Per NOT-OD-20-122, titled Guidance for Applicants Preparing Applications for the Fall 2020 Due Dates During the COVID-19 Pandemic, NIH has provided guidance for applicants submitting applications beginning on the September 25, 2020 due date.

Starting on this date, NIH grant applications should NOT include contingency plans that would outline steps needed to recover from temporary, emergency situations, or institutional return-to-the-workplace plans, resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Contingency plans will not be considered in peer review but, if needed, COVID-19 contingency plans will be requested and carefully considered by NIH staff before funding.

Reviewers will continue to receive instruction to assume that temporary, emergency problems arising from the COVID-19 pandemic will be resolved and complications related to COVID-19 should not affect their scores. Reviewers will be instructed to disregard situations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, e.g., temporary declines in productivity, availability of key personnel, proposed patient populations, animal facility shutdowns, etc.

NIH is committed to supporting the biomedical research enterprise as the nation implements the President's Guidelines for Re-Opening America Again.

NIH Review Policy Officer, Sally Amero, PhD has requested all inquiries regarding this announcement be directed to her at ReviewPolicyOfficer@mail.nih.gov.