• Campus Animal Care and Use Program Passes Recent USDA Inspection with Flying Colors
• Reminder: NIH Application Submission Changes
• RAC Winter Break Schedule
• Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act Signed into Law
• Research Administration and Compliance Forum Meetings
• NIH Electronic Submission Training
• NIH Implements Multiple-PI Option for February Applications
• New Limit on Appendix Materials for All NIH/AHRQ/NIOSH Grant Applications Begins in January
• Attention Human Subject Researchers
• Grants.gov: One Example of Why Not to Wait Until the Last Minute to Submit Your Proposal
• NSF Electronic Initiatives Webcast
• NSF Policy Office Launches Newsletter
• Draft ORI Research Misconduct Policy
• NSF Improves Project Reports System
• NIH Asks for Comments on Reducing R01 Research Plan Page Limit

The Animal Care and Use program at the UC Berkeley campus is serious about setting, achieving, and maintaining high standards for animal care and use. When conducting their annual unannounced site inspections of the campus animal care and use program, USDA inspectors thoroughly observe and document all areas of the campus’s program for compliance with the U.S. Animal Welfare Act and its implementing regulations. The Animal Care and Use Committee is proud to report that the recent USDA inspection on October 24, 2006, has resulted in a completely clean report!

The faculty members and their laboratory personnel who use animals in research, the Office of Laboratory Animal Care, the Animal Care and Use Committee, and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research all can be proud that our campus has—for the sixth year in a row—received an annual USDA inspection report with no non-compliances identified. This report is an example of UC Berkeley’s dedication to achieving and maintaining the highest standards for animal care and use.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is continuing the transition to Grants.gov and electronic submission, and several major changes to the application process are effective in early 2007.

Changing Standard Submission Dates: Some Grants are Due Earlier than Before

Beginning in January 2007, NIH is changing major standing receipt dates for grant applications to avoid high-volume receipt dates at Grants.gov. The new ‘spread out’ receipt dates will apply to both paper and electronic applications. Program announcements and RFAs with special receipt dates continue to be due on the specific dates listed in the announcement. NIH announced the changed receipt dates in the October 6 NIH Guide, http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-07-001.html.

Note that some applications are due earlier than before. The following application types were moved from February 1 to January 25: P Series; R10, R18, R24, R25; S and G Series, C06, and M01.

Grants.gov Submssion Required for R01

The NIH R01 deadline is moving from February 1 to February 5. Effective for R01 receipt dates on or after February 5, 2007, all applications in response to announcements for the R01 grant program must be submitted electronically at Grants.gov. Paper applications will not be accepted. Applications that were first submitted in paper and are being resubmitted as amended applications must now use electronic submission via Grants.gov using the SF424 (R&R) forms.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to begin early. See the story below on potential system snags and delays.

All units within Research Administration and Compliance, including the Office for the Protection of Human Subjects, the Office of Animal Care and Use, and the Sponsored Projects Office, will be closed during the campus energy curtailment beginning Monday, December 25, 2006, through Monday, January 1, 2007.

On Monday, November 27, 2006, President Bush officially signed into law the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA). This legislation, which received tremendous bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, amends the Animal Enterprise Protection Act (Title 18, Sec. 43 of the US Criminal Code) and expands criminal prohibitions against the use of force, violence, and threats involving animal enterprises and increases penalties for violations of these prohibitions. The AETA will provide greater protections against intimidation and harassment of researchers and their families and will for the first time address campaigns of secondary and tertiary targeting that cause economic damage to research enterprises. The National Association for Biomedical Research (NABR) has drafted a one-page document (AETA Analysis) summarizing what the AETA does. The document may be found on NABR's web site at http://www.nabr.org.

The next three RAC Forum meetings will be held on December 12 in the Alumni House and January 16 and February 13 in the Lipman Room in Barrows Hall.

Upcoming agendas and meeting schedules for the RAC Forum are available at http://rac.berkeley.edu/racforum.html. Notices will also be sent out by email. If you are not already on the mailing list, or know of other staff who would like to receive meeting notices, please contact Shelley Sprandel at spore@berkeley.edu or 2-8122.

The National Institutes of Health published a special issue of the NIH Extramural Nexus newsletter that focuses on electronic submission. The November 2006 issue is available at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/partners/1106Nexus.htm.

An archive of the December 5 NIH online training session on Grants.gov submission is available at http://era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt/training.htm#5. The webcast provides an overview of the electronic submission process including an in-depth review of the SF424 (R&R) forms and "lessons learned" tips on application submission.

The National Institutes of Health has published implementation details for the multiple principal investigator (PI) policy applicable beginning with February applications..

