NIH has announced changes to the handling of applications submitted in response to Program Announcements with special Receipt, Referral, and/or Review considerations (PARs) and Program Announcements with Set-Aside Funds (PASs). When publishing Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOA) for PARs or PASs, NIH institutes and centers may now choose to describe criteria which would make an application non-responsive to the PAR/PAS. If included, the criteria will be indicated in Part 2, Section 1 of the FOA (screenshot below). Investigators are strongly encouraged to communicate with the Scientific Contact listed in the FOA to discuss non-responsive criteria.
Complete details are available in the full announcement (NOT-OD-20-114). Please share this important information with researchers in your department.