SRAs should be contacted prior to submission, both as an alert for the SRA, and to ascertain acceptable content, format, and deadline. NIH has an established appeals process for applicants who feel that some aspect of the handling or initial review of their grant applications has been inappropriate. It should be noted that differences of scientific opinion that may occur between investigators and reviewers may not be contested through these procedures. In addition, communications from investigators consisting of additional information that was not available to the reviewers are not considered to be appeals. Finally, appeals of receipt and referral issues regarding applications not yet reviewed should be directed to the Referral Office in the Center for Scientific Review.
PAs define areas that an institute is particularly interested in funding.
Applications for grant support may cite a PA, but this is not necessary. A receipt date is specified, and the applications submitted in response to the RFA are reviewed and considered together as a group competing for set-aside funds. The application must cite the RFA to be considered with that group. PAs, RFAs, and RFPs are published in the NIH Guide to Grants and Contracts. Paramount among them is an application's percentile ranking derived from its priority score, the outcome of peer review.