As an applicant or a funded investigator, there’s a good chance you’ll need guidance on administrative or budget matters related to your grant or cooperative agreement. The question then becomes “Who are you going to call?” The answer is a grants management specialist (GMS).
Here we tell you in what instances you should contact a GMS and the best way to reach one.
GMS Role
To better understand what falls under a GMS’s purview, this definition from the NIH Glossary may help:
An NIH staff member who oversees the business and other non-programmatic aspects of one or more grants and/or cooperative agreements. These activities include, but are not limited to, evaluating grant applications for administrative content and compliance with statutes, regulations, and guidelines; negotiating grants; providing consultation and technical assistance to recipients; and administering grants after award.
Which GMS to Contact? It Depends
Depending on whether you are applying for a grant or have (or will receive) an award, the GMS you should contact differs.
Pre-Application Questions
If you are responding to a notice of funding opportunity in which NIAID is participating, direct your questions to the financial/grants management contact listed in Section VII. Agency Contacts.
Pre-Award to Provide Just-in-Time Information
Just-in-time (JIT) is information that NIAID requests after an application has been peer reviewed and is within a range of possible funding. Learn more in our Just-in-Time SOP and Respond to Pre-Award Requests (“Just-in-Time”).
Assuming you are negotiating with NIAID to possibly get an award, you can contact your assigned GMS; they are listed in your eRA Commons account. You can also refer to Grants Management Program—Contacts for a list of staff who can help arranged by regional group.
Note: Our grants management staff receive many calls and emails, particularly from July to September when an already heavy workload gets even heavier at the end of the fiscal year. To ensure you get a response when you need it, refer to Get a Speedy Response from Your Grants Management Specialist.
If you were contacted directly by a GMS, you can simply respond to their inquiry.
Post-Award
You should work with the GMS listed on your Notice of Award, or check the Contacts list if the assigned GMS has changed.
You must contact your GMS if you are:
- Delayed in completing paperwork that’s needed to issue your grant award.
- Making any change that requires prior approval, for example:
- Change of scope (refer to What Constitutes a Change in Scope?).
- Change in key personnel.
- Change in institution name (including Unique Entity ID or Entity Identification Number).
- Addition of a foreign component, including collaboration.
- Reducing principal investigator (PI) effort by 25 percent or more.
- Going from a single PI to a multiple PI award.
- Carryover of unobligated funds from a previous budget period to a subsequent budget period (only if automatic carryover is not authorized as a term and condition on your Notice of Award or if executing any carryover type will cause a change in scope).
- Revisions to an approved Data Management and Sharing plan.
- Any other actions identified in our Prior Approvals for Post-Award Grant Actions SOP and NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 8.1.2 Prior Approval Requirements.
We recommend you contact your assigned GMS if you have questions about your active grant’s budget or Notice of Award’s terms and conditions as well as if you need clarification on NIH or NIAID grant policies.
If/When a GMS Contacts You
In the event a GMS reaches out to you, for example, to request additional JIT information or clarify information reported in a Research Performance Progress Report, be sure to address any issues as soon as possible. If you will be out-of-the office, be sure to list an alternate point of contact at your organization who can assist in your absence.
Lastly…
If you’re wondering when to direct questions to your program officer rather than a GMS, we suggest reading When to Contact an NIAID Program Officer.