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The Office of Research Administration and Advancement (ORAA) would like to take this opportunity to welcome you back to campus and to make you aware of some urgent information concerning the electronic submission of proposals via Grants.gov to NIH.

Grants.gov has transitioned most of the NIH applications from forms using the PureEdge software to forms using Adobe Reader 9.0. This includes applications and resubmissions to R01, R21, and R03 opportunities. Grants.gov has been experiencing issues with the submission of Adobe forms that are beyond ORAA's control and will unlikely be resolved by the February and March deadlines. This issue slows the process of validating a proposal at Grants.gov and making it available to NIH, thereby decreasing the time that ORAA has to address and resubmit your application as necessary.

In order to make your electronic submission go as smoothly as possible, ORAA asks that you understand the following issues and prepare your application accordingly:

• Download and use Adobe Reader 9.0 to access, save, and complete the application package. This software is available from Adobe's website: www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_allversions.html. It is imperative that the appropriate version, and the same version, of Adobe Reader is used to open, review, and submit an application. More information is available at: www.umresearch.umd.edu/ORAA/memos/72.html
  
• Contact your Contract Administrator when you know you will be submitting a proposal to NIH via Grants.gov.
  
• Route your proposal early. ORAA requests that the completed paper copy of the Internal Routing Form and the final electronic application are to ORAA at least 6 business days before the deadline.

ORAA's goal remains to successfully submit your proposal in a timely manner and looks forward to working with you in achieving this goal. Should you have any questions, please contact your Contract Administrator or Vonnie Perkins, eRA Program Manager at oraaonline@umresearch.umd.edu.

Training dates regarding NIH Grants.gov submissions using Adobe forms have been set and are available at http://www.umresearch.umd.edu/ORAA/training/grants_gov.html.  More information about the NIH transition plan can be found at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-117.html .

Thank you in advance for your cooperation. The next page outlines the NIH and ORAA due dates.

Regards,
Denise J. Clark, Assistant Vice President, Division of Research

Please note that although the NIH due date for R03 and R21 renewals, revisions, and resubmissions is March 16, the University of Maryland is closed that day. Therefore all NIH applications for these programs must be submitted by March 13 which means that ORAA needs the routing form, paper copy and electronic file by no later than March 5.

View a copy of this memo here: