). 

All proposals should be proofread carefully prior to submission. In addition, the electronic 

image of submitted proposals (eApplication in eRA Commons) must be reviewed during the 

two business day examination period to ensure that there are no transmission or format 

errors. 

E-applications which do not meet format and content requirements will be 

administratively withdrawn and not reviewed. It is the PI’s responsibility to check that 

each page is correct and that all elements of the proposal have been correctly 

included. After an application has been submitted, PLEASE CHECK the e-application 

for problems with font size, margins, characters per inch and lines per inch. An 

extremely large left and/or bottom margin may be a signal that there is a problem. 

When in doubt, print out a page of the Research Plan and MANUALLY check by 

measuring the line spacing (max of 6 lines/vertical inch) and font point size (max of 15 

characters/horizontal inch). eRA does not generate an error message for this format 

problem. However, such errors WILL cause the proposal to be administratively 

withdrawn. 

Early Submission Strongly Advised 

The first day to submit a Merit Review application to Grants.gov is May 15 (Summer) or 

November 15 (Winter). 

The verification deadline for applications submitted in the eRA system is June 15/December 

15 (unless this date falls on a weekend or Federal holiday and then it would be the next 

business day). In order to meet the verification deadline and have time to correct any 

problems, applications should be submitted and accepted in Grants.gov on or before 6:00 

p.m. five (5) business days prior to the verification deadline. A proposal that is submitted 

prior to this date will go through the verification process, and if any errors or warnings are 

identified, there will be time for the PD/PI and AOR/SO to revise and resubmit the proposal. 

In addition, submitting early will allow time, during the two business day examination period, 

for the PD/PI and AOR/SO to carefully review the electronic image of the proposal 

(eApplication in eRA Commons) and correct any format, content or transmission errors. If 

you are absolutely sure that a proposal will not have errors or warnings, the last possible date 
for submission in Grants.gov is on or before 6:00 p.m. three (3) business days prior to the 

verification deadline. 

NOTE: Waiting to submit on the Last Possible Submission deadline is extremely risky 

because you CAN NOT use the two business day examination period and resubmit a 

changed/corrected application. New or changed/corrected applications submitted after the 

Down to the Wire Submission deadline will NOT meet the eRA verification deadline. 

NOTE: Late applications will not be reviewed. 

Tips to Ensure a Successful Submission

1) Applicants and applicant organizations should confirm that all of the required registrations 

with the various federal organizations (NIH’s eRA Commons, Grants.gov, DUNS, etc) are 

complete, active and that the applicant’s eRA Commons profile is up to date. For more 

information about registrations, visit the Get Registered page. 

2) Guidance documents for electronic submission are posted on the ORD Intranet at 

http://vaww.research.va.gov/funding/electronic-submission.cfm. Instructions in both the 

specific RFA and the SF424 VA Application Guide must be carefully read and followed. 

Specific instructions contained in the RFA supersede any general instructions contained 

in the SF424 VA Application Guide. If there is a discrepancy between instructions in the 

VA SF424 and a RFA, the RFA always takes precedence. 

3) In order to access, work on, complete and submit the SF424 (R&R) applications, Adobe 

Reader (version 8.1.1 or later) is required; version 9.1 or higher is strongly recommended. 

The use of earlier versions of Adobe Reader may permanently corrupt the application file. 

If this occurs, you will need to download a new application package and start over. Please 

be sure that you can open and read the application package in Adobe Reader before you 

try to submit to Grants.gov. Information on using Adobe Acrobat (Standard or 

Professional) with applications submitted to Grants.gov is available at: 

http://www.grants.gov/assets/UsingAcrobatPro.pdf. 

4) Project titles in eRA must match the title as submitted for the ITS. A project title is still 

limited to 81 characters, including spaces and punctuation. If a title change is needed 

between the ITS submission and final application submission in eRA, you must contact 

HSR&D (vhacoscirev@va.gov) to request a title change. 

5) Letters of Support - All memoranda/letters should be scanned and submitted as a single 

document. Please forward any letters of support directly to the PI or appropriate field staff 

working on the application in advance of the application submission so that the letter(s) 

may be included in the Letters of Support attachment as a part of the electronic 

application. Do not send an original hard copy or email PDF of the letter directly to the 

Director of HSR&D. If the application is a resubmission, Letters of Support from the 

original application may be used again if the letters are dated a year or less from the time 

of the first submission to the resubmission. Letters of Support are saved under the 

filename: 08b_VA_Letters.pdf.

6) Budgets—the R&R Budget component includes three separate data entry screens: (1) 

Sections A and B; (2) Sections C through E; and (3) Sections F through K. All required 

fields (highlighted in yellow, outlined in red, and marked with an asterisk) must be 

completed before the “Next Period” button is activated. To navigate between the various 
screens, use the “Previous” and “Next” buttons at the top of the form. If you submit a 

proposal with completed budget pages for only one period (year 1), eRA Commons will 

not view it as an error.

