NIH format rules for application attachments

You'll find several kinds of fields in your grant application forms - check boxes, dates, data entry fields, and attachments. This page provides guidance on attachments: documents that are prepared outside the grant application using whatever editing software you desire (e.g., Microsoft Word), converted to PDF format, and then added or uploaded to your application. We require PDF format to preserve document formatting and a consistent reading experience for reviewers and staff.

We have very specific attachment formatting requirements. Failure to follow these requirements may lead to application errors upon submission or withdrawal of your application from funding consideration.

Adherence to font size, type density, line spacing, and text color requirements is necessary to ensure readability and fairness. Although font requirements apply to all attachments, they are most important and most heavily scrutinized in attachments with page limits.

Text in your attachments must follow these minimum requirements:

• Font size: Must be 11 points or larger. Smaller text in graphics, figures, graphs, diagrams, and charts is acceptable, as long as it is legible when the page is viewed at 100%.
  • Some PDF conversion software reduces font size. It is important to confirm that the final PDF document complies with the font requirements.
• Type density: Must be no more than 15 characters per linear inch (including characters and spaces).
• Line spacing: Must be no more than six lines per vertical inch.
• Text color: No restriction. Though not required, black or other high-contrast text colors are recommended since they print well and are legible to the largest audience.

Tip

We recommended the following fonts, although other fonts (both serif and non-serif) are acceptable if they meet the above requirements.

• Arial
• Georgia
• Helvetica
• Palatino Linotype

Legibility is of paramount importance. Applications that include PDF attachments that do not conform to the minimum requirements listed above may be withdrawn from consideration.

• Use paper (page) size no larger than standard letter paper size (8 ½" x 11”).
• Provide at least one-half inch margins (½") — top, bottom, left, and right — for all pages. No applicant-supplied information can appear in the margins.

• Adhere to the page limits defined in the Table of Page Limits or within the text of the funding opportunity or NIH Guide notice (including Notices of Special Interest).
  • Page limits defined in a funding opportunity should be followed when different than those found in the Table of Page Limits. Page limits defined in a related NIH Guide notice should be followed if different than either the Table of Page Limits or the funding opportunity.
  • If no page limit for an attachment is listed in either the Table of Page Limits, Section IV of the funding opportunity under Page Limitations, or in a related NIH Guide notice, you can assume the attachment does not have a limit.
  • Some page limits apply to multiple attachments that when combined must stay within a designated limit. You may want to prepare your information in a single document to ensure you are within the page limit, then later break the information up into the various separate attachments. Our systems will accommodate a certain amount of white space resulting from splitting the information into the separate attachments when verifying compliance with a limit.
• We systematically check many page limit requirements and provide error or warning messages to minimize incomplete or non-compliant applications. These systematic checks may not address all page limit requirements for a specific opportunity and do not replace the checks done by staff after submission. You must comply with all documented page limits and should not rely solely on system validations.
• Page limits are strictly enforced to include all text included on the page including any headers. Limits measured in lines of text are not systematically enforced. In the case of the Project Summary/Abstract and Narrative attachments on the R&R Other Project Information form, we only systematically enforce egregious issues (text exceeds one page). Our manual checks would not remove an application from consideration if only the header information put the content over the specified line limit.
• When preparing an administrative supplement application, follow the Table of Page Limits using the activity code of the parent award and any additional limits specified in the funding opportunity or a related notice.
• Do not use the appendix or other sections of your application to circumvent page limits (NOT-OD-11-080).

• Refer to NOT-OD-20-174: Reminder: NIH Policy on Use of Hypertext in NIH Grant Applications.
• Hyperlinks and URLs are only allowed when specifically noted in funding opportunities and/or form field instructions. It is highly unusual for a funding opportunity to allow links in Specific Aims, Research Strategy, and other page-limited attachments.
• Hyperlinks and URLs may not be used to provide information necessary to application review. Applications must be self-contained and reflect the information available at time of review.
• Reviewers are not obligated to view linked sites and are cautioned that they should not directly access a website (unless the link to the site was specifically requested in application instructions) as it could compromise their anonymity.
• When allowed, you must hyperlink the actual URL text so it appears on the page rather than hiding the URL behind a specific word or phrase (hypertext). Examples:
  • NIH (https://www.nih.gov/)
  • https://www.nih.gov/
• See Hyperlinks within Common Forms FAQs for clarification of when hyperlinks can be used in Biographical Sketch Common Form and associated NIH Biographical Sketch Supplement.

Note

During initial implementation of the new Data Management and Sharing Policy, NIH will provide leniency and will not withdraw applications that include hypertext in the DMS Plan. Leniency will remain in place throughout the Federal Demonstration Partnership DMS Pilot that is testing alternate DMS templates and will be reevaluated in FY24.

A PDF that has fillable fields, electronic signatures, text boxes or images inserted, becomes layered with each of these elements representing a layer. The existence of these layers interferes with the handling of the documents in eRA systems. Consequently, PDF documents included in applications, progress reports, and other information collected in eRA Commons must be flattened. A flattened PDF is simply one in which all the layers are merged together into a single flat layer.

Many simple PDFs are already flattened - all the information is contained in a single layer. Uploading a PDF that isn’t flattened may result in an eRA Commons error message. You will need to replace your PDF with a flattened version to complete the submission process.

Tip

There are a number of methods to flatten a PDF, the easiest of which is to print it as a PDF. Follow eRA's illustrated instructions for Windows and Mac. For other software, check your program’s documentation.