Beginning with research grant applications submitted for February 2007 receipt dates, the NIH will allow applicants to identify more than one PI. The Multiple PI option will be extended to most research grant applications submitted electronically through Grants.gov using the SF424 R&R application package. NIH expects the availability of the Multiple PI option to encourage interdisciplinary and other team approaches to biomedical research.

Key points from the announcement are included below; for more complete information, see the full announcement in the November 24 NIH Guide at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-07 -017.html and the Multiple Principal Investigator web site, http://grants.nih.gov/grants/multi_pi/index.htm.

The Multiple PI option will include the following features for NIH applications beginning in February 2007:

Applications

• NIH grant application forms (including the PHS 398 and SF424 R&R) will accommodate more than one PI.
• Applications that involve more than one PI must include a Leadership Plan that describes the roles, the responsibilities, and the working relationship of the identified PIs.

Principal Investigators

• All PIs are designated by the applicant institution.
• All PIs share the responsibility and authority for leading and directing the project.
• All listed PIs must be registered in eRA Commons with a PI role type.
• All listed PIs will have access to Status on the eRA Commons at https://commons.era.nih.gov/commons/.
• The first PI listed must be affiliated with the institution submitting the application and will serve as the contact PI.
• The contact PI will be responsible for communication between the NIH and the rest of the leadership team.
• Being named contact PI does not imply any particular role within the leadership team.
• When requested by the grantee institution at the time of a non-competing application, another member of the leadership team may assume the role of contact PI.
• All PIs will be listed on summary statements.
• All PIs will be listed on the Notice of Grant Award.
• All PIs will be listed in CRISP.
• Any requested allocation of funds to components of the project or the associated PIs must be included in the Leadership Plan. If an award is made, the requested allocation will be acknowledged in the NOGA. Unless limited by a specific term of award, the acknowledgment of the requested allocation will not limit institutional authority to manage the funds nor will it impose additional prior approval requirements.
• The role type, "Co-PI," will not be used by the NIH.

New Investigator Policies

• NIH policies related to New Investigators will be applied to applications only when all PIs involved are classified as New Investigators.
• The New Investigator Box on the application may be checked only when all PIs involved are classified as New Investigators.
• For the purpose of classification as a New Investigator, serving as a PI on a multiple PI grant will be equivalent to serving as a PI on a single PI grant.

Review Criteria

• Standard NIH review criteria have been modified to accommodate both single PI and multiple PI applications

Awards Involving More Than One Institution

• Awards involving PIs at different institutions will be managed using subcontracts until options involving linked awards have been developed.

Features of the Multiple PI Option Still Under Development

• The ability to manage research projects using linked awards involving PIs located at more than one institution is being developed.
• The ability to recognize (credit) non-PI key contributors to the project is being developed.
• The desirability of formally apportioning funds under a grant to various components of a project or the PIs associated with those components will be assessed.

A change in policy will limit appendix materials that may be submitted with grant applications to National Institutes of Health, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health with submission/receipt dates on or after January 3, 2007.

The goal of changing the guidelines for grant application appendix materials is to encourage applications to be as concise as possible while containing the information needed for expert scientific review. These changes take advantage of electronic access to many publications and should make application preparation and handling easier for both applicants and reviewers. It is important to note that the Appendix may not be used to circumvent the page limitations of the Research Plan.

NIH announced the change in the November 17 NIH Guide at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-07-018.html. The announcement describes what materials can be included in both the application and appendix.

The Office for Protection of Human Subjects will be rolling out some revised forms that must be used for submissions after January 1, 2007. Please retrieve the new forms from http://cphs.berkeley.edu, and visit the "Updates" section of the web site for more information. Please refer questions to the OPHS Analyst of the Day.

The following describes just one of several recent last-minute Grants.gov proposal submissions that had serious problems. We are providing this example to illustrate why waiting until the last minute to submit proposals can jeopardize potential funding.

• In mid-November, SPO received a proposal for a 1:00 p.m. Grants.gov deadline for a defense agency solicitation. Three other proposals had already been submitted successfully to the same program. The proposal was large and complex, with multiple subcontracts. SPO first submitted the proposal to Grants.gov at 10:00 a.m.
• The proposal was rejected by Grants.gov because of an error with the date format. However, there did not appear to be anything wrong with the format.
• SPO contacted the PI's assistant, who talked to the Grants.gov support desk to help identify the error.
• The Grants.gov support desk could not find any errors and told the PI's assistant to submit the proposal again.
• SPO resubmitted the proposal.
• SPO received a confirmation notice from Grants.gov. However, SPO did not receive the other email notices confirming that the proposal had been accepted by Grants.gov.
• At 12:45, the PI's assistant called the Grants.gov support desk again to confirm that Grants.gov had accepted the proposal.
• The Grants.gov support desk staff said the proposal went through. The support desk staff also said that the validation email can take up to ten days.
• The PI also talked to the agency program officer, asking about sending a hard copy as a back up, but the program officer told the PI that the proposal could only be accepted through Grants.gov. The PI sent a hard copy anyway, including Grants.gov tracking information.
• The next morning, SPO received email from Grants.gov that the proposal had been rejected, with the same error message concerning the date format.
• SPO staff and the PI began discussion with both Grants.gov and agency staff to have the proposal accepted. UC Office of the President and UC FDP representatives were also involved.
• Over two weeks later, SPO was finally told by the agency that the proposal was accepted for review. However, SPO did not hear from Grants.gov about what caused the proposal to be rejected.

