NOSIs & Reissued FOAs

Now that notices of special interest (NOSIs) have been around for a while, you’re probably getting used to finding the scientific details for an initiative in the NOSI and using the designated funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) for the actual submission of the application.  

Have you noticed that NOSIs have their own expiration date? It’s true. In fact, NOSIs can outlive the FOAs they point to for application submission. Nearly all NOSIs include language instructing applicants to use the designated FOAs or their reissued equivalents.

Many NOSIs designate parent announcements for application submission and most of our parent announcements were recently reissued with updated language and application forms (FORMS-F). So, checking the status of the designated FOA prior to submission is now more important than ever.

Let’s look at an example.  Say you wanted to submit an R01 application (no clinical trial) to NOT-DA-20-046. The NOSI states …

Submit applications for this initiative using one of the following funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) or any reissues of these announcements through the expiration date of this notice.

• PA-19-056: NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

… You check the expiration date in the key dates section of PA-19-056 and find that it expired and has been reissued as PA-20-185. You still follow all the NOSI instructions, you just use the reissued FOA (PA-20-185) instead of PA-19-056 to submit your application.