[Research] NIH and NSF Agency News

Thu Jan 22 15:05:42 PST 2026

*~~ Please disseminate this information with those researchers and research
administrators in your department who may find it noteworthy ~~*

*NIH News*

*Check Out the Latest How to Apply – NIH Application Guide*

NIH updated the How to Apply – Application Guide
<https://grants.nih.gov/grants-process/write-application/how-to-apply-application-guide>
in
December 2025 to reflect recent policy and procedure updates.

Find details on all of the major changes and revisions since the last major
release at Significant Changes
<https://grants.nih.gov/grants/how-to-apply-application-guide/forms-i/general/g.120-significant-changes.htm>.
Here are a few highlights of updated or new instructions:

   - Foreign justification attachments.
   - ORCID iD requirements.
   - Biographical Sketch Common Form.
   - NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement.
   - Current and Pending (Other) Support (CPOS) Common Form.

READ MORE
<https://grants.nih.gov/news-events/nih-extramural-nexus-news/2026/01/check-out-the-latest-how-to-apply-application-guide>

*NIH Releases Collaborative International Research Notice of Funding
Opportunity PA-26-002*

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) seeks to advance its mission by
maintaining strong, productive, and secure international research
collaborations in support of the NIH mission. The NIH Collaborative
International Research Project (Parent Announcement) supports international
research collaborations. This opportunity specifically implements an award
structure of prime domestic awards with independent foreign awards that are
linked to the prime. This structure provides NIH with oversight capacity
for international collaborations, and allows NIH to track international
funding, as identified in NOT-OD-25-104.

This funding opportunity is specifically designed for NIH to support funded
international collaborations between a domestic prime organization and
foreign organizations.

*This NOFO should not be used for foreign consultants, purchasing unique
equipment or supplies from foreign vendors, foreign collaborations that do
not involve NIH funding or any other foreign component that would not
result in a foreign subaward.*

All collaborative international research project applications must include
at least one international subproject. The proposed project must be related
to the programmatic interests of one or more of the participating NIH
Institutes, Centers and Offices (ICOs) based on their scientific missions.

READ MORE
<https://files.simpler.grants.gov/opportunities/3df028f3-f97a-4cdf-9359-1c6515d091ce/attachments/32095b88-f093-488f-aa71-1b39ce517067/PA-26-002-Full-Announcement.html>

*Message From Cayuse Support: *

*Guidance Regarding The February 5th NIH Submission Deadline*

Dear Proposals (S2S) Community,

As we approach the major *NIH R01 deadline* (for *new* proposals) on *Thursday,
February 5*, we want to highlight several important updates and
considerations to review in advance.
------------------------------

*1. SciENcv Mandate for Biosketch & Other Support*

Effective *January 25, 2026*, the NIH will require the use of the new *“Common
Forms”* for both:

   - Biographical Sketch
   - Current and Pending (Other) Support

These forms must be generated via *SciENcv*.
------------------------------

*2. SciENcv “False Positive” Warnings in Proposals S2S*

If you or your faculty are uploading forms generated from SciENcv, you may
notice a discrepancy between the NIH validation results in Cayuse versus
what you might see in eRA Commons:

   - *In Cayuse Proposals S2S:*
   You may see a *Warning* stating that the PDF does not meet certain
   criteria or cannot be verified.
   - *In eRA Commons:*
   The same file is accepted without warnings.

*Why is this happening?*
The NIH Validation API requires specific metadata tags to recognize the new
digital certification embedded in SciENcv files. Proposals S2S does not yet
transmit this specific metadata tag. As a safety measure, our Validation
Engine defaults to showing a warning to ensure you double-check the file.

*Action Required:*

   - *If you used SciENcv:*
   You can safely ignore this specific warning in Cayuse.
   - *If you did not use SciENcv:*
   Generate your forms using SciENcv, then re-upload into your S2S proposal.

*The Fix:*
We are actively developing a *“SciENcv Detector”* (targeted for *Q1 2026*)
that will automatically recognize these files and prevent any occurrences
of false warnings.
------------------------------

*3. Deadline Best Practices*

To ensure a smooth submission process on *Thursday, February 5th*:

   - *Submit Early:*
   We expect high traffic volumes on deadline day (2/5/26), especially
   between *2:00 PM and 8:00 PM ET*. Submitting earlier in the day, or
   better yet earlier in the week, reduces stress and allows time for
   corrections if the Agency rejects the application for any reason.
   - *Use the “NIH Validation” Integration:*
   In August, we released a direct integration that allows you to ping the
   NIH servers for validation errors before you submit. We strongly recommend
   running this heavily during the proposal creation process to catch issues
   early.

*Errors vs. Warnings:*

   - *Real-Time Validation Errors:*
   These must be fixed before submission. The only exception is when the
   opportunity instructions dictate something different. In these instances,
   the NOFOs should always win, and the error can be ignored.
   - *Final Validation Errors:*
   Must be fixed. These will prevent submission to Grants.gov.
   - *Warnings:*
   These do not prevent submission to Grants.gov. Review them, but do not
   let them hold up a valid proposal (especially the SciENcv warning mentioned
   above).

------------------------------

*4. Stability & Support*

Our engineering teams are conducting continuous monitoring of the
application to ensure stability and uptime during this peak period. If you
encounter any issues, please reach out to Cayuse Support
<https://info.cayuse.com/e/838203/2026-01-22/53jty2/1117853476/h/4pK8ydUgaNxm57qd4tYGMWPUSc_eaHFOBMO4ZjDKKCQ>for
immediate assistance.
------------------------------

Thank you for your continued partnership during this busy submission
period. We wish you the best with your submissions.

