1. Funding
  2. External Funding
  3. Health Sciences
  4. National Institutes of Health

National Institutes of Health

Application Type & Submission Information

Queen's as Lead Institution

Grants led by a Queen's Principal Investigator

Queen's as a Subaward

Grants led by another university, and Queen’s receives a subaward

Important Information

  • Contact Research Services Early:  If you are the Principal Investigator (PI) of the grant, we recommend that you contact Research Services 2-3 months in advance of submission. If Queen's will be involved as a subaward (i.e., the grant is being led by another institution), we recommend that you contact Research Services at least 3 weeks in advance of the deadline. NIH programs and requirements are complex. A Research Projects Advisor can advise on NIH requirements, help ensure your application matches NIH guidelines, work with partner universities to complete required documentation, and provide an administrative review of your application. The earlier you let Research Services know about your application, the more we can help!
     
  • Institutional Requirements: Queen's meets the institutional requirements for participating in NIH grants (i.e., Queen's is registered in SAM, and has DUNS, UEI, and EIN numbers). Queen's researchers do not have to register as individuals in any of these systems. Applicants will require an eRA Commons ID, which can be created by Research Services.
     
  • Indirect Costs: The NIH budget must include funds for indirect costs. Queen’s NIH indirect cost rate is 8% of the total direct costs (excluding equipment over $5000, tuition, patient care costs, rent, and sub-award costs (after the first $25,000)).

  • Types of Funding Opportunities: There are three types  of funding opportunities at NIH:
    • Parent Announcements: Open funding opportunities that allow applicants to submit investigator-initiated applications. They follow the standard NIH due dates .
    • Program Announcements: Funding opportunities issued by one or more of NIH's Institutes and Centres to address a particular area of scientific interest. They are usually ongoing (3 years) with standard due dates .
    • Requests for Applications: These are targeted funding opportunities by one or more of NIH's Institutes or Centres aimed at accomplishing specific program objectives. They normally have a single due date and do not reoccur.
       
  • Activity Codes: NIH uses activity codes  to differentiate between their programs (e.g., R01 = research project grant; R21 = exploratory/developmental grants). Foreign organizations CANNOT apply to programs with some codes (e.g., R13, K99/R00).
     
  • Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs): The FOA will cover important information such as which NIH Institutes  annotated FOA (PDF 224 KB) for an explanation of each section of the FOA.
    • IMPORTANT - Always check the eligibility criteria to make sure that foreign (non-US) organizations are eligible to apply.
    • It is recommended that PIs contact the Scientific/Research Contact listed in the Agency Contacts section of the FOA. They can advise if your project is a good fit for the FOA.
       
  • Clinical Trials Definition: Each FOA will specify whether or not clinical trials are eligible under the opportunity. Applicants should review the NIH clinical trials definition  to determine if their project is eligible.

There are several ways to find NIH funding opportunities specific to your research program.

  • Grants.gov: Grants.gov search page  has an online database of all funding opportunities from US federal agencies. To search only NIH opportunities, select "National Institutes of Health (NIH)” under the Agency "Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)". Results can be refined by research keywords.
     
  • NIH Funding Opportunities webpage: This NIH webpage  lists all active NIH funding opportunities, with an ability to refine the results using keywords. Search results can also be exported as an Excel table.
     
  • NIH Institutes: The NIH Institutes . Applicants can review the information provided by Institutes whose mandates align with their research interests. 
     
  • Newsletters: Applicants can subscribe to an Institute's newsletter to receive information specific to that Institute or Centre. For example, the Fogarty International Centre's funding newsletter includes information on global health funding opportunities. 
     
  • Subscribe for Weekly Updates: You can sign-up to get a weekly digest of all new NIH funding opportunities and announcements by following the instructions on this webpage .

  • Funding Opportunity Information: The funding opportunity announcement (FOA) will specify the deadlines associated with a particular NIH funding opportunity (for example, see this  annotated FOA (PDF 224 KB). 
     
  • 'Standard Dates': Some NIH FOAs will not specify a particular deadline but will instead note that "standard dates apply ". To determine which dates apply to your program: 
    • Step 1. Review the FOA to identify the activity code (e.g. R01, R21).
    • Step 2. On the standard dates webpage, enter the activity code in the search bar. NIH has multiple submission periods per year (Cycle I, II, and III). Please note that different deadlines will apply for: i) new applications vs. renewals, resubmissions, and revisions, and ii) AIDS-related applications.

The NIH requires the disclosure of all sources of research support, foreign components, and financial conflicts of interest by all senior/key personnel named on a grant application. These disclosures are made prior to grant submission, and throughout the duration of the award.

Financial Conflict of Interest (FC OI):

All senior/key personnel must complete the following FCOI forms prior to grant submission, and yearly if awarded, in order to comply with NIH financial conflict of interest policies . These forms will be kept on file at Queen’s.

Biosketch and Other Support Documents: 

All senior/key personnel must disclose all positions and scientific appointments, and all resources and financial support for research activities, as part of the NIH Biosketch  documents.

Mandatory FCOI Training:

The NIH requires that all senior/key personnel complete the NIH FCOI Training Tutorial . Once completed, the FCOI Training Certificate is kept on file at Queen’s. 

Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Programs:

NIH applicants and grant holders are prohibited from providing funding to or making an award of a fundamental research project proposal in which a covered individual is participating in a malign foreign talent recruitment program (MFTRP) or to an institution that does not have a policy addressing malign foreign talent programs. For more information, refer to the following documents:

 Guidelines for Federal Research Agencies Regarding Foreign Talent Recruitment Programs (PDF 374 KB)
 Queen’s University Guidance on Foreign Talent Recruitment Programs and the Impact on Research Funding (PDF 256 KB) -  Queen's Net ID required to access.

  • PIs can expect to certify that they are not a party to a MFTRP at the Just in Time and RPPR stages of the grant lifecycle; as well as at the Notice of Award and Transfer payment agreement stages.
  • PIs must continue to disclose all Foreign supports and affiliations for senior/key personnel  under “Other supports” on Biographical sketch CVs and Other support declarations. 

Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Plans: As of January 25 2023, NIH requires all applicants planning to generate scientific data to prepare a DMS Plan that describes how the scientific data will be managed and shared.

Please see:

The recommended page limit is 2 pages. DMS Plans should NOT include hyperlinks or URLs .

  A Queen's NetID is required to view the following documents.

Contact Information

Jennifer Robinson, Ph.D.
Research Projects Advisor (Health Sciences)
University Research Services / Faculty of Health Sciences

Phone: 613-533-6000 ext. 32944
Email:  j.robinson@queensu.ca