The National Institutes of Health Guide for Grants and Contracts published December 15, 1998 (www.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not98-178.html) provides guidelines to implement its use of the Modular Grant Application and Award. In modular grant applications, total direct costs not exceeding $250,000 per year will be requested in $25,000 increments instead of being compiled from detailed and separate budget categories. Visit the NIH Modular Grants page on the World Wide Web for detailed information: www.nih.gov/grants/funding/modular/modular.htm. The implementation of modular application, review and award procedures is as follows: 

• Beginning with April 1999 receipt dates, modular grant applications will be implemented for Small Business Technology Transfer grants, Phase I (R41), and Small Business Innovation Research grants, Phase I (R43).

• Beginning with the May 25, 1999 receipt date, modular grant applications will be implemented for Academic Research Enhancement Awards (R15).

• Beginning with the June 1, 1999 receipt date, modular application, review, and award procedures will apply to all competing individual research project grants (R01), small grants (R03), and exploratory/developmental grants (R21).

    NIH and Institute/Center guidelines and Program Announcements soliciting applications involving these grant mechanisms are being revised to reflect the new modular grant format. Unsolicited, investigator-initiated applications requesting more than $250,000 in any year and applications for grant activities not specified above will be required to follow the traditional application instructions and applicable NIH policies.

    Requests for Applications (RFAs) soliciting applications of $250,000 total direct costs or less will also follow the modular grant process. RFAs soliciting applications greater than $250,000 may be modular, at the discretion of the issuing Institute/Center(s), as specified in the published RFA.

IU IMPLEMENTATION

Proposals requesting modular grants will require a minimal, internal budget in order to:

• Calculate the Facilities & Administrative costs (F&A, formerly called indirect costs)
• Meet Cost Accounting Standards requirements
• Help the Principal Investigator plan and manage the project
• Identify cost share

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BUDGET

A simplified budget, including the following categories, should be submitted with the proposal and route sheet for internal, university approval. Identify all cost share in the budget.

(1) Identify and justify any item restricted by OMB A-21 (E.g. postage for mailing surveys; personal computer for laboratory use; clerical support for entering large amounts of data or making travel arrangements for large conferences).

    In planning your budget needs, keep in mind that modular grants do not provide incremental increases for future years. To accommodate this, it is recommended to estimate all years proposed with inflationary increases and calculate the average. Request the average amount rounded up to the nearest module. Budget with anticipation of having carry forward in the early years to cover inflationary costs in the later years of the project.

    Modular budgets should normally request the same amount for each year. Increases or decreases in the modules are allowed if necessitated by substantial changes in project activities and the changes are well justified in the budget narrative. For example, purchase of major equipment in the first year may justify a higher overall budget in the first, but not in succeeding years.

    Another important change in modular grants concerns information collected in the Biographical Sketch. It is important to read the NIH instructions carefully when preparing your proposal under this new NIH policy.

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