Using Grants.gov and FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Grants.gov FAQ

Question: Why do I have to submit ALL my proposals at least 5 days in advance of the submission date?

Answer: The process for submitting a grant via Grants.gov takes quite a bit longer than the old mailing process. Submitting to a sponsor via Grants.gov with no problems can take 2-4 business days alone. If there are errors, the time to submit can increase significantly. A 5 day submission policy is actually quite liberal. Because we will have so many grants submitted via Grants.gov, the lead time for all proposals is increasing, therefore we have implemented the new submission deadline across the board.

Question: Why can't I get anything to launch when I click on the links to/within Grants.gov on my PC?

Answer: You most likely have a problem with one or more pop-up blockers on your web-browser. There are some quick overrides, and some more permanent disabling you can set up for the Grants.gov website:

1. Quick Override: Try holding your [CTRL] key down while you select the link you want opened - this should override the pop-up blocker for this time only.
   
   
2. Permanent Override for Specific Sites: In your Internet Explorer web browser, make the following selections to permanently allow Grants.gov (or any other site you wish) to allow pop-ups:
   Tools [menu] » Internet Options » Security [tab] » Select Trusted sites [button] » select Sites [button] » Add "http://grants.gov/" » select OK [button]
   
   

NIH eCommons FAQ

Question: Does NIH accept editable PDFs? What happens if I don't "lock" the editable fields?

Answer: NIH does not accept PDF documents with editable fields (fields that can be changed). NIH does have specific guidelines for the PDF documents being submitted through PureEdge/Grants.gov. These guidelines and other tips for avoiding PDF Problems can be found on the Electronic Submission Website, Avoiding Common Errors, PDF Issues the Guidelines link. Some guidance is:

• If you have a PDF document with editable fields, do not save it and submit it. If for example, you are using Adobe, use your PDF printer tool (Go to File and click on Print and select the output device for printing to Adobe PDF) to create an Adobe PDF print version file.
• Send the Adobe PDF print version file, not the original editable version.
• If you do not have a PDF print tool, Grants.gov has a recommended list of tools.

Question: How do we handle it when we receive the following message during a Grants.gov submission?

Message: "NIH has received the electronic application identified above, submitted through Grants.gov. A system error has occurred and processing of the application has not been able to proceed."

Answer: NIH e-commons is reviewing this but has no definitive answer. Some guidance from peer universities follows:

1. from InfoEd: Check your program income section of the Checklist page. We had someone indicate that there was program income but did not cite the source in the package. It threw this error till we removed the reference to the program income. There was no program income on the project so this an easy fix. If there was, and the source was listed, then all should have been fine we suspect.
2. From Case University: Check the key personnel section.  We received the same error message, and after consulting with the help desk, we determined the problem was the PI listing herself as PI/PD and key personnel #1.  We deleted her entry as key personnel #1 and it was accepted.

Question: What is NIH doing to address the "15 page narrative limitation" problem? (see detail behind this question)

Answer: The instructions encourage the applicant to create the research plan as a single document, separating into distinct pieces for separate attachments only at the very end.  In this way, page limits and other formatting requirements can be easily monitored by the applicant.  The page limit validation done be the system already accommodates anticipated white space created by separating the pieces--thus the language in the warning message seen by many of you already.  If the applicant has stayed within the required page limits before separating the pieces, then this warning can be ignored and the application will proceed through the process.

The only time the page limit validation is strict is when separate uploads are not required.  One example of that is for Conference Grants (R13s).  In the case of R13s, the entire research plan is attached as a single attachment; therefore there is no allowance for "white space" for the R13 page limit.

The warning will continue to show up but Grants.gov is working on the language to state that it can be ignored if the PI handled page limits as described above.

Detail behind "15 page limitation" question
People are having difficulty staying within the 15 page limitation for some Grants.gov submissions. With paper submissions, the narrative included the specific aims, background and significance, preliminary studies, and research design and methods. The15 page limitation wasn't a problem because if a 1/2 page was not being used for the specific aims, the background and significance could be started on that same page, and valuable real estate wasn't wasted. With the PHS 398 Research Plan for Grants.gov, these pieces are all uploaded as separate documents and we can loose 1/2 page here, 1/2 page there since NIH is adding a hard page break between each section. So what easily fits in 15 pages in the "old" way of doing things, now is almost always 18 pages since NIH is inserting 3 extra page breaks between these sections. Additionally, NIH is adding additional validations and it might be that for a given program, this page limitation may become a hard stop for certain programs instead of a warning. The message says, "This may span 18 pages due to page breaks but the total space occupied by text should not exceed 15 pages. - Warning". NOTICE IT SAYS THE TEXT SHOULD FIT...Can we assume if the text fits but there are many pages with 1/2 page of white space that the application won't be denied and the white space is ignored and won't be counted as text?

Question: Will the system support hyphenated names?

Answer: NIH e-commons cannot recognize hyphenated names, the hyphen is considered a special character and the file will be rejected. We recommend running the names together:

Example: If the PI's last name was "Smith-Doe", it should be entered "SmithDoe" (no hyphen, no space).

Question: How do we handle the Preferred address not included in Personal Profiles?

Answer: The employment sections of the Personal Profiles of the PI and SO are not updated to include preferred address.  Log on to Commons and click the Personal Profile on the top menu bar; click Employments in the secondary menu   bar and enter preferred address (it must be current for   one of the employments).   Check the box to the right of "Is this your preferred employment address?" The   address on the SF424 (R&R) form and the employments   section must match.  If there are no employments,   click "New Employment" to add the employment.

Question: What is the grant image order for NIH applications using the SF424(R&R) Application?

Answer: The NIH has developed a cross-reference list of information to be included in NIH electronic application packages (SF424).