Faculty & Staff

From time to time Columbia University and funding agencies – both government and private - announce changes to their requirements and polices.

The Mailman School of Public Health Research Administration monitors these updates and posts them below:

Apply for Pioneer or New Innovator Award

Now is the time to apply for an NIH Director's Pioneer Award or New Innovator Award. The deadline for submitting Pioneer Award applications is October 7, 2011, and October 14, 2011 for the New Innovator Award applications. See the websites for more information http://commonfund.nih.gov/pioneer and http://commonfund.nih.gov/newinnovator.

HHS Issues Revised Financial Conflict of Interest Rules

The Department of Health and Human Services is issuing a final rule in the Federal Register revising the regulations on financial conflicts of interest of extramural investigators. For a look at what’s different, check out the side-by-side comparison table on the Financial Conflict of Interest website and read Dr. Rockey’s blog post on the topic.

NIH, AHRQ, CDC, FDA and NIOSH to Release Updated Electronic Application Forms ADOBE-FORMS-B2:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-11-096.html

NIH eRA eSubmission Items of Interest - July 19, 2011 

Don’t get too used to ADOBE-FORMS-B1…

The virtual ink is barely dry on the ADOBE-FORMS-B1 forms and here comes ADOBE-FORMS-B2 (see NOT-OD-11-096). Don’t panic! Just remember to use the latest version of forms available for your Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) and you’ll be fine.  

What’s the difference between ADOBE-FORMS-B1 and ADOBE-FORMS-B2? 

·     B2 fixes a nasty, intermittent Grants.gov “Schema Error” encountered when submitting the PHS 398 Modular Budget form (see Items of Interest – October 27, 2010) 

·     B2 fixes an error encountered by system-to-system users in the Budget Information for Construction Programs (SF-424C) form (imagine budget amounts and budget categories no longer aligning in the application image after submission – major badness!) 

·     B2 allows applicants to attach 30 subaward budgets rather than the 10 allowed in B1
IMPORTANT: To avoid potential compatibility issues, be sure to extract and use a fresh copy of the subaward budget attachment when using the new R&R Subaward Budget Attachment(s) Form 5 YR 30 ATT.  

Unlike other roll-outs of new application packages, we won’t be updating every existing FOA with a new application package. In fact, you should never see ADOBE-FORMS-B1 and ADOBE-FORMS-B2 packages on the same FOA. You will, however, begin to see ADOBE-FORMS-B2 as the only available application package for most new FOA postings. Fellowship, Training and a few other programs will continue to use ADOBE-FORMS-B1 for new postings since they don’t use the forms fixed in B2 (if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it), but most NIH research programs will use B2 going forward.

We will be reissuing the R01, R21, and R03 parent announcements soon. The new parent announcements (complete with new FOA numbers) will be refreshed with our streamlined FOA text, will reflect all of our latest policies and will use the ADOBE-FORMS-B2 application packages. We plan to accept submissions from both the old and new parent FOAs through the January 7, 2012 AIDS deadline. On January 8, 2012 the old R01, R21 and R03 parent FOAs will expire. So, if you are just starting the application process and plan to submit to a R01, R21 or R03 parent, wait for and use the new B2 form package. If you are submitting a Resubmission application on/before January 7 and already have an application based on B1 to work from, go ahead and use it.

NHLBI Will No Longer Participate in the Parent NIH Exploratory Developmental Research Grant (R21) Funding Opportunity Announcement:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-HL-11-154.html

Change in the NIH Continuous Submission Policy for Reviewers with Recent Substantial Service:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-11-093.html

Notice of Change in Policy on the Submission of Letters of Reference for Career Development (K) Applications:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-11-079.html

Revised Instructions for Inclusion of Appendix Materials in Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Institutional Research Training Grants (Parent T32) :
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-11-100.html

Mandating Use of the Commons to Submit No-Cost Extension Notifications:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-11-098.html
 
HHS announces proposal to improve rules protecting human reseach subjects:
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2011pres/07/20110722a.html

Learn about NIH’s xTrain

Beginning January 1,2011, nearly all NIH institutional research training grants, fellowships, education and career development awards will require the use of the xTrain electronic appointment system.
Learn about the xTrain system now.