NIH 101
Laurie Tompkins, PhD
Acting Director, Division of Genetics
and Developmental Biology
NIGMS, NIH
Swarthmore College
May 14, 2012
Structure of NIH (one view)
 Intramural (research labs at NIH) 10%
 Extramural (administrators who deal with
the biomedical research community outside
of NIH) 90%
Structure of NIH (another view)
 28 Institutes, Centers, and Offices
 Most but not all support biomedical
research
 Examples:
 NCI (cancer)
 NHLBI (heart, lung, and blood)
 NIMH (mental health)
 NIGMS (basic research)
http://www.nih.gov/icd/
Most important point in talk!
 Every grant-funding institute, center and
office is different
 Mission (topics of interest)
 Types of awards
 Grants, cooperative agreements, contracts
 Special initiatives vs. investigator-initiated projects
 Research grants vs. centers
 Emphasis on training and workforce development
 Types of awards (“mechanism”): R03, R21s not
accepted by all institutes
Take-home message:
 New to NIH?
 Changing fields?
 Figure out what institute(s) might be
interested in funding what you want to do
before you start working on the grant
application
 Is NIH interested?
 If an institute is interested, what does it offer
(special initiatives, types of awards)?
How?
 http://www.nih.gov/icd/
 rePORTER
http://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm
 Discuss idea with program director
 Email preferable to phone, to start discussion
 Send description of what you want to do
 Think about budget, term, scope of project
before you contact program
 Provide information (independent
investigator, trainee, institution, contact info)
 Inquiry may be referred to another person at
NIH
Special initiatives (ask!)
 RFA (institute interest, money set aside)
 PA (institute interest, but no money set aside)
 If there’s an RFA or PA for what you want to
do, apply in response to the RFA or PA, even if
it’s a little more work, you have to delay
submitting an application, or the institute isn’t
the one that has funded your projects in the
past
 Get in touch with scientific/program contact
named in funding opportunity announcement
(FOA) if you’re not sure
Applying for funding
 All applications—special initiatives and
“standard”—submitted in response to FOA
 FOAs published in NIH Guide
 http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/index.html
 FOAs for “unsolicited” applications
 http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/parent_a
nnouncements.htm
 R01, R03, R15, R21, T32, F, common K
Funding to award cycle (6-9
months)
 Most applications submitted electronically
 Applications submitted to CSR (Center for
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Scientific Review)
Division of Receipt and Referral in CSR: two
assignments, review and institute
Review: usually CSR study section
Institute advisory Council
Funding decision
Review
 NIH administrator: Scientific Review Officer

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

(SRO)
CSR review: study section or special emphasis
panel (SEP)
Ca. 25% of applications reviewed by institute
review staff: SROs
Research grant applications: ca. half discussed
Summary statement
 If discussed, score, percentile (for some types of
applications), summary of discussion, reviewers’
critiques, IRG notes (budget cuts, concerns)
 If not discussed, reviewers’ critiques
Council
 “Second level of review”
 Deals with appeals and grievances (concerns
about review or the outcome), special
situations (applications from investigators with
lots of other funding, foreign applications, etc.)
 Provides advice about special initiatives and
applications submitted in response to special
initiatives
 En bloc approval to consider applications for
funding
 Lots of variability among institutes
Post-Council
 Institute (program) decides which

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applications to fund
Lots of differences among institutes in how
funding decisions are made
New investigators typically get special
consideration
Budget and/or term of award may be cut
Start date may be later than requested
Grants management specialist makes
award
Why does receipt-to-award cycle
take so long?
 SROs need time to read applications, figure
out what expertise is required to evaluate
them, recruit/assign appropriate reviewers
 Reviewers need time to read and evaluate
applications
 After review, SROs need time to write
summary statements
 Advisory Councils need time to complete
assignments (read documents and make
decisions)
Question or concern? Program director,
SRO, or grants management?
 Before submitting application: program (or if
question is about a study section, SRO)
 After submission, before review: SRO
 After review, program (scientific issues) or
grants management (budget or policy issues).
General rule: institutional administrators talk
to grants management, investigators talk to
program. Just-in-time: grants management.
PLEASE SUBMIT ASAP IF REQUESTED.
 After award: program (scientific), grants
management (budget or policy)