Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (NRSA)

For all December 8, 2009, NRSA applications, deadline to email the application to Graduate Division is December 1, at 5pm. NRSA diversity applications due on December 13, 2009, will be due to Graduate Division by December 6, at 5pm.

Authority

Associate Dean M. Belinda Tucker serves as the institutional official for all pre- and postdoctoral fellowship applications and related paperwork. The Office of Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholar Services provides administrative oversight and assists with the review and eventual activation of all individual NRSAs. Both Associate Dean Tucker's office and Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholar Services staff are located at 1237 Murphy Hall. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8am - 5pm.

Application Instructions

Effective with the August 8, 2009 submission date, all grant applications for the Individual National Research Service Award (NRSA) Fellowships (F-series) will require electronic submission through Grants.gov to eRA Commons. These include:

F30 (dual doctoral degree fellowships)
F31 (predoctoral fellowships)
F32 (postdoctoral fellowships)
F33 (senior fellowships)

For a complete listing of Fellowship Program Announcements (PAs), see the F-Kiosk.

National Research Service Award (NRSA) Electronic Application Submission Process (PDF-722KB)
The Graduate Division has created a short synopsis of the new electronic submission process with information relevant to applicants at UCLA. The instructions and screen shots of a sample application are meant to help answer commonly asked questions and to avoid frequent errors that may occur. Please do not solely rely on the information provided on this site. Please download entire SF424 (R&R) Individual Fellowship Application Guide for NIH and AHRQ (PDF-2,577KB) for detailed instructions.

At anytime during the application process, you can contact the NIH helpdesk for assistance. Jenny Tang at jtang@gdnet.ucla.edu or (310) 206-9791, and Lisa Itagaki at litagaki@gdnet.ucla.edu or (310) 825-0636 in the Office of Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholar Services are also available to assist you.

NIH eRA Commons and User Registration

The eRA commons is NIH's infrastructure for conducting interactive electronic transactions for the receipt, review, award, monitoring and administration of NIH grant awards to organizations and investigators (research scientists) worldwide.

Fellows must have an NIH eRA Commons User ID to apply. If you do not have a Commons User ID or do not know your User ID, please contact Jenny Tang or Lisa Itagaki immediately to have User ID created. Please put "eRA Commons Account" in the subject line and provide full name and email address to where the password should be sent.

Download Application

Go to Grants.gov and Locate your specific application by placing your PA number in the "Funding Opportunity Number" field. After you click the download package button the following page will allow you to save the application to your local computer or shared device.

Application Submission Process

Email completed application to uclafellow@gdnet.ucla.edu
You must submit your completed application to the Graduate Division for review at least five (5) working days before the appropriate deadlines to the following e-mail address: uclafellow@gdnet.ucla.edu. If your application is a large size, and cannot be submitted via email, please drop off a CD to Office of Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholars, 1237 Murphy Hall by 5pm on July 31.
As a last step prior to emailing application to Graduate Division, please click "check package for errors" button on top right hand corner of face page. This will help avoid any last minute errors that could potentially delay your submission.
Graduate Division staff will review your proposal package for errors. Please check your email regularly as you will be contacted immediately if there is an error. Once all errors are corrected, Associate Dean M. Belinda Tucker will submit your application on Grants.gov to the NIH. Dean Tucker is the only institutional signing official with authority to submit NIH individual fellowships through Grants.gov for UCLA students and postdoctoral scholars.
Once your submission is accepted via Grants.gov, your application moves into the eRA Commons where it will be validated for NIH business rules and compiled into a single PDF file. At this point the two-day viewing window begins.

Be sure to carefully proofread your application before submitting it to Graduate Division. Once applications are received, they are considered "ready for submission." Do not submit draft applications to Graduate Division for review.

Two-day Viewing Window

The NIH eRA Commons two-day viewing window should be used to:

Review errors and warnings.
Correct applications that have errors.
Correct applications that have critical warnings that could cause the application to be rejected by the Center for Scientific Review.
View compiled application to ensure integrity of the PDF conversion.

