As of the June 1, 1999 application due date, most grant applications to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will take a modular format if they request $250,000 or less in direct costs per year. This change is intended to make both the preparation and the review of grant applications less time consuming. Under the modular system, you won't submit a detailed budget, but rather will request funding in $25,000 increments, up to $250,000. Rather than poring over budget details, reviewers will use their expertise and experience to judge if the requested funding total fits the proposed activities.

Along with the elimination of detailed budgets, budget justifications are abbreviated and the "other support" form will not have to be filed unless and until the application is seriously considered for funding. To give reviewers a better understanding of the key personnel's ongoing research, the biosketch will be expanded to include this information.

These changes will eliminate at least three pages of forms from the standard NIH application, and will shorten the budget justification considerably. This is undoubtedly good news for applicants who are stretched for time to fill out all those forms at the last minute.

With all this good news, however, there is a catch - you will still have to prepare a budget, even if you don't put it on a form and send it to NIH. The reason: You don't know if you can do the project with the funds you're requesting unless you have outlined all your major costs. This is particularly important when a project will depend crucially on hiring new personnel. You must, at the least, assure yourself that you will be able to hire staff at the salaries you think are appropriate with the full costs of their fringe benefits included. If you don't carry out this step, you will be in serious danger of under-budgeting your project.

In practical terms, these are the major changes in application procedures you will see with modular grants:

• Applications will request direct costs in $25,000 modules, up to a total direct cost request of $250,000 per year for all unsolicited new, revised, and competing continuation R01, R03, R15, R21, R41, and R43 grants and competing supplements, as well as applications responding to RFAs for these mechanisms. Specific grant mechanisms, e.g., R03, R15, R21, and Institute/Center programs may define a particular number or range of modules allowed.
• A typical modular grant application will request the same number of modules in each year.
• Application budgets will be simplified. Detailed categorical budget information will not be submitted with the application; budget form pages of the application kits will not be used. Instead, total direct costs requested for each year will be presented. Information, in narrative form, will be provided only for Personnel and, when applicable, for Consortium/ Contractual Costs.
• Additional narrative budget justification will be required only if there is a variation in the number of modules requested.
• There will be no routine escalation for future years. In determining the total for each budget year, applicants should first consider the direct cost of the entire project period. Well-justified modular increments or decrements in the total direct costs for any year of the project that reflect substantial changes in expected future activities may be requested. For example, purchase of major equipment in the first year may justify a higher overall budget in the first, but not in succeeding years.
• Scientific Review Groups (SRG) will evaluate the budget on the basis of a general, expert estimate of the total effort and resources required to carry out the proposed research, rather than on the basis of detailed categorical costs. Recommendations for change in the budget will be made in modules. Reviewers also may comment on the requested budget without making specific recommendations, suggesting issues to be handled by NIH staff.
• Other Support pages of the PHS 398 will not be submitted with the application.
• Information on other research activities of the principal investigator and key personnel will be provided as part of the "Biographical Sketch." This information will include the goals of any active research and of research conducted during the previous three years, and will be used by reviewers in the assessment of investigators' qualifications to carry out the proposed project.
• Following peer review, information about Other Research Support will be requested by NIH from the applicant for applications being considered for award.
• Additional budget information will be requested only under special circumstances.
• Every attempt will be made to fund these grants at a level at or close to the recommended total direct costs. In unusual situations, individual Institutes and Centers may make some reductions to accommodate portfolio management policies.
• Submission, review, and award of competitive supplements will follow modular procedures.
• Modular grant awards are eligible for administrative supplements, in accordance with current policy.

If you would like more information on modular grants, or look at samples of modular forms pages, go to http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/modular/modular.htm

UPDATE ON MODULAR GRANT APPLICATIONS:
BE CAREFUL NOT TO TELL NIH TOO MUCH

After one year of full implementation, the National Institutes of Health has issued some clarifications about its modular grant application process. Under a modular grant application, budget requests for projects which will cost no more than $250,000 in any one year are made in "modules" of $25,000, without detailed budget itemization.

In a recent notice NIH provided these modifications and clarifications about modular grants:

Modifications to The Budget Narrative Justification Page: Investigators now must provide budget narrative for ALL personnel by position, role, and level of effort. This includes consultants and any "to be appointed" positions. Formerly, this information was required only for "key" personnel.

Consequences of Submission of Non-compliant Applications: As of September 1, 2000, applications not in compliance with the modular application instructions will be returned for revisions. Applications which are revised and resubmitted to NIH in a timely manner may remain in the intended review cycle.

An application will be considered NON-COMPLIANT if:

1. The requested direct cost budget is not in modules of $25,000 for all years of support for requests up to $250,000 per year.

2. A detailed itemized categorical budget is provided.

3. The Budget Narrative Justification page includes an itemized justification for one or more of the following: equipment, supplies, travel, other expenses, etc. but the number of modules requested in each year is the same, or the information is not intended to explain the request for a different number of modules in one or more years.

4. OTHER SUPPORT pages are supplied, in addition to or in the absence of the section in the Biographical Sketch identifying "Research Projects Ongoing or Completed During the Last Three Years."

5. The Biographical Sketch lists "Current and Pending Support" instead of or in addition to the required information.

Clarification to the Checklist Instructions: Applicant institutions should calculate the Facilities and Administrative(F&A, or indirect costs) costs using the current negotiated rate, less exclusions, for the initial budget period and all future budget periods. It is not necessary to list the exclusions on the Checklist nor anywhere in the application.

Note that you can now get into trouble by giving NIH too much information in a modular application, and especially by following the format that is otherwise required for non-modular grant applications. If your application will use the modular format, you should become familiar with the differences between modular and non-modular formats. More complete information about modular grants can be found at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/modular/modular.htm

Also note that any RFA or PA issued by NIH since December 1, 1998 that involves modular grant applications will state that fact. Any appropriate active PAs released before that time will also require submission in the modular format. If you're unsure if a modular format will be used in your application, call the contact person listed in the grant announcement

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