Glossary

Research Administration Glossary

Plain-language definitions of the grant and research administration terms research offices and faculty use every day, from limited submissions and indirect costs to NIH study sections and the NSF CAREER award. Each entry explains how the term works in practice and links to related terms.

B

Broader impacts: Broader impacts is one of NSF's two merit review criteria, covering a proposal's potential to benefit society and contribute to specific, desired societal outcomes. Every NSF proposal must address it alongside intellectual merit.

C

Cost sharing: Cost sharing is the portion of a sponsored project's costs that the funder does not pay and the recipient institution, or a third party, covers instead. It can be required by the funder (mandatory) or offered by the applicant (voluntary).

D

Data management and sharing plan (DMS plan): A data management and sharing (DMS) plan is the part of an NIH application that explains what scientific data the project will generate, how it will be preserved, and when and where it will be shared. NIH has required one for research that generates scientific data since January 25, 2023.

E

Early stage investigator (ESI): An early stage investigator (ESI) is an NIH applicant who is within 10 years of completing their terminal research degree or post-graduate clinical training and has not yet won a substantial, competing NIH independent research award as a PI.
eRA Commons: eRA Commons is the NIH online system that applicants, grantees, and institutions use to manage grant applications and awards. PIs use it to track application status, see review results, and submit progress reports, and institutions use it to register and sign.

F

F31 and F32 fellowships: F31 and F32 fellowships are NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (NRSA) for individual trainees: the F31 supports predoctoral students working on their dissertation research, and the F32 supports postdoctoral researchers.
Forecasted opportunity: A forecasted opportunity is a federal grant program that an agency expects to announce but has not yet officially posted. On Grants.gov, forecasts give estimated dates and award details so applicants can start planning before the notice of funding opportunity is released.

I

Indirect costs (F&A): Indirect costs, also called facilities and administrative (F&A) costs, are real institutional costs of research that cannot be charged to one project, such as buildings, utilities, libraries, and compliance offices. Funders reimburse them as a percentage of a grant's direct costs.
Intellectual merit: Intellectual merit is one of NSF's two merit review criteria, covering a proposal's potential to advance knowledge. Every NSF proposal is evaluated on intellectual merit and broader impacts.

K

K awards (career development awards): K awards are NIH career development awards that pay part of an investigator's salary and research costs while they gain the training and experience to become an independent researcher. Most are mentored awards for postdocs and junior faculty.
K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award: The K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award is a two-phase NIH grant that funds a postdoc's final mentored years (K99) and then their first years as an independent faculty member (R00). Applicants need no more than four years of postdoctoral experience under the parent program.

L

Letter of intent (LOI): A letter of intent (LOI) is a short document an applicant sends a funder before the full application to say they plan to apply, or to ask to be invited to apply. Depending on the funder, it is optional, required, or a competitive first round.
Limited submission: A limited submission is a funding opportunity that caps how many applications or nominations one institution may submit. The institution has to pick its applicants internally, usually through an internal competition, before anyone applies to the funder.

M

Modular budget: A modular budget is a simplified NIH budget format in which applicants request direct costs in $25,000 modules instead of itemizing every expense. It applies to many NIH research grant applications requesting $250,000 or less in direct costs per year.
Multiple PI (MPI): A multiple PI (MPI) application is an NIH grant application that names two or more principal investigators who share equal authority and responsibility for the project. One of them is designated the contact PI for communication with NIH.

N

NIH biosketch: An NIH biosketch is the biographical sketch each senior or key person submits with an NIH application, documenting their training, positions, products, and contributions to science. As of 2026 it is made in SciENcv as a federal Common Form plus an NIH supplement.
Notice of funding opportunity (NOFO): A notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) is a federal agency's formal announcement that grant funding is available, with the eligibility rules, deadlines, award details, and review criteria applicants must follow. NIH called these funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) until 2023.
NSF CAREER award: The NSF CAREER award is the National Science Foundation's most prestigious award for early career faculty, funding untenured assistant professors for five years to integrate research and education. The minimum award is $400,000, or $500,000 in some directorates.

O

Office of sponsored programs (OSP): An office of sponsored programs (OSP) is the university office that reviews, submits, and accepts grants and contracts on the institution's behalf. It is the institution's authorized signer for funding applications and award agreements.

P

Payline and percentile: A percentile ranks an NIH application's impact score against other applications reviewed by the same study section, and a payline is the percentile or score cutoff an institute used to decide which applications to fund. NIH stopped using institute paylines in January 2026.
Post-award: Post-award is the stage of research administration that begins once a grant is awarded and runs through closeout. It covers setting up the account, monitoring spending and compliance, managing subawards, and filing financial and progress reports.
Pre-award: Pre-award is the stage of research administration that runs from finding a funding opportunity through submitting the proposal and negotiating the award. It covers opportunity identification, budgets, compliance review, and submission.
Program officer: A program officer is the funder staff member who manages a funding program or portfolio of grants, advises applicants before they submit, and helps decide which reviewed applications get funded. NIH calls the role program official, NSF program director.

R

R01 grant: An R01 is the NIH Research Project Grant, the agency's most commonly used grant for a discrete, investigator-initiated research project. R01s usually run up to five years and have no fixed budget cap, and winning one is widely seen as the mark of an independent biomedical researcher.
R21 grant: An R21 is the NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant, which funds early-stage, often high-risk projects for up to two years with up to $275,000 in total direct costs. Preliminary data is not required.
Request for proposals (RFP): A request for proposals (RFP) is a document in which a funder announces money it wants to award and explains who can apply, what it will fund, and how to submit. Foundations, companies, and state agencies most often use the term.
Research development: Research development is the strategic, proactive work of helping researchers win funding: finding opportunities, building teams, and strengthening proposals. It differs from research administration, which handles compliance, submission, and award management.
Resubmission (A1): A resubmission (A1) is a revised version of an unfunded NIH application, sent back with a one-page Introduction that responds to the reviewers' critiques. NIH allows one resubmission of each new or renewal application.

S

SBIR and STTR: SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) and STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) are federal programs that fund US small businesses to do research and development with commercial potential. STTR also requires a formal partnership with a research institution such as a university.
Specific aims page: A specific aims page is the one-page section of an NIH application that states the problem, the central hypothesis or goal, and the two to four aims the project will accomplish. Reviewers read it first, and many form their view of the application from it.
Study section: A study section is a panel of outside scientists that reviews NIH grant applications in a research area and scores their scientific merit. Since 2025, NIH's Center for Scientific Review (CSR) runs all of them; the score informs, but does not make, the funding decision.
Subaward: A subaward is an agreement in which the institution that holds a grant passes part of the funded research, and part of the money, to another organization. The holder is the pass-through entity and the other organization is the subrecipient.

U

Unique Entity ID (UEI) and SAM.gov registration: A Unique Entity ID (UEI) is the 12-character identifier the federal government assigns to every organization that applies for or receives federal awards. It is issued through SAM.gov, the System for Award Management, and replaced the DUNS number in April 2022.

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