Important information related to NIH proposal submissions and award administration:
- When completing your NIH Other Support forms, please remember to include “all resources made available to a researcher in support of and/or related to all of their research endeavors, regardless of whether or not they have monetary value and regardless of whether they are based at the institution the researcher identifies for the current grant. This includes resource and/or financial support from all foreign and domestic entities, including but not limited to, financial support for laboratory personnel, and provision of high-value materials that are not freely available (e.g., biologics, chemical, model systems, technology, etc.)" (emphasis added). This questionnaire has been updated to help you think through all of the categories of information you now need to include on your NIH Other Support form. Your college research office may not know that you’ve been provided support at another institution, thus it is incumbent upon you to make sure this information is included on your NIH forms. Additional guidance regarding the NIH Other Support form can be found here.
- Please also note that all “foreign components” require NIH’s prior approval. NIH’s definition of “foreign component” includes, among other things, “collaborations with investigators at a foreign site anticipated to result in co-authorship," “use of facilities or instrumentation at a foreign site,“ and “receipt of financial support or resources from a foreign entity.”
- NIH recently provided additional guidance regarding personnel who are working remotely in their home countries until travel restrictions are lifted:
If a post-doc on an active NIH grant must return home to a foreign country and work remotely due to COVID-19, must this be reported to NIH as a foreign component? Yes, this would qualify as a foreign component as per the NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 1.2- Definition of Terms, which defines a foreign component as “the performance of any significant scientific element or segment of a project outside of the United States, either by the recipient or by a researcher employed by a foreign organization, whether or not grant funds are expended.”
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact John Hanold (Office of Sponsored Programs, jhh6@psu.edu) or Sheila Vrana (College of Medicine Office of Research Affairs, svrana@psu.edu).