Funding of Previously Submitted Applications
In general, existing applications eligible for consideration of 2-year funding under the ARRA are defined as applications submitted for funding with FY 2008 or FY 2009 funds that: (a) received meritorious priority scores from the initial peer review process; (b) received approval from an Advisory Council or Board prior to September 30, 2009; and (c) received priority scores that could not otherwise be paid in FY 2008 or 2009.
This policy includes consideration of applications in response to previously announced funding opportunities (e.g., RFAs, PAs, PARs), including those that will be peer reviewed by mid-summer and scheduled to receive Advisory Council or Board review prior to September 30, 2009.
NIH program directors will contact applicant project directors/principal investigators (PD/PIs) about applications under consideration to discuss potential modifications of the Abstract, Specific Aims, Public Health Relevance, and budget.
NIH Guide Recovery Act Notice: NIH ARRA Funding Considerations for Applications with Meritorious Scores that Fall Beyond the Pay-line
Budgeting for Competitive Revisions and Administrative Supplements (T-3s)
Funding for competitive revisions and administrative supplements may be made in excess of programmatic cost limitations or ceilings associated with a program or activity code (e.g., direct costs stipulated for Small Research Grants [R03], Exploratory/Developmental Grants [R21]).
If a project was previously funded under a program or activity code with budget limitations or ceilings, these limitations or ceilings are not applicable to ARRA competitive revision and/or administrative supplement requests. Note: All budget requests must be commensurate with the scope of the programmatic request and will be subject to a cost analysis prior to award. In addition, budgets submitted in competing revisions will be subject to the peer review.
For electronic submissions, budget requests for competitive revisions equal to or less than $250,000 direct costs per year must still use a modular budget component; requests over $250,000 direct costs per year must use the detailed budget component. (For paper PHS 398 applications (e.g., P01), a detailed budget is always required.)
Please note the flexibility to switch from a modular to a detailed budget is only available for those Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) where both the detailed budget and modular budget components are part of the application package.
For FOAs where only the modular budget component is available (e.g., SC1, SC2, SC3) competitive revisions will be submitted using the modular format for no more than $250,000 direct costs per year.
PIs should be aware that they will receive a validation warning when submitting a competitive revision through Grants.gov if the parent application was submitted using a modular budget and they are now submitting a detailed budget. The warning will read: “The parent grant for this revision uses the modular format; in most cases, this application must be submitted with a modular budget. If the budget caps permitted by the FOA exceed the modular limit of $250k, the application must be submitted with a detailed budget”. Please disregard this warning. It will not affect submission of the application through Grants.gov.
NIH Guide ARRA Administrative Supplements and Competitive Revisions: Clarifications on Programmatic Limitations and use of Modular Budgets
ARRA Awards: Selected Terms and Conditions for T-3s
ARRA Administrative Supplements and Competitive Revisions (T-3s) issued in FY2009 may have budget/project periods up to 24 months. ARRA T-3s issued in FY2010 will be limited to no more than a 12-month budget/project period.
Rebudgeting between ARRA and non-ARRA funds is prohibited. Institutions must establish separate accounts for ARRA and non-ARRA funding.
Carryover of any unobligated ARRA funding at the end of the supplement period into the parent grant is prohibited.
The ARRA T-3s will be eligible for a one-time no-cost extension (up to 12 months) of the ARRA project period. This extension is allowable regardless of the status of the parent grant and will not impact the continued funding of the parent grant. Additional extensions beyond the initial one; i.e., those requiring NIH prior approval, will be rare.
ARRA funds provided under this award are not available for rebudgeting or carryover into the parent grant. Any ARRA funding remaining at the end of the funding period for this award must be reported as an unobligated balance.
When an FY2009 ARRA award includes a commitment for FY2010, automatic carryover authority will apply consistent with NIH’s traditional application of that authority.
There is no ability to carryover unobligated funds from a budget period funded with regular IC appropriation funds into a budget period funded with ARRA. Nor is there any ability to carryover unobligated funds from an ARRA-funded budget period into a budget period funded with regular IC appropriation funds.
No carryover is available between any of the ARRA segments and the segments funded with regular IC appropriation.
NIH Guide Recovery Act of 2009: NIH Award Terms and Additional Information for Recipients Receiving Recovery Act Grant Funding