7) Once an application is sent from Grants.gov to eRA, the three individuals listed on the 

cover page (box 5, 14 and 19) will receive an e-mail indicating whether the system 

detected any errors or warnings: 

 Errors—you must revise and resubmit your application to Grants.gov by the Last 

Possible Submission Deadline (3 business days prior to verification deadline); or 

 Warnings or No Warnings—if an application is submitted on or before the Down to 

the Wire Submission Deadline, you will have 2 business days to examine the eapplication to ensure it is complete and accurate. If you notice any errors, particularly 

those listed below, you should “reject” the application and revise and resubmit by the 

Last Possible Submission Deadline. If no action is taken within this allotted time, the 

application will pass into Receipt and Referral for CO review. Do not reject an 

application on or after the Down to the Wire Submission deadline as a 

changed/corrected submission submitted after this date will not meet the eRA 

verification deadline (June 15/December 15). You must withdraw the previous 

version before submitting the corrected one. If duplicate applications are 

received in eRA by CO, the application submitted FIRST will be accepted and the 

second application will be administratively withdrawn and not reviewed. 

8) HSR&D will consider the errors listed below as fatal. Applications that enter into 

Receipt and Referral with these errors will be administratively withdrawn and will not be 

reviewed. 

 Missing budget page(s). Applications must include a completed budget page for each 

year of study (if funds are being used). 

 Missing budget waiver approval letter, if project exceeds $350,000 in any one year 

or the total project budget exceeds $1,100,000. For Pilot Projects, if project exceeds 

$100,000 for one year. 

 Missing documents required for submission. If this is a resubmission, the application 

must include the “Introduction to Application”. If this is a Pilot Project, the application 

must include either an IRB waiver letter from the HSR&D Director, or ensure that the 

Director’s Letter contains a statement that a protocol or exemption request has been 

submitted to the IRB.

 Missing or unsigned Director’s letter of support. 

 Exceeding specified page limits in the Research Plan or as noted in attachments. 

 Failure to meet specified formatting requirements for Text (PDF) attachments in eapplication. 

If you have any questions regarding the HSR&D Merit Review process, please do not 

hesitate to contact Scientific Merit Review Program staff at vhacoscirev@va.gov. All 

questions concerning electronic submission (eRA/Grants.gov) should be directed to the eRA 

mailbox in Outlook at rd-era@va.gov. 
*If the deadline falls on a weekend or Federal holiday, the due date is the next business day. 

‡ Verification occurs two (2) business days after receipt of an application with no errors or only warnings.

Table 4. Deadline, Review and Award Dates 

Health Services Research & Development (HSR&D)

SUBMISSION CYCLES:

WINTER 2014

(2014/05 Council)

SUMMER 2014

(2014/10 Council)

Waiver for Offsite Research* October 15 April 15

IRB Waiver Letter October 15 April 15

Intent to Submit Deadline*

November 1

8:00 pm Eastern 

time

May 1

8:00 pm Eastern 

time

Waiver for Exceeding Budget Cap* November 15 May 15

First day to submit Merit Review Award applications 

to Grants.gov* November 15 May 15

Down to the Wire Submission Deadline to 

Grants.gov*

This deadline allows errors identified by Grants.gov, eRA, or 

the PI/SO during the two business day examination period to 

be corrected. All changed/corrected applications must be 

submitted by this date. NOTE: After this date the 2 business 

day correction window cannot be used to identify errors and 

resubmit a corrected/changed application as this application 

would miss the eRA verification deadline.

5 business days prior to the Verification 

Deadline

Last Possible Submission Date to Grants.gov* 

Errors identified CANNOT be corrected at this time.

WARNING: If you submit an application on this date to 

Grants.gov and there are errors identified by Grants.gov or 

eRA, you CANNOT fix the errors, resubmit, and have the 

application meet the eRA submission and verification 

deadlines. If your proposal is accepted by eRA (with no errors)

on this date, do not withdraw the application during the two 

business day examination window as you will not be able to 

resubmit and meet the verification deadline.

3 business days prior to the 

Verification Deadline

Verification Deadline in eRA ‡ *

Once verified, an application is considered final and no other 

version will be accepted for review.

December 15 June 15

Review and Award Cycles:

Scientific Merit Review March August

Administrative Review April-May October-November

Earliest Project Start Date

Note: VA-ORD R&D Services may not always be able to honor 

the requested start date of an application; therefore, 

applicants should make no commitments or obligations until 

confirmation of the start date by the awarding service.

July January