Checking the Status of Your Application

After submission, you may find out about the receipt and assignment of your application by logging onto your NIH eRA Commons  account and viewing your application . The status module  is the interface in eRA Commons that allows Project Directors/Principal Investigators (PD/PIs) and Signing Officials (SOs) to track the status of grant applications through the submission process, view all applications as well as notice of awards and other key documents, and perform several post-submission and post-award transactions. The assignment of your application to a specific Institute or Center usually takes about a week to appear in the Commons, but the assignment to your specific program officer will take longer, and an interim program officer assignment may appear in the Commons for some time. Watch for email notifications. Email notices are sent to notify the PI and/or SO to check the eRA Commons for a change in status.

NIH staff will assign your application to a review group and to one or more Institutes/Centers (ICs) for funding consideration. The assignment of your application to a specific review committee and scientific review officer (SRO) may also take about a month or so to appear in the Commons. It is advisable to wait until you see an SRO assigned in the Commons to find out where your application has been assigned for review. The assignment and the contact information for the SRO will be reflected in the Status. If you have a question about review assignment, you can contact the SRO reflected in Status or the Peer Review Contact listed under Section VII: Agency Contacts of a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). Before the review takes place, any questions about the review process should be directed to the SRO, whose contact details are reflected in Status.

Finding Your Score

Usually within one week of the review committee (study section) meeting any available score and percentile information can be found in the Application Information section of the Status Screen  (see: Scoring System and Procedure ). Possible outcomes include:

• Application receives numerical scores for each of (at least) five criteria, overall impact score and percentile;
• Application receives numerical scores for each of (at least) five criteria, overall impact score and no percentile (not all applications receive a percentile).
• Application not discussed (ND) receive individual criterion scores but do not receive a numerical impact score.(receives reviewer’s individual critiques); or
• Application not recommended for further consideration (NRFC): application cannot receive funding, though a resubmission is possible. Given the serious concerns of an NRFC vote, such a resubmission may not be advisable. It is recommended you discuss with program staff. NRFC occurs in the following scenarios:
  • Application lacks significant and substantial merit; or,
  • Application presents serious ethical problems in the protection of human subjects from research risks, in the use of vertebrate animals, biohazards, and/or select agents.

PIs whose applications were scored as competitive may receive a request to send additional administrative information to the funding IC. Please note that only a portion of the applications in this group will eventually be funded and the request for this just-in-time information  is NOT a guarantee that your application has been selected for funding.

Summary Statement

Typically, within four to six weeks of the peer review committee meeting, the summary statement will be available on the eRA web page . The SRO prepares the summary statement which contains:

• Overall resume and summary of review discussion (if discussed);
• Written critiques by the assigned reviewers, including scores for the five main review criteria;
• Overall Impact score and percentile (if discussed; also not all applications receive a percentile);
• Study Section recommendations;
• Budget recommendations; and,
• Administrative notes of special consideration.

The summary statement becomes the official IC record of the recommendations made by the peer review committee. Once the summary statement is available, you may contact your program officer (listed on the summary statement) if you have any questions.