ORA Deadline Reminders

Remember that the ORA deadline receipt of all grant applications is three business days prior to the application deadline.

Due to half-days on December 24 and December 31, for applications due January 1, the ORA deadline is no later than close of business on Tuesday, December 23.

The actual deadline for federal programs is the next business day, so a February 1 due date that falls on a Saturday is actually due February 3rd. Three business days before that deadline means that proposals are due in ORA no later than close of business on Tuesday, January 28th for a February 1 deadline.

March 1 also falls on a Saturday, so proposals are due in ORA no later than close of business on Tuesday, February 25th for a March 1 deadline.

Please note these deadlines on your calendar.

Electronic Grant Submission Policy

All sponsored research applications submitted electronically to agencies that require the Office of Research Administration (ORA) to either upload the proposal or to electronically authorize the submission must adhere to the following procedures:

Investigators should first follow normal procedures for routing a paper copy with an Information Sheet through their departments. Under the School of Medicine’s recently implemented deadline policy, this routed hard copy must arrive at ORA at least three full business days prior to the deadline.

However, electronic proposals require an extra step. If ORA is required to upload the proposal, the Investigator must ensure that a CD containing the full proposal in the appropriate format is submitted to ORA at the same time the paper copy arrives at ORA. If ORA is required to authorize the proposal, the PI must ensure the proposal at the sponsor's website is complete at the time ORA receives the paper version.

This requirement is needed because too often electronic proposals have been incomplete until minutes before a deadline, and in some cases subsequent technological problems have prevented ORA from submitting/authorizing complete and adequately reviewed proposals in time to meet the deadline.

NIH Font Requirements

The NIH specifies that all application forms use a font of 10 points or larger (at least 10/72 of an inch tall) and that there should be no more than 6 lines of type in a vertical inch. The type density must be no more than 15 characters and spaces per inch. Helvetica or Arial 12-point are suggested by NIH.

These guidelines are strict; at least one proposal from a Hopkins faculty member has been bounced back for not meeting these formatting requirements.

The complete NIH Guide announcement regarding formatting appears here: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-01-037.html. Frequently Asked Questions on formatting appear here: http://www.format.nih.gov If you have any questions regarding formatting your NIH grant application, you may send an email to: format@mail.nih.gov.

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