Applying for a grant

Should I write a cover memo with my application?

Answer:

It is a good idea to write a cover memo if your application is not responding to a Request for Applications and 1) you want to point out to the Assignment & Referral Officer particular types of expertise that would be needed for appropriate scientific review that may not be obvious from the abstract, or 2) you have discussed the application with a program officer from NIA and she or he feels it would be relevant to NIA program emphases.

What should I do if I cannot find a Funding Opportunity Announcement dealing with my topic?

Answer:

Most NIH applications are investigator-initiated, not responding to a specific, tailored FOA.  Since the grants.gov website requires every applicant to enter an FOA number, investigator-initiated applications typically cite one of the “parent” FOAs, which can be found here: http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/funding/funding_program.htm (in the chart called Research Grants, look for the "See parent FOA" link for each grant type (e.g., R01, etc.))

How can I make sure that NIA will accept my application?

While nothing can guarantee that the NIA will accept your application, a good strategy is to contact Institute staff before you submit anything. For some large applications requesting $500,000 or more in direct costs for at least one year, Institute permission is required for NIH to accept the application. Although Institute permission is not required for other applications, contact NIA staff to ascertain interest in the work that you want to pursue.

Where can I find information about NIA grants and funding opportunities for research?

Information about extramural research opportunities and how to apply for NIA funds can be found at www.nia.nih.gov/research. More information on applying for National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants can be found at www.grants.nih.gov.

Where can I find information about the National Advisory Council on Aging?

The National Advisory Council on Aging (NACA) advises the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Director of NIH, and the Director of NIA. The Council meets three times a year to consider applications for research and training and to recommend funding for promising applications. Go to the NACA page »

We received an error message that our K07 application was missing letters from referrers. Yet the FOA for the Senior Leadership award for which I am applying indicates that no reference letters are necessary.

At the present time, the grants.gov software cannot distinguish between the developmental K07 (which does require reference letters) and the leadership K07 (which does not require reference letters). Since you are applying for a leadership K07, you can ignore the error message.  NIH will accept the application without reference letters if it is for a Senior Leadership award.

I submitted an R03/R21/F31 application requesting NIA assignment and NIA turned down the assignment of my application. Why does NIA not see my application as relevant to aging?

We know that a lot of applications are relevant to aging. Many applications accepted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the National Institute on Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), and other Institutes are relevant to aging. But, most of these applications cannot be assigned as primary to NIA.

I looked in the Commons and my application has been assigned to Molecular Cellular and Developmental Neuroscience. I don’t recognize that panel. I specifically requested a review panel related to my grant.

Molecular Cellular and Developmental Neuroscience (MDCN) is not a study section, it is an integrated review group (IRG), a cluster of individual review panels. Applications go through two stages of referral during peer review. First, the Center for Scientific Review’s (CSR’s) Division of Receipt and Referral assigns the applications to an IRG. The IRG staff then assign the applications to particular panels within the IRG.

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