Warmly,

The Cayuse Proposals (S2S) Team

* * *

*REMINDER: **The proposal (all components in final form and ready for
submission) must be received in the office of Research and Economic
Development at least two (2) full business days before the sponsor’s
submission deadline. *

*NIH Requires Use of the eRA Prior Approval Module for the Submission of
ALL Prior Approval Requests*

*Effective 2/20/2026*, NIH will require that all prior approval requests be
initiated and submitted, by a Signing Official (i.e., an authorized
institutional official in RED) for the recipient organization, in the eRA
Commons Prior Approval Module for all grant and cooperative agreement
awards.

This new prior approval requirement will be incorporated into an upcoming
edition of the NIH Grants Policy Statement, section 8.1.3 Requests for
Prior Approval.

Below are the prior approval request types that are available in eRA
Commons for NIH applicants and recipients:

   - *Withdrawal Request*
   - *Carryover Request*
   - *Change of PD/PI on a Grant*
      - Note: Change of PD/PI requests for multi-component/multi-project
      awards must use the “Other Request” type.
   - *No Cost Extension*
   - *DMS Request *(See NOT-OD-24-176
   <https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-24-176.html>)
   - *Other* *Request*- Common types of "Other" Prior Approval requests may
   include the following:
      - Change in Scope or Objectives
      - Change in Key Personnel
      - Adding a new subaward (See NOT-OD-24-149
      <https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-24-149.html>)

For additional information, see NOT-OD-26-026
<http://url1157.cogr.edu/ls/click?upn=u001.HVdtiAQqH-2BBO4EFdv7-2BOcpSzGhIYUUUGrLFtGk5dut8m7FZyBjxc-2B2FeSGLDCrcd4-2BJfmQWzBbGj7l53PkntgIaj35t70dFceSOi5jTYQes-3Djki5_gTQ-2Fosa8BXVWK9Ez76aoTMcAjgoN7FmNUjlWya5RwHhEViYP6imW0meviGYNMtdQQmlMLjIxYcPddgkvDaHUkyB3hYDBqzovd-2BEpzuHSAcXgjVjmIwzPKtr2wsfSM60yaBQZSJW7ualjL4eoWgSFRbaSVkdUEnxJiXvd2mu-2FOYWzQj7zBUobzo0-2BYlGFWkd12tAeSvtnB7LN7PFRIbq-2F-2FJU8lzARKypQv-2BHVzDk6bSOGeOrooVCLncpAsRYjznNjciEwADxqZqtnh94p-2FuTxMBsYpHh4-2FD-2BM0Ot1FHGqVqEjBrR-2Fl-2ByR-2BQQ-2Fd7Mxfdewp0wuYQXrlVwN3gZuS71iicBmfF3v5ShkyYnCJUGmDvXlMnYay9VMZulR03nm91iC>
.

*NSF NEWS*

*NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (2024)
Supplement 2: Important updates to NSF’s Project Reporting System and
Public Access Repository*

Dear Colleague,

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is releasing a *Policy Notice
Supplement 2 <https://www.nsf.gov/policies/document/pappg24-1-supplement-2>*,
which provides updates to the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures
Guide (PAPPG), version 24-1. The PAPPG updates provided in this Policy
Notice supersede the relevant financial assistance policies provided in the
24-1 version of the PAPPG.

In addition, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is updating its
Project Reporting and Public Access Repository (PAR) systems to align
with NSF’s
Gold Standard Science Implementation Plan
<https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/NSF-GSS-Implementation-Plan-2025.pdf>
.

The following policy updates are covered in this supplement:

*Changes to the NSF Public Access Repository (NSF-PAR) include:*

   - Removing the 12-month publication embargo from all Portable Document
   Format (PDF) product types

   - Enabling input of Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAM) and Version of
   Record (VoR)

   - Making machine-readable versions of publications in Extensible Markup
   Language (XML) format available for download

   - Enabling PAR Identifiers (IDs) to behave as Persistent
   Identifiers (PID), similar to the Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs)

*Changes to Research.gov Project Reports include:*

   - Auto-populating PAR IDs as Persistent ID links from NSF-PAR into
   Project Reports for journal articles, conference papers, datasets, and
   workshop reports

   - Auto-populating Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) and Version of Record
   (VOR) metadata from NSF-PAR into Project Reports for journal articles,
   conference papers, and workshop reports.

   - Prohibiting direct dataset entry into project reports within
   Research.gov

*Questions?* If you have IT system-related questions, please contact the
NSF IT Service Desk at 1-800-381-1532 (7:00 AM - 9:00 PM ET; Monday -
Friday except federal holidays) or via rgov at nsf.gov. Policy-related
questions should be directed to policy at nsf.gov. Please check NSF.gov
<https://www.acpt.nsf.gov/policies/pappg> often for future updates.

Regards,

U.S. National Science Foundation

*Office Hours: Kuali Sponsored Programs*

Please join us for the Kuali Sponsored Programs Office Hours which meets on
the *first and third Thursday* of each month from 9 – 9:30 a.m. via the
following *new ZOOM link*:
https://ucr.zoom.us/j/91549349837?pwd=7acOMgGLk5bLVMXyHSPMSkHPTo0bhA.1&jst=2
.

*We hope to see you there!*

Should you be unable to attend a session, previously recorded meetings will
be available at Office Hours Google Sheet
<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Iz5XX21X1yW4b8QCbwMKj1ccuf-E0D1egvB4AbGNBhI/edit?usp=share_link>
.

*Research List-Serv*

Do you know of someone in your department who is not currently registered
to receive newsletters (such as this one) from the Research listserv, but
would like to?  If so, please forward their name and email address to
Cynthia Johnson at cwells at ucr.edu.
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