Noteworthy Takeaways from the NIH Virtual Grants Conference

The NIH Virtual Grants Conference on Funding, Policies, & Procedures took place February 1-2, 2023. Below are a few of the hot topics covered during the conference.

Forms

Use of the new FORMS-H is required now! The key change between Forms-G and Forms-H is the addition of the “Other Plans” attachment field in the PHS 398 Research Plan Form and the PHS 398 Career Development Award Supplemental Form as part of NIH’s implementation of the 2023 Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Policy.

Data Management

The new DMS Policy went into effect January 25, 2023. Activities subject to the new DMS Policy generally include all Research Projects, some Career Development Awards (Ks), SBIR/STTR, and Research Centers. Remember to review the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to determine if a DMS Plan is required for an application. If the application requires a DMS Plan, take note of the following:

Upload DMS Plans under the “Other Plan(s)” Attachment in the PHS 398 Research Plan. Note, it should no longer be submitted as part of the Resource Sharing Plan attachment.
For Detail Budgets, specify “Data Management and Sharing Costs” in the R&R Budget form (under Section F. Other Direct Costs) and budget justification.
For Modular Budgets, DMS costs should be discussed in the Additional Narrative Justification.

The DMS Plan will not be evaluated as part of the peer review process. The Just in Time (JIT) period will be used to address any questions regarding the DMS Plan submitted with the proposal, and progress of the DMS Plan will be documented through the RPPR.

Disclosures

The conference also highlighted the importance of standardizing documents like Biosketches and Other Support under guidance of the National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-33). NSPM-33 requires all federal research funding agencies to strengthen and standardize disclosure requirements for institutions and researchers receiving federal funds. For Biosketches, NIH continues to encourage the use of SciENcv, but it is not required. Senior/Key personnel may continue to use the NIH Biosketch template. For Other Support, it is important to take note that it is required for ALL individuals designated as senior/key in the application and includes all resources made available to the researcher except for training awards, prizes, gifts, start-up support from the applicant institution, and consulting activities in which research is not conducted. Extramural staff is specifically looking for sufficient levels of effort commitments as well as no scientific, budgetary, or commitment overlap.