The cover letter is for internal use only and will not be shared with peer reviewers.
A cover letter must not be included with post-award submissions, such as administrative supplements, change of grantee institution, or successor-in-interest.
Address to the Division of Receipt and Referral, in accordance with the FOA instructions.
Attach the cover letter in the correct location, specifically verifying that the cover letter has not been uploaded to the “20. Pre-application” field which is directly above the “21. Cover Letter Attachment” field.
Do not use the cover letter to communicate application assignment preferences. The Assignment Request Form is provided for that purpose.
The letter should contain any of the following information, as applicable:
Application title
Title of FOA (PA or RFA)
For late applications include specific information about the timing and nature of the delay
For changed/corrected applications submitted after the due date, a cover letter is required, and it must explain the reason for late submission of the changed/corrected applications. If you already submitted a cover letter with a previous submission and are now submitting a late change/corrected application, you must include all previous cover letter text in the revised cover letter attachment. The system does not retain any previously submitted cover letters; therefore, you must repeat all information previously submitted in the cover letter as well as any additional information.
Explanation of any subaward budget components that are not active for all budget periods of the proposed grant.
Statement that you have attached any required agency approval documentation for the type of application submitted. This may include approval for applications that request $500,000 or more. It is recommended that you include the official communication from an NIH official as part of your cover letter attachment.
When intending to submit a video as part of the application, the cover letter must include information about the intent to submit it; if this is not done, the video will not be accepted.
If the proposed studies will generate large-scale human or non-human genomic data as detailed in the NIH Genomic Data Sharing Policy
If the proposed studies involve human fetal tissue obtained from elective abortions (HFT), regardless of whether or not Human Subjects are involved and/or there are costs associated with the HFT.