Withdrawal risk and a six application cap, then NIH's AI rules

NIH may withdraw incomplete applications before review. You have six competing applications per calendar year.

GrantAmp checks attachments against NIH format rules, cites every requirement, and helps you show your institution what you did. It never drafts your science.

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6

Under NOT-OD-25-132, the six application limit applies to all activity codes except T activity codes and R13 Conference Grant Applications.

NOT-OD-25-132, checked 2026-09-27. Checked 2026-09-27.

Withdrawn

Placeholder attachments must not be used. While they allow an application to pass eRA system-enforced validations, applications that include such attachments are incomplete and will be withdrawn.

NOT-OD-26-025, checked 2026-09-27. Checked 2026-09-27.

One rejected or withdrawn competing application is a larger share of a PI's annual submission limit than before NOT-OD-25-132, when success rates were higher and there was no six application cap.

NOT-OD-25-132, checked 2026-09-27. Checked 2026-09-27.

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AI policy

Where GrantAmp stands on NIH's AI policy.

NOT-OD-25-132, issued July 17, 2025

Effective for applications submitted for the September 25, 2025 receipt date and beyond

"NIH will not consider applications that are either substantially developed by AI, or contain sections substantially developed by AI, to be original ideas of applicants."

The same notice says AI tools may be appropriate to assist in application preparation for limited aspects or in specific circumstances. It names no section.

NOT-OD-25-132. Checked 2026-09-13. Emphasis added.

NOT-OD-23-149, issued June 23, 2023

In effect for NIH peer review since June 23, 2023

NIH peer reviewers may not use generative AI to analyze your application or write their critique of it. This is a rule for reviewers, not applicants. PIs ask about it, so it is here.

NOT-OD-23-149. Checked 2026-09-13.

ORI on generative AI in grant preparation

Researchers should identify any generative AI tools used during their research and manuscript and grant preparation and explain how these tools were used.

ORI generative AI guidance, checked 2026-09-27. Checked 2026-09-27.

GrantAmp never drafts your Specific Aims or Research Strategy.

It checks formatting, cites the NIH page every requirement comes from, and, in the full product, keeps a per section log of whether AI assisted, at what level, and with which tool. Where generation is safe it stays administrative: checklists, formatting fixes, and summaries of NIH guidance.

The record your institution will ask for.

Many institutions now ask the PI to certify at routing that the application is not substantially developed by AI. NIH does not require that certification in the application itself. GrantAmp cannot know what you wrote with. It never drafts, it logs what you did, and it gives you the attestation record.

Free checker

No account, nothing stored

Check a Research Strategy or Specific Aims against the Format Attachments page and the Page Limits table.

Real PDF analysis of fonts, margins, and density, not a word count. Every finding links to the NIH page it came from and shows the date the rule was last checked. Nothing is stored. The PDF is read once, in memory, and discarded.

A clean report means no issues were found by this checker, not that the attachment meets every NIH and NOFO requirement. NOFO instructions supersede the Application Guide, and NIH Guide Notices supersede both.

NIH Format Attachments page, updated September 30, 2024. Checked 2026-09-13.

NIH Page Limits page, updated June 22, 2026. Checked 2026-09-13.

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  • Page count against the Page Limits table
  • Page size, letter, either orientation
  • Margins, at least half an inch on every side
  • Font size, 11 points or larger for body text
  • Type density, characters per inch and lines per inch
  • Text color and contrast
  • Scanned pages with no extractable text
  • Hyperlinks and URLs in a page limited attachment
  • Form fields and annotation layers that need flattening

Ask

Free, three a day

Ask what NIH actually requires, and get the page it says so on.

Type a question about what NIH requires and get an answer written from the NIH pages GrantAmp holds, with the section it came from cited and dated. Three questions a day without an account; more with a plan. It is not advice; read the cited page.

Your question is sent to the model once and is not stored. The answer comes only from the Application Guide, the Page Limits and Format Attachments pages, the parent R01 NOFOs, the Guide Notices, the Grants Policy Statement, and the other NIH pages in the sources list below, each with NIH's date and the date GrantAmp retrieved it.

Open Ask
  • What is the page limit for the Research Strategy on an R01?
  • Does NIH allow AI generated text in my application?
  • Are AIDS related applications on the same due dates?
  • If the Application Guide and my NOFO disagree on a page limit, which wins?

The requirements guru

Free manifest with an account

Page limits, format rules, attachments, precedence, due dates, all cited to the live NIH page and dated.

  1. 01

    Answer the intake questions.

    Activity code, new or resubmission, human subjects, vertebrate animals, clinical trial, foreign components, multiple PIs, and which NOFO. Ten to fifteen questions.

  2. 02

    Get your requirements manifest.

    Exactly which forms, attachments, and sections this application needs. Each one carries its page limit, its format rules, the review factor that scores it, the NIH page it came from, and the date that page was last checked.

  3. 03

    Check every section against it.

    Deterministic checks on what you upload, status per section, a readiness view that counts down to your institution's internal deadline, and an export for routing.

Trust and data handling

Your unfunded ideas stay yours.

The checker stores nothing.

The PDF is read once, in memory, and discarded. It is never written to disk, never kept, and never sent to a language model.

No training on your text.

The full product reaches its language model through API tier access, and API tier access does not train on inputs.

Isolation and deletion.

The full product keeps each user's data separate, encrypts it at rest, and gives you a delete my data button that does what it says.

Not NIH.

GrantAmp is an independent tool. Every requirement it shows links to the NIH page it came from so you can read the source yourself.

Plans

Free tells you what your application requires. A plan helps you finish it and prove it.

Free with an account: your requirements manifest, every item cited and dated. A plan adds saved encrypted drafts, section status tracking, the reviewer lens, reference check, SciENcv checklist, AI-use log and attestation PDF, and the readiness dashboard. Monthly, per cycle, or annual. Cancel anytime; access runs to the end of the period paid for.

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Sources

Every NIH page this site cites, and when it was last checked.

Read the source before you rely on the summary.