Notice Number: NOT-OD-18-188

Key Dates
Release Date: June 8, 2018

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Purpose

The purpose of this Notice is to provide updated guidance to the NIH extramural community regarding the registration and renewal process in the GSA System for Award Management (SAM).

As previously announced in NOT-OD-18-162, effective March 22, 2018, GSA now requires entities starting a new registration in SAM.gov to provide an original, signed notarized letter, on the entity's letterhead, stating that the organizational official registering the organization is the authorized Entity Administrator, before the organization's registration will be activated.

On April 27, 2018, GSA expanded this requirement to include all existing registrations being updated or renewed. Currently, GSA is unable to provide an estimated timeframe for the processing of renewal requests. NIH encourages applicants and recipients with existing SAM accounts to review their account information and begin the renewal process well in advance of the expiration date, to ensure all renewals are competed on time. NIH is unable to accept applications or issue awards to organizations that do not have an active SAM registration.

What does this mean for NIH applicants?

Under normal circumstances the NIH Late Application Policy, NOT-OD-15-039, does not allow late submissions due to failure to complete or renew required registrations. Because this is a system issue impacting all applicants and recipients across the Federal government NIH is making an exception to the Late Application Policy until the issue is resolved. If an entity has submitted all SAM renewal documentation before the application due date, but the renewal is not completed prior to the application due date, NIH will accept late applications within the two-week late window, so long as all other aspects of the application are compliant and consistent with the funding opportunity announcement requirements. To be considered under this special accommodation, the entity's application Cover Letter must include documentation, such as a confirmation email or screenshot, demonstrating that the SAM renewal request was submitted prior to the application due date.

NIH will extend this flexibility retroactively to all due dates on or after May 25, 2018.

Requests for accommodations beyond the two-week late window will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Permission to submit late will not be given in advance. Therefore, applicants should ensure their Cover Letter attachment documents their good faith attempts to resolve SAM issues in a timely manner and includes any relevant correspondence with GSA.

For more information and FAQs on the SAM registration process go to http://www.gsa.gov/samupdate.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Division of Grants Policy
Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration
Office of Extramural Research
Telephone: 301-435-0949
GrantsPolicy@od.nih.gov