Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (NRSA)
for Individual Predoctoral (F31) & Postdoctoral (F32) Fellows

Authority

Associate Dean M. Belinda Tucker serves as the institutional official for all pre- and postdoctoral fellowship applications and related paperwork. The Office of Graduate Student Support and Postdoctoral Services provides administrative oversight and assists with the review and eventual activation of all individual NRSAs. All documents requiring Associate Dean Tucker's signature should be submitted to the Office of Graduate Student Support and Postdoctoral Services, located in 1228 Murphy Hall.

NIH eRA Commons

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.

Applicants who receive a request from the NIH to have a commons account created for them should contact Paolo Daniele at pdaniele@gdnet.ucla.edu. Please put "eRA Commons Account" in the subject line and provide full name and email address to where the password should be sent.

Application

All UCLA F31 & F32 grant applications require the institutional official’s signature. Please deliver the complete application to the Office of Graduate Student Support & Postdoctoral Services at least three business days before the application deadline. Applicants will be notified once the signature is obtained; they must pick up the signed application. The Graduate Division does not mail applications to the NIH.

Please note that before the latter is obtained, we need all of the following:

• Complete application + one copy
• Signatures by applicant and sponsor
• Information attesting to human/animal research subject approval. Visit the Office for the Protection of Research Subjects (OPRS) website for an application. Although this is not required by NIH, it is required by the Graduate Division. If approval by OPRS is pending, submit either
  • Copy of submitted Institutional Review Board (IRB) application, or
  • Copy of IRB's acknowledgment of receipt of your application
  • Write "Pending" in box 9b or 10b, as applicable

Application forms are available on line in MS Word and Adobe PDF formats from NIH. All applicants need to complete the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Fellowship Application (PHS 416-1). In addition, postdoctoral scholars should view the Program Announcement for Individual Postdoctoral Fellows (F32) and predoctoral scholars should view the Program Announcement for Individual Predoctoral Fellows (F31), Program Announcement for Individual Predoctoral Fellowships to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (F31), or the Program Announcement for Individual Predoctoral Fellows in Nursing Research (F31).

Information about the official sponsoring agency, the Entity Identification No. and the DUNS (Dun & Bradstreet) No. (for boxes 11b and 12) can be found at the UCLA Contracts and Grants website. Note: be sure to use the NIH Entity Identification Number and not the IRS Federal Employer Identification Number.

Information about the Official in Business Office should be listed as follows:

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 Graduate Student Support Office at 1228 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 Graduate Student Support Office 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.

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 Graduate Student Support Office 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.

The sponsoring department must then notify the Graduate Student Support Office/Office of Postdoctoral 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.

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 Graduate Student Support Office 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.