Applying for U.S. funding

As a foreign applicant, regardless of whether you are the main applicant or co-applicant, you need to attach a "Foreign Justification" to your application. In that document, you must justify why the project needs to be carried out at a foreign university. Describe, for example, the special resources (e.g., sample collection, diseases, cohorts, equipment and techniques or expertise) that you have access to, and that make the project more suitable for implementation at Uppsala University than in a domestic (American) environment.

Being able to justify this in a good way is very important for the application to be considered by the funder. The motivation to carry out the research at Uppsala University is therefore the first thing you need to ensure, before you plan your application further.

If you are a co-applicant, it is important to identify as soon as possible which documents the main applicant organization needs to receive from you. Inform Research Support as soon as possible, as they will need to help you obtain certain documents. The main applicant often wants the co-applicant organization to sign a commitment form before the application is submitted. Observe that according to the University's current guidelines it is the Vice-Rector of the relevant disciplinary domain (not the Head of Department) that should sign these documents.

If you are the main applicant, you need to collect certain documents from your potential co-applicants. A Subrecipient Commitment Form, budget, and biosketch always need to be collected from each co-applicant. Depending on your application, more documents may be required. Contact Research Support as soon as possible for help.

When designing your budget for an NIH project, there are a few things to keep in mind. Indirect costs are called "Facilities and Administrative Costs" (F&A) in NIH terminology. Non-American organizations may only apply for 8 % F&A. These funds can only be used to pay for activities that are directly linked to compliance with the NIH's regulations. F&A must therefore not be used as a "regular OH" at the University. As a result, you as a researcher or your department need to sponsor the entire department's OH for this grant. F&A must be placed in a central account.

The final budget must be reviewed by the Financial Administration and Procurement Division before the application can be submitted.

Application instructions and forms sometimes refer to a series of registrations that the applicant organisation must hold. Uppsala University holds the following registrations.

• DUNS: 350582201
• UEI: KTRDK57SR316
• System of Award Management (SAM)
• Animal Welfare Assurance for Foreign Organisations (required for animal studies)
• Federalwide Assurance (required for human studies)
• Internal Review Board (IRB)

Before submitting the application, you as a researcher need to submit three signed certifications to Research Support. This applies both when you are a co-applicant and a main applicant.

1. Certification from head of department (e-form)

The Head of Department must be informed about the application and approve the submission by signing a certification. This is especially important as the department is responsible for all indirect costs (see above). The Head of Department also certifies that the responsible researcher has the time and resources to carry out the project.

Certification from Head of Department (e-form)

2. Principal Investigator Assurance Form

Finansiären kräver att den huvudansvariga forskaren på varje medverkande organisation signerar en PIA. I detta dokument intygar forskaren bland annat att informationen som skickas in är korrekt och sanningsenlig samt att hen kommer ta ansvar för det vetenskapliga utförandet i projektet.

Principal Investigator Assurance Form (PIA, e-form)

3. Reporting significant financial interests

NIH requires that each researcher responsible for the project reports financial interests that are related to her/his institutional responsibilities (that is, research, teaching, administration), and that the organisation must assess whether a conflict of interest exists. Please note that you must submit the report even if you have no financial interests.

Federal American Funding Agencies: Disclosure of Significant Financial Interests (e-form)

The University's guideline, which meets the NIH's requirements for handling financial conflicts of interest

NIH requires that foreign co-applicants annually make available copies of all documentation (including lab books and data) supporting the research results to the main recipient.

This requirement means a risk that a lot of data may have to be disclosed, which, depending on the nature of your data, may not be possible based on Swedish and European law. It is therefore important to early in the process discuss with your counterpart in the US exactly which documentation will need to be shared.

Contact the Legal Department for advice in your individual case.

It is the main applicant organization that submits the application. Applications to all federal funders can be submitted through grants.gov. For applications to the NIH, however, we recommend that you use NIH's own application system, eRA Commons. In either case, Research Support needs to create an account for you. The main applicant researcher creates and completes the application in the system.

You cannot submit your application yourself, it must be done by Research Support, after approval from the Vice-Rector of your disciplinary domain. In order to allow time to correct any errors discovered during submission, the application must be ready to be submitted no later than 8 working days before the call deadline.