Form 5A Components of an Application to NIH or Other PHS Agencie

2.5 Components of an Application to NIH or Other PHS Agencies

The SF424 (R&R) form set is comprised of a number of components, each listed in the table below as a separate “document.” In addition to these components, NIH and other PHS agencies applicants will also complete supplemental components listed as “PHS 398” components in the table below.

Table 2.5-1. Components of an NIH or Other PHS Agencies Application

document	required	optional	instructions
SF424 (R&R) Cover	x		Section 4.2
SF424 (R&R) Project/Performance Site Locations	x		Section 4.3
SF424 (R&R) Other Project Information	x		Section 4.4
SF424 (R&R) Senior / Key Person Profile(s)	x		Section 4.5
SF424 (R&R) Budget (Use when required or allowed by the FOA)	*		Section 4.7
SF424 (R&R) Subaward Budget Attachment Form (Use when required or allowed by the FOA)		x	Section 4.8
PHS 398 Cover Page Supplement	x		Section 5.3
PHS 398 Modular Budget (Use when required or allowed by the FOA)	*		Section 5.4
PHS 398 Research Plan (Not required for Career Development Award (K) or Institutional Training Award (T) applications)	x		Section 5.5
PHS 398 Career Development Award Supplemental Form (Required only for Career Development Award (K) applications)	x		Section 7.5
PHS 398 Research Training Program Plan (Required only for Institutional Training Award (T) applications)	x		Section 8.7
PHS 398 Training Budget (Use when required or allowed by the FOA)	*		Section 8.5
PHS 398 Training Subaward Budget Attachment (Use when required or allowed by the FOA)		*	Section 8.6

* The application forms package associated with most NIH research grant funding opportunities includes two optional budget components: (1) SF424 (R&R) Budget and (2) PHS 398 Modular Budget. NIH application submissions must include either the SF424 (R&R) Budget Component or the PHS 398 Modular Budget Component, but never both. (Note AHRQ does not accept modular budgets.) Unless otherwise stated in a funding announcement, an application must always be submitted with a budget component. For those programs where either form is a possibility, the budget forms will be considered “optional” by the Grants.gov package. Nonetheless, it is still required that you select and submit one of these budget forms for an application to be accepted by the NIH.

To determine which budget component to use for NIH applications, consult the modular budget guidelines found in Section 5.4. Additional guidance may also be provided in the specific funding opportunity announcement.

Some funding opportunities will explicitly state the use of only one of the budget components. In this case, the application package will only include the accepted budget form which will appear in the list of “mandatory” forms (not in the optional list).

All required and optional forms for electronic submission listed above are available through Grants.gov and should be downloaded from the FOA being applied to. Do not use any forms or format pages from other sources; these may include extraneous headers/footers or other information that could interfere with the electronic application process.