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315 lines
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<div class=WordSection1>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Megan Columbus: <20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD> Welcome
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to All About Grants. This is Megan Columbus from NIH's Office of Extramural
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Research, here again with Dr. Cathleen Cooper, the director of the Division of
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Receipt and Referral and NIH's Center for Scientific Review. Today we're here
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to talk about why it is so important to submit applications early. Cathy is
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indeed an expert in this, as it's her office that has the dubious honor of
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having to talk to applicants about why their applications may not be suggested.
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So, welcome, Cathy. Can you tell us why does NIH take deadlines so seriously?
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Why is it so important?</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Dr. Cathleen
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Cooper: Well, enforcing the deadline is really a matter of fairness. All of
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our submission deadlines are announced months if not years in advance<63>years in
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advance, an example of that would be our standard due dates that have been the
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same for quite some time<6D>so that all applicants have an equal opportunity to
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organize their research and application preparation schedules and deadlines to
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meet the deadline.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Megan Columbus: <20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD> And
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there's a lot that goes into application submission, you know. Following NIH
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rules is not a trivial task and NIH certainly cares about whether or not people
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follow our rules, wouldn't you say?</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Dr. Cathleen
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Cooper: Well, this is true, and I know that applicants are working very hard
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to try to bring together the instructions from the application guide and from
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the funding opportunity announcement to craft an excellent application, so NIH
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tries to check things as much as possible up front to see that the applications
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are compliant. We're particularly interested in things that are important for
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the peer review of the application and we'd like to give applicants time to fix
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things and get a successful submission rather than just withdrawing applications
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that are noncompliant.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Megan Columbus: <20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD> So
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our system is, then, when the application is submitted, applicants get a series
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of warnings telling them you might want to check something in your application
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to see if you got it right, or errors, things that really we know are incorrect
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that need to get corrected in order for an application to be considered to be
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complete.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Dr. Cathleen
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Cooper: Correct. eRA Commons checks at least 800 form fields and attachments.
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At the time a submission error in any one of those can prevent an application
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from being accepted and errors can take some time to correct.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Megan Columbus: <20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD> And
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so as an applicant, if you submit the application early enough, then you get
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your errors and warnings pretty much immediately upon submission and you have
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the opportunity to correct those as long as it's before the submission
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deadline.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Dr. Cathleen
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Cooper: You know, that's true. I mean, sometimes an applicant will get an
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error and they're not really quite sure what they did wrong or why it's wrong
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or how they can fix it. And so applicants need to leave themselves time to
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think about it and to reach out for help. We have a whole variety of people who
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are willing and eager to help them, a number of help desks, our preparation
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guide online, our NIH Grants Information support team. You know, and sometimes
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it's not obvious which of these people are going to be the best people to talk
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to solve their problems, so it takes some time. And on a major submission date,
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when we're receiving thousands of applications, there may be a lot of people
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asking for help and a given applicant may not be the first, second, or third
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person in line, so they have to wait.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Megan Columbus: <20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD> And
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so even when you've done this many times, NIH changes our policies and they
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change our forms. And in fact, I know a big change in progress right now, we're
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implementing a new Human Subjects and Clinical Trial Information Form, and for
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anybody who has submitted a Human Subjects application in the past, what
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they're going to find on the form as of January 25, 2018 is going to be very
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different. </span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Dr. Cathleen
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Cooper: Yeah, that's true. One significant change in our new forms, actually,
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is the Human Subjects and Clinical Trial Forms, and I cannot stress strongly
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enough how significantly different these forms are going to be and how
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different the applicant experience is going to be preparing those forms. In
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some cases, new content is going to be required. In other cases, familiar
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content is required but be placed in different spots on the form. And these
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forms, like all other forms in an NIH application, have numerous fields and
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attachment that are all electronically validated at the time of each
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submission, and so an error in any one of these fields or attachments will
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prevent an application from being accepted. </span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Megan Columbus: <20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD> Which
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means two things. One is sometimes you might try and fill out a form without
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looking too closely at the instructions<6E>this is not the time to do that.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Dr. Cathleen
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Cooper: No. Instructions are your guide.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Megan Columbus: <20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD> So
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read the instructions carefully. And number two is really do give yourself
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plenty of time to turn around changes if those are needed in the application
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ahead of time. What other advice do you have for applicants on this topic?</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Dr. Cathleen Cooper:
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Well, you know, I think if the application is really important to them, they
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should be submitting early. This means you may have to set up an application
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preparation schedule for yourself, deadlines for your consultants and
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collaborators to get information that you need to you, and also take into
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consideration that your grants office, Office of Sponsored Projects, may need
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to have that application a week in advance of the deadline. And so you control
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the process, so that's what, you know.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Megan Columbus: <20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD> So
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we're talking learn your internal deadlines.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Dr. Cathleen
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Cooper: Right.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Megan Columbus: <20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD> Right,
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so work with your institutional officials and whoever else, and then plan to
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submit days<79>right, not minutes<65>before the deadline.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Dr. Cathleen
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Cooper: Right, generally we see applications starting to come in about 30 days
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before the deadline, but a good rule of thumb is to start a couple of days
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early, and particularly with these new forms, two days might not even be
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enough. I can recommend, actually, starting even earlier than that and not
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assuming that things will go smoothly and that applicants really need to give
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themselves time to methodically work through any things that arise. </span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Megan Columbus: <20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD> What
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other advice do you have?</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Dr. Cathleen
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Cooper: I would also really recommend that applicants follow their
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applications through to eRA Commons. During e-submission, both grants.gov and
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eRA will send a variety of courtesy email notifications to an applicant to let
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them know how their application is proceeding through the system, but email
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itself is not 100 percent reliable, and what is reliable is to keep watching
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eRA Commons to see the application appear. If it appears, it's successful, they
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have the application in the door. If it doesn't appear, they will be able to
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find any errors that arose that prevented it from being submitted and they can
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hop on those and fix them before the deadline, hopefully.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Megan Columbus: <20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD> Right,
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and the key part is to fix those errors before the deadline for an on-time
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application.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Dr. Cathleen
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Cooper: That's true. An on-time application is time/date-stamped from the time
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the successful submission was submitted, not when the first attempt at
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submission. And so we don't routinely accept applications when they're
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submitted late, so remember that all errors need to be addressed and a
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corrected and a successful submission needs to be in before the deadline, which
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is five p.m. local applicant organization time.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Megan Columbus: <20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD> Great.
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You know, I think as a parting word, I looked back and Dr. Mike Lauer, who is
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NIH's Deputy Director for Extramural Research, he had a December 30<sup>th</sup>
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blog post on his Open Mike blog, and it's a grant submission New Year's
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Resolution. In this blog post, he puts data on the timing of application
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submissions and their eventual success. And let me just read a little piece of
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this, but it basically says the later applications were less likely to be
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discussed, and similarly, less likely to be awarded. And these findings really
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do suggest that there's no clear advantage to waiting until the last day, and
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so planning ahead is key.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Dr. Cathleen
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Cooper: Absolutely.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Megan Columbus: <20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD> Thank
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you for joining me again.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Dr. Cathleen
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Cooper: You're welcome.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Megan Columbus: <20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD> For
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NIH and OER, this is Megan Columbus.</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-indent:-117.35pt;
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line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'> </span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-left:117.35pt;text-align:center;
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text-indent:-117.35pt;line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>[END
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FILE]</span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:200%'> </p>
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