The NIH eRA Commons two-day viewing window should not be used to:

Correct typographical errors.
Correct non-critical warnings from validations.
Make corrections based on input from sponsors and/or mentors

Applications with Errors:
If an application has errors, it will not be accepted by NIH until the errors are corrected.

Review the errors in the NIH eRA Commons
Make the necessary changes
E-mail the application back to uclafellow@gdnet.ucla.edu
Include an explanation of the errors that have been corrected
Only make changes to the application to address the errors

Applications with Critical Warnings:
Most warnings are simply that, warnings. If you are unsure whether warnings need to be corrected, consult with Lisa Itagaki or Jenny Tang. If it is determined that the warnings should be address and a changed/corrected application submitted:

Change the application type to "Changed/Corrected"
Enter the NIH Accession Number (AN:XXXXXXX) in Field #4 (Federal Identifier).
Make the necessary changes.
E-mail the application back to uclafellow@gdnet.ucla.edu
Include an explanation of the errors that have been corrected
Only make changes to the application to address the warnings

Applications with PDF Compilation Issues:
If the PDF compilation results in the format of the application being compromised, you may submit a changed/corrected application. Follow the same steps as for "warnings" above.

If you need to submit a changed/corrected application after the deadline, you must include a cover letter stating why the application is late. In most cases, submitting a changed/corrected application after the deadline, but within the two-day window, will not result in the application being rejected.

Awarding and Activation

The Office of Contracts & Grants Administration is notified via an electronic correspondence from NIH of the grant recipient and conditions of award. If an individual fellowship, the notification is forwarded to the Office of Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholar Services at 1237 Murphy Hall, where a file is established and action is taken to appropriate the funds.

In order for the Graduate Division to take action in establishing the award at UCLA, the recipient needs to complete the "Individual Fellowship Activation Notice." The activation notice should be completed in its entirety, including faculty sponsor and awardee signatures, and submitted to the Office of Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholar Services to obtain the institutional business official's signature. A copy is kept on file and the original is returned to the awardee for forwarding to the NIH granting agency.

The activation notice asks for the full address where checks should be mailed to. At UCLA that address is:

      UCLA Remittance Center
      Box 951432, 1125 Murphy Hall
      405 Hilgard Avenue
      Los Angeles, CA 90095-1432

Additionally, postdoctoral awardees are required to complete the "NRSA Payback Agreement." A copy of the payback agreement should be provided in addition to the original activation notice.

The Office of Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholar Services forwards the notification with the departmental account and fellowship award information to Central Data Management (CDMT) in the Office of Contracts & Grants. Once established in the UCLA InfoEd System, the award notice is then forwarded to the Office of Extramural Fund Management (EFM), which proceeds to establish a departmental fund and appropriate the award. EFM will notify the designated departmental fund manager upon completion. This entire process can take 5-7 business days.

The sponsoring department must then notify the Office of Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholar Services of the new award by submitting the Graduate Division Fellowship Award Transmittal (Form 10) with award disbursement details.

Progress Reports

An annual progress report (PHS 416-9) serves as the basis for determining whether to fund each year (after the initial year) of recommended support under a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Fellowship. The report must include information related to the current year's progress as well as plans for the coming year. For NIH fellowships, the progress report is due 2 months before the beginning date of the next budget period.

It is the responsibility of the fellow to insure their email address is current in the eRA commons. This is the primary means of contact with the NIH.

Termination Notices

Upon completion or early termination of an individual fellowship or an institutional traineeship award, a NRSA Termination Notice must be completed and filed with the agency. Before submission, the sponsoring department must submit it to the Office of Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholar Services to verify reported amounts and obtain the business official's signature. The original notice is returned to the department for further action.

NIH Grants Policy

The National Institutes of Health Grants Policy Statement provides, in a single document, the policy requirements that serve as the terms and conditions of NIH grant awards.