• Electronic signatures on PDF attachments within your application are not allowed.
• To adhere to policies requiring electronic signatures on PDF attachments (e.g., electronically-signed other support format pages), you can electronically sign the document and then “flatten” the PDF.
• Documents with signatures (e.g., letters of support) can be printed, signed, scanned and attached in PDF format.

• Avoid scanning text documents to produce the required PDFs. It is best to produce documents using your word processing software and then convert the documents to PDF. Scanning paper documents may hamper automated processing of your application for agency analysis and reporting.
• We recognize that sometimes scanning is necessary, especially when including letters of support or other signed documents on business letterhead.

• Do not include headers or footers in your attachments. We add headers, footers, page numbers, bookmarks, and a table of contents when we assemble your grant application upon submission.
• Headings (e.g., Significance, Innovation) within the text of your attachments improve readability and are highly encouraged.
  • Some funding opportunities and form instructions provide guidance on organizing the content of attachments including specific headings that must be included.

• Images and other figures must be readable as printed on an 8.5” x 11” page at normal (100%) scale.
• Figures should be included in the Research Strategy, Program Plan, or equivalent attachment and count towards page limits.
• Figures should not be included in the Specific Aims attachment. Figures can interfere with the NIH post-award process to categorize awards in RePORT.
• Unless otherwise stated in the funding opportunity, the Project Summary/Abstract and Project Narrative attachments should only include text (no figures). Figures can interfere with NIH post-award process to categorize awards in RePORT.
• Applicants should use image compression such as JPEG or PNG to reduce overall application file size.
• For advice on creating effective figures, refer to Tips for Tables, Charts, and Figures.
• Consider including Accessibility elements like structural headers and meaningful Alt Text in your figures to maximize visual and descriptive clarity for all readers.

• Both portrait and landscape attachments are accepted. However, keep in mind that landscape can be difficult to read online and may require reviewers and staff to scroll to see all available text.

• A single-column page format easily adapts to various screen sizes and is highly encouraged.
• Multi-column formats, especially for information spanning multiple pages, can be problematic for online review.

• Save all document attachments with descriptive filenames of 50 characters or less (including spaces).
• Use unique filenames for all attachments in an application (or within a component of a multi-project application).
• Use any of the following characters: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, underscore, hyphen, space, period, parenthesis, curly braces, square brackets, tilde, exclamation point, comma, apostrophe, at sign, number sign, dollar sign, percent sign, plus sign, and equal sign.
• If including spaces, use one space (not two or more) between words or characters. Do not begin the filename with a space or include a space immediately before the .pdf extension.
• Avoid the use of ampersand (&) since it requires special formatting (i.e., &amp).

• Ensure file size is greater than 0 bytes - we cannot accept a 0 byte attachment.
• Keep attachment file size to 100 MB or less.

• Our systems must be able to open and edit your attached documents in order to generate your assembled application image for agency processing and funding consideration.
• Disable all security features in your PDF documents. Do not encrypt or password protect your documents. Using these features to protect your documents also prevents us from opening and processing them.

• Do not markup your PDF documents with comments, sticky notes, or other features that are added on top of your PDF document content. This information may not be retained in your final application image.
• Do not use bracketing, indenting, highlighting, bolding, italicizing, underlining, margin lines, change in typography, font, or font color, or any other type of markup to identify changes in Resubmission Applications.

• Use English. (See 2 CFR 200.111, English language.)
• Avoid jargon.
• Spell out acronyms the first time they are used in each application section or attachment. Note the appropriate abbreviation in parentheses. The abbreviation may be used in the section or attachment thereafter. Find a list of Abbreviations used in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

eRA systems support the Unicode character set (including Greek and other special characters). See NOT-OD-15-058.

Tip

To ensure provided information has rendered correctly, use preview features in ASSIST and other systems prior to submission and verify information in eRA Commons after submission. This is especially important when non-standard characters are used. Reach out to the eRA Service Desk with any questions or concerns.

• Use whatever format for citations that you want.
  • We do not require a specific citation format.
  • The use of "et al." in place of listing all authors of a publication is acceptable practice.
  • Most style guides include format guidance for citations and all formats are acceptable.
  • SciENcv, a tool to prepare biosketches for NIH and other agencies, uses a standard format used by the National Library of Medicine (see Citing Medicine). If your organization does not already have a standard, you may want to consider this one.
• Remember to comply with our public access policy by including the PMC reference number (PMCID) when citing applicable papers that you author or that arise from your NIH-funded research.

• Ensure all information is directly visible in your PDF.
  • If you need to combine information from different sources into a single document prior to uploading, do not use “bundling” or “portfolio” features which combine multiple documents into a single file by providing links to the individual files.

• Some attachment instructions refer to required format pages (e.g., biosketch, other support, training data tables).

• Videos cannot be embedded in an application, but videos are accepted under limited circumstances as post-submission material. For additional guidance, check NOT-OD-24-067.
• When allowed, the application must be structured at the time of submission to indicate that a video will be submitted post-submission.
  • The cover letter submitted with the application must include information about the intent to submit a video. If this is not done, a video will not be accepted.
  • Key images, “stills,” and a brief description of each video must be included within the page limits of the Research Strategy. Sufficient descriptive information must be provided within the Research Strategy to understand the information presented in the video, as not all reviewers may be able to access the video, depending on technological constraints.