How to Submit
An NIH Challenge Grant Application (RC1)

A. Get the tools you need.

1. Staff support in your department, as necessary
   
2. Access to a computer in your department
   
3. Access to Adobe Acrobat Professional 9.0 or other program that converts files to PDF format.
   
4. The guidelines at RFA-OD-09-003
   
5. An account on the NIH eRA Commons. If you don’t have one, call the Grants Management Office at 6703
   

B. Prepare for submission

6. Immediately notify the Grants Management Office (GMO) at 6703 or Dr. H. K Rucker at 6288 that you plan to apply to the Challenge Grant program.
   
7. GMO will explain the submission process; download the Adobe application form to your submission folder on the Carpenter drive, and give you access to the folder.
   
8. If your project involves an investigator at another school, send your collaborator a Letter of Intent to Collaborate and follow the guidelines at How to Submit an Application with a Collaborator.
   
9. Assemble Biographical Sketches for all key personnel. 2 pages each, ≤10 publications each

C. Compute and justify the budget and send it to GMO by April 13

10. Prepare a budget on the form "Grants.gov budget form in Excel". Two years only, up to $500,000/year in direct + F & A costs. This means the direct cost budget should be about $341,000/year. All applications must include Meharry’s full F & A costs.
    
11. Write a budget justification
    
12. Send the budget and justification to GMO by Monday, April 13.

D. Write the application in Word or another word processing program

13. Project Summary/Abstract
14. Specific Aims, 1 page
15. Research Design and Methods, 12 pages
16. Biographical Sketches, 2 pages each, ≤10 publications each
17. Regulatory and other sections as appropriate
18. No Background and Significance
19. No Preliminary Studies

E. Convert the application to PDF

20. Create separate PDF files for the Project Summary/Abstract, the Specific Aims, The Research Design and Methods
    
21. Create a separate PDF file for each Biographical Sketch

F. Load the PDF files into the application form on the Carpenter drive by April 20