NIH P and U Application Support

Faculty Principal Investigators (PI) with primary appointments in the School of Medicine who are preparing NIH P or U awards for submission.

The School of Medicine and University VPR office are committed to providing resources to investigators required to increase the submissions and ultimate acquisition of research program project, center, and cooperative agreement awards (NIH P or U awards). The School of Medicine wishes to build and diversify the research funding portfolio, and to recognize the substantial effort required to prepare such collaborative proposals.

For each new P or U proposal the dean’s office will provide support for up to 12 months of preparation time (prior to submission) equivalent to 5% of the main PI salary and fringe benefits (up to the current NIH cap) plus $10,000 in administrative funds. These funds will be provided retrospectively at the time of grant submission. The PI may apply for at most one extension if the grant submission is scored at a potentially future fundable level and a resubmission is planned.  The 5% of PI salary is based on the salary of the PI and NIH cap effective at the time of grant submission.

The University VPR office will be happy to support the development of large-scale and complex proposals through personnel infrastructure (i.e., a project manager) to assist the PI’s in getting all the information and materials together for the submission, provide technical advice, organize a red team review to provide feedback if needed, and ensure successful submission to the agency.

This policy applies to the following funding awards:

P01—multidisciplinary, long-term programs headed by a PI or PIs who bring in other investigators to conduct research projects and share resources.

P30—a center core grant that supports shared resources and facilities for a multidisciplinary research team or group of investigators focusing on a common research topic.

P50—specialized center award that supports a multidisciplinary group of investigators who share a common research topic.

U19—award for multidisciplinary projects that require substantial involvement from NIH staff.

U54—support for research and development from basic to clinical, including ancillary supportive activities that create a multidisciplinary focus on a disease or a biomedical problem. Centers may also serve as regional or national resources for special research purposes.

UM2—support for large-scale centers with complicated structures that cannot be appropriately categorized into an available multicomponent activity code, e.g., clinical networks, research programs, or consortiums.

The PI will notify the Senior Associate Dean for Research via email of the intent to submit an NIH P or U proposal, indicating:

1. the specific grant mechanism
2. date of submission
3. intended institute
4. concept of the project.

Once the intent confirmed, reviewed, and approved, mechanism for salary coverage will be put in place.  Departments will be encouraged to provide the administrative funds in advance of the submission, and upon submission, will be reimbursed by the deans office.