Learn about when NIH will accept late applications or allow you to send application materials after you submit.

Late Applications

With only a few exceptions, NIH does not accept late applications. However, within a two-week window after an application due date, NIH may consider accepting a late application if you have a valid reason for submitting late.

Provide a valid reason in the cover letter submitted with your late application. Valid reasons include

Natural Disaster

NIH issues special Guide notices when a natural disaster occurs. In this circumstance, your delay should not exceed the duration of time your organization is closed, and you'll have to explain the specific reasons for the delay in your cover letter.

Personal Tragedy

In the event of a personal tragedy, e.g., you or an immediate family member suffer sudden severe illness, you will need to include an explanation in your cover letter.

Issues With Federal Computer Systems

Follow the NIH Office of Extramural Research’s guidance on Dealing With System Issues and take the following actions:

• Go to Need Help? to find the appropriate Help Desk and contact information. Get in touch with the appropriate Help Desk immediately, over the phone and in writing.
• Maintain a record of the steps you take to resolve the problem.
• Once the issue is resolved, make note of it in your application’s cover letter. Include the confirmed system issues, Help Desk ticket numbers, and the steps taken to resolve the issues.

Notifying your program officer or scientific review officer is not a substitute for contacting the appropriate Help Desk.

Service on an NIH Advisory Panel

A perk to serving on an NIH panel is that you may be eligible to submit your application late. Full-time, temporary, or ad hoc service during the two months before or two months after an application due date may be an acceptable reason for late submission. For details, see Late Applications. 

If you are eligible and choose to take advantage of this policy, you must explain the nature and period of your service in your cover letter.

You may also qualify for continuous submission, which allows you to apply at any time for R01, R21, and R34 grants. For more information, see Continuous Submission.

Neither CSR nor NIAID may give permission in advance for a late submission. NIAID cannot guarantee that we will accept a late application.

If You Have to Submit Late, Keep Us In the Loop

We advise you to submit your application well ahead of its due date, in case you run into technical difficulties or any of the other problems noted above.

NIH will consider accepting your late application within a two-week window of the application due date if there is a valid reason. The only time NIH will not consider accepting a late application is when a request for applications (RFA) states in the Application Due Date field "No late applications will be accepted for this funding opportunity announcement."

The decision to accept a late application ultimately lies with NIH Division of Receipt and Referral in the Center for Scientific Review (CSR).

No one can give you advance permission for a late submission, but if you have a valid reason, provide an explanation in the cover letter submitted with your late application.

For the record, CSR has rejected the following reasons for late submission:

• Heavy teaching burdens
• Ongoing illnesses
• Laboratory relocations.
• Delays caused by an institution's business office.

For more information, read NIH Submitting Changed/Corrected Applications.

Allowable Post-Submission Materials

After you apply and before peer review, NIH allows you to send certain additional materials, mostly nonscientific items and those resulting from unforeseen events. NIH prohibits sending information that could be used to circumvent page limits. Post-submission materials should not be used to correct oversights or errors you find after you submit your application.

NIH allows you to send only the following post-submission materials:

• For all applications
  • Revised budget pages (e.g., due to new funding or institutional acquisition of equipment)
  • Biographical sketches (e.g., due to the hiring, replacement, or loss of an investigator)
  • Letters of support or collaboration due to the hiring, replacement, or loss of an investigator
  • Adjustments resulting from natural disasters (e.g., loss of an animal colony)
  • Adjustments resulting from change of institution
  • News of professional promotion or positive tenure decision for any program director/principal investigator (PD/PI) or Senior/Key Personnel
  • Approval by the NIH Stem Cell Registry of a human embryonic cell line after application submission (see NOT-OD-12-111)
  • Videos that demonstrate devices and experimental data with a temporal element or demonstrate movement or change (see NOT-OD-12-141)
  • Other post-submission materials specified in the funding opportunity announcement (FOA)
  • News of an article accepted for publication after application submission, which must include only:
    • List of authors and institutional affiliations
    • Title of the article
    • Journal or citation (if available)
  • Citations to issued patents
• For institutional training and training-related grant applications
  • A trainee’s or former trainee’s graduation, employment, promotion, funding, or publications 
  • A faculty member's promotion, funding, or publications
  • Addition or removal of a faculty member involved in the training program
• For individual fellowship (F) and career development award (K) grant applications
  • News of sponsor/mentor funding (limited to the project title, funding source, a brief description of Specific Aims, and relevance to the application under review) 
  • News of change in mentor(s) or other Senior/Key Personnel listed in the original application
• For conference grant applications (R13, U13)
  • One-page explanation of all speakers who accepted invitations to participate in the proposed conference after the application was submitted
  • One-page explanation of all speakers who declined invitations to participate after the application was submitted
  • Alternatively the PD/PI may submit a one-page explanation for each plenary slot on the agenda

Applications submitted in response to requests for applications (RFAs) should use the bulleted list above to determine what post-submission materials are allowed. 

Guidelines for Sending Post-Submission Materials

All post-submission materials must conform to NIH policies on font size, margins, and paper size. For details, see the Application Instructions for your grant type. 

Your authorized organizational representative (AOR) must concur with sending post-submission materials and send either his or her concurrence to you or the materials directly to your scientific review officer (SRO). If you receive your AOR’s concurrence, forward the materials and concurrence to your SRO. A communication from you copying your AOR is not acceptable.

You or your AOR must submit post-submission materials as a PDF attachment to your SRO at least 30 calendar days before the peer review meeting, unless otherwise stated in the FOA. Your SRO uploads acceptable materials into the official electronic grant file maintained in the eRA Commons.

For more information, see Post-Submission Application Materials.