R01 page limits

Follow the page limits specified below for the attachments in your grant application, unless otherwise specified in the notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) or related NIH Guide notice. Funding opportunity instructions always supersede general application guide instructions and NIH Guide notice information supersedes both the funding opportunity and the application guide.

Note

If no page limit is listed in the table below, in Section IV of the NOFO under Page Limitations, or in a related notice, you can assume the attachment does not have a limit.

Note

When preparing an administrative supplement request, follow the appropriate page limits for the activity code of parent award.

Standard page limits are organized by Activity Code.

If no page limit is listed in the table below, in Section IV of the NOFO under Page Limitations, or in a related notice, you can assume the attachment does not have a limit.

Note: Not all application form sets include all the attachments listed below. For example, the S10 does not include the PHS Research Plan form so the Introduction, Specific Aims, and Research Strategy attachment page limits do not apply.

Note

Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) instructions always supersede these instructions.

Follow the page limits for the Research Strategy in the NIH Table of Page Limits, unless otherwise specified in the NOFO. Although multiple sections of information are required in the Research Strategy as detailed below, the page limit applies to the entirety of the single "Research Strategy" attachment.

Attach this information as a PDF file. See NIH's Format Attachments page. Hyperlinks and URLs may not be used in this section unless specified as allowed in the funding opportunity.

Organize the Research Strategy in the specified order and use the instructions provided below unless otherwise specified in the NOFO. Start each section with the appropriate heading - Significance, Innovation, Approach.

Cite published experimental details in the Research Strategy attachment and provide the full reference in G.220 - R&R Other Project Information Form, Bibliography and Reference Cited.

Note for Applications Proposing the Use of Human Fetal Tissue: If the use of human fetal tissue obtained from elective abortions (HFT) (as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement) is included in the proposed application you must include specific information in the Approach section of the Research Strategy attachment. See specific instructions below in Section 3. Approach. This information must be provided regardless of whether Human Subjects research is proposed or not.

Applications proposing HFT that do not address these requirements will be administratively withdrawn. For further information on HFT policy refer to the NIH Grants Policy Statement, Section 2.3.7.11 Human Fetal Tissue from Elective Abortions, Section 4.1.14 Human Fetal Tissue Research and Section 4.1.14.2 Non-Transplantation Research on Human Fetal Tissue from Elective Abortions.

• 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).