1 Comments
NIH has your back. We have a standing natural disaster policy that can protect you in the event a natural disaster such as a hurricane or blizzard closes your institution close to an application due date. Periodically we issue reminder notices, but even if we don’t issue a notice, the policy is still there to protect you from missing your deadline.
If your institution closes due to an emergency, keeping you from being able to get your application in on time, document the reason in the cover letter of your application. Keep in mind that the delay in the submission should not exceed the time period of your institution’s closure. Reasons for late applications are reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and no one at NIH can grant permission in advance for a late application.
Hurricanes, Blizzards, Tornadoes, etc. may certainly wreak havoc with lack of emergency-preparedness at the Grant-applicants’ Institutes/Universities with plethora of confidential scientific data/information, files/folders/documents and grant applications/proposals in hard copy and/or soft-copy formats!
With my proven excellence in biomedical research/life sciences and public health, I would like to suggest that timely notifications be given to team-members at the time of initial predictions from local/state/federal meteorological offices pertaining to supposed inclement weather conditions and a back-up support be created for safeguarding the relevent scientific paper-documents especially grants’ concepts, grant-applications, grant budgetary break-ups, etc. to avoid potential delay in independent investigator-initiated scientific grant applications fue for submission to the NIH Grants offices!
Further, a grace-timeline of 5 business days should be sympathetically provided to eligible investigators coping with blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes, forest-fires, etc. for submission of duly signed and dated grant-applications bearing the Institute’s/University’s official seal!
Overall, a well-drafted article with thought-provoking scenario(s) showcasing the insider-nitty-gritties associated with grants and project proposals in an ever-evolving scientifically-fast-paced real world!!!