Grant Application, Paper

Purpose

To provide applicants with forms and instructions to apply for NIH funding opportunity announcements that have not undergone the transition to electronic application.

Procedure

If a grant type has not yet switched to electronic application, applicants must submit a paper PHS 398. Find transition dates in the NIH Planned Transition Dates Timeline.

The PHS 398 application kit has important instructions for preparing and submitting an NIH grant application. Investigators responding to an RFA or PA should also follow the instructions in the NIH Guide announcement since they supercede the PHS 398 rules.

To supplement those resources, NIAID's online sites provide additional advice and instructions, including our All About Grants Tutorials and Sample R01 Applications and Summary Statements.

Applicants

• Carefully follow all instructions, including instructions for special items such as human subjects, research animals, recombinant DNA, and other sensitive areas. NIAID has additional requirements for clinical applications and select agents defined in our Clinical Terms of Award and Select Agent Terms of Award for NIAID Grants. To apply for a clinical trial, follow NIAID's Investigator-Initiated Clinical Trials Resources.
• NIAID's General Application Information and Paper Applications Only offer information in question and answer format.
• See Will Your Research Have Special Requirements? for information on what to include with your application, such as a data sharing plan, animal welfare assurances, and a plan for sharing model organisms.
• Pay attention to formatting requirements. NIH will not accept applications that are not formatted correctly.
• At PHS 398, NIH gives you fillable forms in two formats: MS Word (DOC) and portable document format (PDF). MS Word allows you to format text, insert graphics, and save your forms in most word processors. PDF lets you fill out and print the forms using the free Acrobat Reader, but you cannot save them unless you have the full Adobe Acrobat software or another full-featured PDF editor. Read more about saving at Adobe Acrobat or PDF Forms.
• If you have previously downloaded forms and instructions to your desktop, gets fresh copies from NIH to ensure you have the most current version. NIH updates the forms and instructions frequently.
• NIH doesn't immediately revise the PHS 398 instructions as changes occur. For updates, see Notable Changes Made to PHS 398.

Contacts

Patricia Haggerty, haggertp@nih.gov, 301-451-2615

If you have knowledge to share or want more information on this topic, email deaweb@niaid.nih.gov with the title of this page or its URL and your question or comment. Thanks for helping us clarify and expand our knowledge base.

Links

Animals in Research SOPs

Data Sharing for Grants: Final Research Data SOP

Data Sharing for Grants: Genome-Wide Association Studies SOP

Foreign and International Grants and Components SOP

Grant Application, Electronic SOP

Human Subjects SOPs

Just-in-Time SOP

Modular Grants SOP

NIH Modular Research Grant Applications

Select Agent Awards SOP

Sharing Model Organisms SOP