National Institutes of Health (NIH) ASSIST

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ASSIST is NIH’s online system for the preparation, submission, and tracking of applications through Grants.gov to NIH.

Below is information on how to get started using ASSIST.

ASSIST set up steps

  • A principal investigator (PI) must first have an eRA Commons account to use ASSIST. The eRA Commons account registration must be initiated by one’s pre-award research administrator in Sponsored Projects.
  • Once Sponsored Projects has initiated the eRA Commons account registration, the PI will receive and email confirming their registration.
  • The PI must then log into their eRA Commons account complete and verify that all personal information located within the Personal Profile tab of their eRA Commons account is correct.

Creating a proposal using ASSIST

Before beginning an NIH proposal, principal investigators should be familiar with the NIH proposal guidelines found in the NIH Application Guide. Further, applicants must first identify a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to which they would like to apply. The FOA text indicates whether ASSIST can be used to apply for that opportunity.

  1. Log into the ASSIST system.
  2. From the Welcome page, enter the FOA in the Funding Opportunity Announcement # field.
  3. Select the Go button. The Initiate Application page displays. Next, enter a title for the application in the Application Project Title field.
  4. Select from the drop-down menu Lead Applicant Organization Name.
  5. Review the Lead Applicant Organization Address.
  6. Review the Lead Applicant Organization DUNS number.
  7. Click OK if any System for Award Management (SAM) Registration Status screens appear. Once OK is selected, you will return to the Initiate Application screen.
  8. Select the Initiate Application button to continue.
    • The Application Information page displays as read-only with the status of the application as Work in Progress. The informational message Application saved appears at the top of the page. After initiating the application, the user will be able to manage access to the record, edit forms, and add a new component (applies to multi-project applications only).

For further information on using ASSIST, please view the ASSIST User Guide.

Upload ASSIST application to InfoEd and route for internal approval and submission

Once the ASSIST application is completed, the proposal application must then be recorded in InfoEd, the University’s grant proposal tracking system. When recording the proposal in InfoEd, be sure to upload a PDF of the entire ASSIST application on the InfoEd Proposal Docs & Forms screen. Once the InfoEd proposal record is complete, route it for internal approval. After all internal approvals have been satisfied in InfoEd, a Sponsored Projects research administrator will contact the principal investigator regarding the proposal review and submission.

After submission to NIH

After a proposal has been submitted to NIH, the principal investigator can log into eRA Commons to check the status of their proposal. Upon logging into eRA Commons, you will land on the Home page. From Home, click Status in blue horizontal menu bar. You can then search for your proposal record.