SPA Weekly Update

January 20, 2006
IN THIS WEEK’S EDITION

NEWS/FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Health Resources and Services Administration

Immediate Change in Grants Application Process

HRSA will no longer accept applications for grant opportunities on paper.

Applicants submitting New and Competing continuations and a selected number of non-competing continuation applications will be required to submit electronically through Grants.gov.

All applicants must submit in this manner unless the applicant is granted a written exemption from this requirement in advance by the Director of HRSA’s Division of Grants Policy.

Grantees must request an exemption in writing from DGPClearances@hrsa.gov, and provide details as to why they are not able to submit electronically though the Grants.gov portal. As indicated in the program guidance, for applications that mandate electronic submission through Grants.gov, paper

For more information: http://www.hrsa.gov/grants/

National Institutes of Health

Salary Limitation on Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Contracts

The Executive Level I annual salary rate was $180,100 for the period January 1 through December 31, 2005. Effective January 1, 2006, the Executive Level I salary level increased to $191,300.

For more information: NOT-OD-06-031

NIH Financial Policy for Grant Awards – FY 2006

The NIH appropriation for FY 2006 includes an across-the-board reduction to non-emergency, discretionary programs, which has a direct impact on NIH's budget.

Non-competing awards for every RPG will be awarded at a level of 97.65% of the amount indicated for the FY2006 budget period in the Notice of Grant Award for the previous budget year. The amounts indicated for future budget periods will also be adjusted by the same factor.

Non-competing awards previously issued in FY 2006 at reduced levels up to 80% of the amount previously indicated will be revised to provide a restoration of funds to the 97.65% level. Amounts indicated for future budget periods will be adjusted as well.

For more information: NOT-OD-06-025

Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Stipend and Other Budgetary Levels Effective for Fiscal Year 2006

The stipend levels for Fiscal Year (FY) 2006 Kirschstein-NRSA awards for undergraduate, predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees and fellows are shown below. The Training Related Expenses for trainees and the Institutional Allowance for individual fellows for FY 2006 are also shown below.

The Budgetary Categories Described in this Notice Are Effective Only for Kirschstein-NRSA Awards Made with FY 2006 Funds.

Effective with all Kirschstein-NRSA awards made on or after October 1, 2005, the following annual stipend levels apply to all individuals receiving support through institutional research training grants or individual fellowships, including the Minority Access to Research Career (MARC) and Career Opportunities in Research (COR) programs. These awards are made under the authority of Section 487 of the Public Health Service Act (as amended).

For more information: http://www.med.nyu.edu/spa/forms/fiscal_budget/nrsa.html

The stipend levels are as follows:

The Training Related Expenses for each predoctoral and postdoctoral trainee as well as the Institutional Allowance for all predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows will be paid at the amounts shown below for all awards made with FY 2006 funds:

For more information: NOT-OD-06-026

The New York Academy of Medicine

The Charles A. Elsberg Fellowship in Neurological Surgery

The Charles A. Elsberg Fellowship in Neurological Surgery was established to support research training in the specialty of neurological surgery for individuals who have completed, or will shortly complete, accredited residency training in neurological surgery, and who intend to use research training for continued development of academic careers in this field. The Elsberg Fellowship program seeks to support individuals in supervised programs that will develop the candidate's capacity to perform independent clinical or laboratory research.

A one-year fellowship award of $50,000 is offered for research commencing July 1 of the award year. The grant is made to the awardee’s institution for the direct support of the salary and research activities of the fellow. A detailed budget must be submitted with the application. Funds from the Charles A. Elsberg Fellowship in Neurological Surgery may not be used for indirect costs or fringe benefits.

Application Deadline: February 27, 2006

For more information: http://www.nyam.org/grants/elsberg.shtml

New Webpage Resource – “Electronic Submission”

http://www.med.nyu.edu/spa/education/ElectronicSubmission.html

The Office of Sponsored Programs at the NYU SOM is in process of implementing a system-to-system data transfer approach in conjunction with InfoEd for electronic submission of grant applications directly to Grants.gov and the NIH.

Until the system-to-system mode of submission is launched, the SPA Office will utilize the forms-based submission method which relies on the PureEdge Software provided free of charge from Grants.gov. http://www.grants.gov/DownloadViewer

NIH’s Initiative for e-Submission of Grant Applications

The transition to electronic application submission and a new set of application forms is a huge initiative for the NIH involving numerous funding mechanisms. The NIH has developed a timeline for transitioning all competing grant mechanisms by May 2007.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to prepare to participate in electronic submission through Grants.gov and the eRA Commons. The NIH presented a videocast outlining the new technology and changes in the process of grant submission. This training session, geared toward the applicant community, provided an overview of NIH's transition plans, the submission process and the new form set. A question and answer session followed the formal presentations.

Click on the following link to view the archived videocast training session and download various training tools available for e-submission: http://era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt/training.htm#10

Non-Windows Users (MAC)

Grants.gov recognizes that support to users of Non-Windows operating systems and the PureEdge Viewer is often required across a distinct segment of the grant applicant community. Although at this time, the PureEdge Viewer is only available for Windows based installs, Grants.gov offers support for Non-Windows platforms.

Non-Windows users will be able to download and complete the PureEdge forms by taking advantage of the free Citrix server. Non-Windows users are also able to submit completed grant applications via the Citrix environment.

Instructions and user guides are available for download at the following link for installation of the Citrix Client and PureEdge Viewer for Macs: http://www.grants.gov/MacSupport#

Download step-by-step Tutorials of NIH's e-submission Mechanisms

Just In Time (JIT) Tutorial
"Just-in-Time" is an initiative of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) which postpones the collection of certain information that currently must be included in all competing applications at the time of submission. The information for the applications with a likelihood of funding is submitted "just-in-time" for awards to be made. This delayed exchange of information significantly relieves the administrative burden for the 75 to 80 percent of applicants who will not receive an award.

Electronic Streamlined Non-Competing Award Process (eSNAP) Tutorial
The NIH eSNAP (electronic Streamlined Non-competing Award Process) system provides a web interface for investigators to prepare and submit Type 5 (non-competing) progress reports online.

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