The point to take home from this example is that electronic submission is far more time-consuming and complicated than submitting a paper proposal. Grants.gov is not forgiving—tiny mistakes can cause proposal rejection. If there is a submission problem, it will take time, most likely days, to fix, if the agency permits it. Investigators run a real risk of missing the proposal deadline if they attempt to submit electronic proposals at the last minute.

In order to insure success for Grants.gov and all other electronic proposal submissions, it is crucial that SPO receives the proposal a minimum of five working days prior to the agency receipt deadline. If the final proposal is not submitted to SPO five days before the Grants.gov receipt date, SPO cannot guarantee review and successful submission of the application (https://mossberg.berkeley.edu/CalMessages/display_message.asp?d=6/6/2006&s=101).

Please start early and submit proposals early. Ask for help if you think you need it. Use online resources, including the SPO web page, Grants.gov "Apply" at Berkeley: http://www.spo.berkeley.edu/Procedures/grantsgov.html. Before submitting Grants.gov proposals to SPO, use the FormChecker program, https://www.spo.berkeley.edu:8443/ggchecker/, to identify errors.

The National Science Foundation's Office of Budget, Finance & Award Management presented a webcast session on electronic initiatives of importance to the awardee community on October 20, 2006. The webcast is now available online at http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=diaselectini1006. To watch it, your computer will need to have RealPlayer installed.

Topics include Grants.gov implementation for fiscal year 2007, project report tracking system updates, as well as the most current information regarding NSF's participation in the Grants Management Line of Business.

The National Science Foundation Policy Office has published the first issue of a new quarterly eNewsletter. The goal of the newsletter is to apprise NSF's proposer and awardee community of new or revised policies and procedures, upcoming events where NSF staff will be in attendance, and any other relevant information that impacts the community.

The first issue includes articles on the consolidation of NSF's policy and procedure documents, the NSF Grants.gov strategy for FY 2007, and NSF regional grants conference hosting.

The newsletter is online at http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=policynewsvol1, or linked directly from the NSF Policy Office page: http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/index.jsp.

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Research Integrity is inviting comments on a draft Model Policy for Responding to Allegations of Research Misconduct that has been revised to comply with the PHS Policies on Research Misconduct (42 C.F.R. Part 93). Comments are due by December 29, 2006. See http://www.ori.dhhs.gov/policies/model_policy.shtml for the draft.

NSF has improved the tracking and management of project report submissions in FastLane. In FastLane, the reporting requirements for each award can be found under the Project Reports System link under Award and Reporting in the Proposals, Awards and Status link. The NSF announcement can be found at https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/fastlane.jsp;jsessionid=3a30b57c63dd2a313c3d?t=0&idx=0.

Principal investigators and co-principal investigators will be notified via email of reports that become due or overdue. Sponsored Project Offices will receive a copy of the email notice.

Active awards will include outstanding project reporting requirements, including dates when reports are due or overdue. A search function for this data is under the Project Reports link under the Research Administration application in FastLane.

Failure to submit project reports may delay processing of funding increments. The NSF Grant Proposal Guide (http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/manuals/gpm05_131/gpm3.jsp#340) states: "Unless otherwise specified in the grant, annual project reports shall be submitted at least three months prior to the end of the current budget period. In the case of continuing grants, failure to submit timely reports may delay processing of funding increments. PIs must submit final technical reports within the time period specified. Failure to provide these reports on a timely basis will delay NSF review and processing of pending proposals for all identified PIs and co-PIs on a given award."

The National Institutes of Health is considering reducing the current 25-page limit for the Research Plan section of the research project grant (R01) application, and is asking the research community for comments on the proposed change. NIH will accept responses until January 5, 2007.

According to the NIH announcement, a significant number of applicants and reviewers have suggested that NIH peer review could be improved by focusing less on experimental details and more on key ideas and the scientific significance of proposed projects. Therefore, NIH is evaluating the possibility of shortening the Research Plan section and focusing it more on ideas and significance.

The announcement is posted in the November 10 NIH Guide at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-07-014.html. Responses may be submitted online at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfi_files/rfi_research_plan_add.htm, or sent to NIH by email.