Introduction to the Funding Process: A Primer

Introduction

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 institutes in the National Institutes of Health. NIMH funds grants for both individual research projects, and research training/research career development. A variety of research awards and research training/career development grants are available (Grant Types).

Program Staff

NIMH, like other NIH institutes, has a staff of scientist-administrators with expertise in diverse scientific areas. Their job is to help the Institute meet its public health goals by fostering the development of research and training grants in specific programmatic areas. Program staff are here to provide you with help in developing your application: discussing your research idea with program staff can be a helpful step in competing successfully for a grant! See the page entitled Program Descriptions/Program Staff for a list of program staff and the various program areas they cover.

Review Staff

Your application is reviewed by scientists from other universities or similar institutions. The peer review process is organized and administered by "scientific review administrators" (SRAs) who convene review committees. You may find it necessary or useful to contact the SRAs for information about the review of your application.

Grants Management Staff

Finally, grants management specialists are primarily responsible for the administrative and budgetary aspects of your grant, particularly when an award is going to be made or has been made. The Grant Specialists are your resource for detailed budgetary and administration questions.

This section is designed to give you an introduction to the NIMH/NIH grant application process. The links under the "Applying for a Grant" heading contain more comprehensive descriptions about all phases of this process. We also encourage you to browse the entire section of NIMH Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), which contains a great deal of basic information.

Grant Application Process

Applying for a research grant is an involved and demanding process. In brief, here is an overview of the application and grant process; each of these sections is expanded upon below:

1. Conceiving and developing an idea
2. Writing and submitting your application
3. The application review process
4. Post-review
5. Awarding of the grant
6. Submitting yearly progress reports

Again, LET US EMPHASIZE THAT PROGRAM STAFF ARE YOUR MOST IMPORTANT RESOURCE IN THE INITIAL STAGES OF THIS PROCESS. In particular, it is most helpful to contact program staff when you are first developing your idea to get some initial feedback as to whether your work would be of interest to the Institute and to discuss which of the various kinds of grant mechanisms would be most appropriate for you.