To increase the protection of privacy of research participants, as of October 1, 2017, NIH funded researchers who are who are collecting identifiable, sensitive information as part of their NIH funded research will automatically be issued a CoC as part of the term and condition of their award. There is no need for them to apply for a CoC. Compliance with the privacy protections afforded by the CoC is also a term and condition of award. All research that was commenced or ongoing on or after December 13, 2016 and is within the scope of this policy is issued a Certificate through this policy.

When delays occur because the applicant or recipient organization is officially closed due to a natural disaster or other emergency, the NIH will consider accepting applications late. Read more about NIH responses to natural disasters in the Open Mike blog on Monitoring the Impact of Hurricane Harvey on Research. See NOT-OD-17-106

This notice announces a new policy implementing special funding consideration for early and mid-career (early established) investigators. See policy summary below. This policy supersedes previous notices on new and early stage investigators. We anticipate that ICs will seek to fund other more senior investigators who are new to the NIH system through specific programs as well as select pay.