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Late Application Due to Recent Flooding

Reader question: My co-PI’s home was destroyed by the recent flooding in Tennessee. I understand the magnitude of his loss, but it’s causing enormous delays in our NIH grant application preparation. Because of the nature of the delay, can we submit our application after the due date?

Expert Comments:

According to NIH’s Office of Extramural Research (OER), the agency will handle applications submitted late due to a natural disaster or other emergency situation on a case-by-case basis.

NIH guidelines state that it will consider applications for late submission if the institution responsible for the research was affected by the flooding. “It can’t be that a PI’s personal home was flooded. It would have to be that the university was closed because of the flooding,” says Mary Karla, an analyst in NIH’s Division of Receipt and Referral. The agency also indicates that the submission delay should be no longer than the amount of time the institution was closed.

Late applications will be considered for submission, but not automatically accepted, OER states. They have been accepted for delays caused by:

• a large scale natural disaster
• severe PI illness or immediate family member illness
• death of a PI’s immediate family member.

If you submit a late application, you will have to include a cover letter with the application, detailing the reasons for the delay. NIH suggests including in the following:

• a description of the event’s timing that caused the delay
• nature of the event

Guide Notices are posted for past disasters, including the recent earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/search_results.htm?text_curr=disasters&Search.x;=34&Search.y;=9&scope;=not&year;=active&sort;=&text;_prev=).

Additional information on NIH’s policy regarding weather and other disasters can be found here: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/natural_disasters.htm.