Special Budget Guidelines

To help streamline the proposal review and award process, NIH requires that proposals requesting $250,000 or less in direct costs per year be submitted as modular grants. Funds are requested in $25,000 increments, or modules, based on a locally-generated detailed budget that is not sent to the funding agency. Ordinarily the same number of modules should be requested in each year of the award period. Additional restrictions and guidelines are outlined at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/modular/modular_features.htm. Key points include:

  • The budget narrative must include all personnel by position, role and level of effort. This include consultants, personnel on any consortium/contractual arrangements and any “to be appointed” positions.
  • Any variation in the number of modules requested must be explained in the budget justification. Equipment costs should not be explained unless they result in a variation in the number of modules being requested.
  • The inclusion of a subaward does not preclude using the modular submission format. In such cases the proposal should include a statement of intent to establish a consortium between the participating institutions. The subawardee should provide the PI sufficiently detailed (non-modular) budget information so that the cost of the consortium agreement (which includes the subawardee’s associated F&A costs) can be estimated to the nearest $1,000.

Please note that SPA and the CTO require a detailed budget to be prepared for modular grants, even though a detailed budget is not required by NIH, in order to confirm that F&A cost calculations are correct.

For a full description of which grants are eligible for the modular format, with instructions on how to complete a modular application, please refer to: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/modular/modular.htm

NIH Institutional Training Grants have unique budget instructions and considerations. When preparing a training grant, you must consider the number of predoctoral students and postdocs, their level of experience (in relation to the dollar amount NIH sets forth for stipends), tuition and fees, travel and training related expenses. Applicants should pay special attention to the specific instructions for Institutional Training Grant Applications using the SF424 (R+R) Application.

For a full description of NIH Training Grants, with instructions, please refer to: https://researchtraining.nih.gov/programs/training-grants.

For unsolicited (i.e., not responding to a specific RFA or other announcement) NIH grant applications requesting $500,000 or more in direct costs (excluding consortium and F&A costs) in any individual grant year, prior approval to submit the application from NIH is required to be included as part of the application submission. This approval must be obtained six weeks before submission of the application. Your SPA Project Officer can assist you with the details on how to request this approval. Additional information can be found in the latest version of the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

Clinical research requires special budgetary considerations. A full discussion of budgeting for clinical research can be found in Preparing for a Study: Project Feasibility and Study Documents: Budgets (Chapter IV, Section E) in the Clinical Research Handbook.