1. What You Need to Know about Application Receipt and Referral
Cathleen Cooper, Ph.D.
Director, Division of Receipt and Referral (DRR)

2. Electronic Application Process (Overview)
The electronic application process can be divided into four general steps. First, both your and your institution must have all the required registrations completed and in place at the time of application submission. All applications must be submitted to a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), so you will need to find one of those that fits your application (more on that later). Then you need to download the application package from that FOA, and follow all the instructions in the FOA and the application guide when you are preparing your application. Finally, your authorized organizational representative (AOR) will submit the application for you, after which time it is your responsibility to view your application and track its progress through the system. NIH and CSR first see your application after it clears Grants.gov.

3. DRR is at the End of the Grants.gov Pipeline
Incoming applications for all of NIH + other HHS Agencies
Remaining applications distributed among CSR IRGs
Problems? Policy Compliance?
DRR is at the end of the Grants.gov pipeline. We process applications for organizations across the Department of Health and Human Services in addition to the NIH. Some applications are sent directly to various NIH institutes for review. The remaining applications, about 70%, are distributed among CSR study sections. DRR also plays an active role in problem solving and policy compliance.

4. What does DRR do? Determines if application is on time
formatted correctly
complete
Makes Institute Assignment for funding consideration
Makes Study Section Assignment for review
As I mentioned earlier, DRR is responsible for screening and returning late applications. We also perform a number of other policy checks, some of which are listed here. If we find problems, we’ll let you know. DRR also assigns applications to an NIH institute for funding consideration and to a study section for the review. Let me step back a moment, to talk about how you can get more information about which institute and study section is right for your application.

5. Help Your Application Get to the Right Study Section

6. Help Your Application Get to the Right Institute

7. Find a Funding Opportunity (FOA)
Since all applications must be submitted to an FOA, you can use keywords to search active FOAs, and further, if you are interested in assignment to a specific institute, you can just search for FOAs where that institute participates (“Issuing Organization”). Once you find an FOA, you need to download the application package from that FOA and then follow all the instructions in the FOA and the application guide when you prepare your application.

8. Cover Letter
The cover letter should be used for a number of important purposes:
Suggest Institute/Center assignment
Suggest review assignment
Identify individuals in potential conflict and explain why
Identify areas of expertise needed to evaluate the application
Discuss any special situations
It is NOT appropriate to use the cover letter to suggest specific reviewers.
You communicate assignment preferences to the NIH via cover letter submitted with your application. Cover letters are for communication with NIH staff; they do not go to your reviewers. Cover letters are not required because our staff are very knowledgeable about where your science will fit into one of our institutes and study sections . However, if you wish to suggest an IC or study section assignment, or bring any other issues to the attention of the SRO who will be managing the review, you should include a cover letter. Things you can include in a cover letter…

9. Sample Cover Letter
Please assign this Phase I SBIR “Drugs for Retinoblastoma Treatment” (RFA-CS ) to the following: Institutes/Centers National Cancer Institute National Eye Institute Scientific Review Group Oncology Translational and Clinical IRG Please do not assign this application to the following: Biological Chemistry and Macromolecular Biophysics This study focuses on a new in vitro model for testing drugs for treatment of retinoblastoma, not the synthesis of new chemotherapeutic agents.
The simpler the better. Using this format, with one request per line, we can easily understand your requests. Remember that we are processing hundreds of applications submitted for the major receipt dates and a request buried on the second page of a long cover letter describing your science could easily be missed. Be clear and we’ll do our best to honor your request.

10. Keep Track of Your Application
AORs submit applications
PD/PIs responsible for accuracy of submission
Do not wait for s; proactively check eRA Commons
If you cannot see your application in eRA Commons, neither can we!
Remember
It is your career and your livelihood on the line
Do not make any assumptions!
Some important reminders. The Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) in your grants office is responsible for submitting your application on time, but you are responsible for the content. Do not sit back and wait for s. Proactively check your eRA Commons account. If you cannot see your application in Commons, neither can we, and if we can’t see it we can’t review it. Start the submission process early – days early rather than hours early – so that you have plenty of time to view your application after it is complied on Commons. Sometimes things don’t look the same in Commons as it did on your office computer. Take the time to look at the application the way your reveiwers will see it. Attachments such as letters of support can be omitted. Give yourself plenty of time to submit a corrected copy if necessary. We cannot accept missing pieces or corrected pages after the fact.

11. How NOT to submit a Late Application
START EARLY!
Application must be accepted TWICE: Grants.gov and NIH
Check eRA Commons for your submitted application
( s are sent but can be caught in SPAM filters)
High volume at deadlines slows processing/validation time
On time application = submitted error-free by 5 PM local time on due date
Errors cause rejection – Warnings are error-free and accepted
No error correction window that extends deadline
One very important policy is NIH’s late application policy. Submitting to the NIH is not like buying a book from a major on-line retailer where 30 seconds after you click on the “buy” button, the book is successfully downloaded to your e-reader. NIH applications must be accepted twice. Grants.gov serves as a general portal for electronic applications submitted to various federal agencies and second by NIH. When you receive a tracking number starting with the capital letters GRANT (and a 9 digit numeral) this just means it has been accepted by Grants.gov. At that point, NIH retrieves your application and performs numerous validations, all of which must be successfully passed in order for your application to be accepted by the NIH. s are sent at various points during this process but s are not 100% reliable, so you should always be checking the status of your application in eRA Commons. High volumes around submission deadlines can slow validation/processing times to an hour or more. If your application does not pass the validations, it will be rejected with an “error”. You need time to fix that error and start the submission process all over again. To be on time, your error-free application must be submitted by 5 PM LOCAL TIME on the due date. There is no error correction window that extends the deadline. Applications submitted after the deadline, including those to correct errors, are late and will not be sent forward to review.

12. A Window to Your Application: eRA Commons
eRA Commons is an online interface where a grant applicant can:
Check submitted grant application for errors and warnings and view final image
Track review assignment, view review outcomes (score, summary statements), find contact info
Update Personal Profile to ensure Early Stage Investigator eligibility is in place
Submit pre-award information (just in time)
View Notice of Award and other key documents
And much more!