Please review the following announcement from NIH and contact your assigned grants associate with any questions.
Dear Colleagues:
As you know, beginning on January 25, 2022, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is requiring investigators to electronically sign their Other Support submissions. The University will be utilizing DocuSign to meet this requirement. The process for securing electronic signatures for Other Support disclosures will be:
A “sender” DocuSign account will automatically be created for you. You will soon receive an email from the DocuSign System (@docusign.net) notifying you of your account with a link to access the system. If you do not receive an email, please contact us at othersupport@jh.edu to request an account.
Once an investigator has confirmed for you that their Other Support disclosure is complete and final, please upload the document, along with all required supporting documentation, to DocuSign and send to the investigator for electronic signature.
For proposals, upon receiving notice that the investigator has signed their disclosure through DocuSign, upload the Other Support disclosure and all supporting documentation as a flattened PDF to Assist and send copies to your assigned Grants Associate in JHURA. The DocuSign Certificate of Completion should be included in the email as well.
For Just-in-Time, after the investigator has electronically signed their Other Support, upload the Other Support disclosure and all supporting documentation as a flattened PDF to eRA NIH Commons and send copies to your Grants Associate in JHURA. The DocuSign Certificate of Completion should be included in the email as well.
Your JHURA Grants Associate will submit the relevant information to NIH.Flattened PDF files will be retained by JHU; DocuSign signature data will be stored in DocuSign and will be accessible to JHURA and University leadership as necessary.The University requires that investigators sign their own Other Support disclosures; faculty cannot assign this task to an administrator, department staff, or other member of their lab. Instructions on using DocuSign for obtaining electronic signatures is available here.
Published: January 7, 2022
Previous related announcements are posted below in chronological order.
Published: December 3, 2021
We are writing to update you on two upcoming changes to the NIH Other Support disclosures. First, as explained below in an email to faculty that was distributed yesterday, beginning on January 25, all faculty must include in their Other Support disclosures copies of non-JH contracts related to foreign appointments and/or employment. The faculty email below and an earlier email to Vice Deans *Forthcoming NIH Requirements Related to Other Support Disclosures explains the process by which such contracts will be (1) submitted by faculty to Vice Deans, (2) reviewed by Vice Deans, and then—if the activity is approved—(3) included in Other Support packets and transmitted by you and your teams to JHURA.
Second, as explained below, beginning on January 25 all faculty will be required to electronically sign their NIH Other Support disclosures using DocuSign. We are currently working with IT, the Office of General Counsel, and others on the process by which this will be operationalized. We will circle back with more details very soon.
JHURA will soon announce Q & A sessions to be held later this month/early January to answer any questions you may have. In the meantime, please contact us if you have any questions.
Dear Faculty Colleagues:
Beginning January 25, 2022, the NIH is implementing two changes to Other Support disclosures. As a reminder, Other Support must be disclosed at Just-in-Time when submitting K and T grants, as part of progress reports, and as otherwise required under specific funding programs.
First, you must submit to NIH copies of any contracts that are related to your foreign academic appointments. These contracts must be in English or include an English translation. All divisions have instituted a formal process, explained on the JHU Research website, for the review and approval of such appointments. You should provide your contracts alongside the relevant request form as part of that approval process. Once the appropriate vice dean has reviewed your submission and approved the external academic appointment, they will communicate that approval to you; you must then include the relevant contracts in your Other Support materials.
Second, you must electronically sign your Other Support disclosures prior to submitting to ORA or JHURA. JHU will be utilizing DocuSign for this electronic signature requirement. Further information about this requirement will be forthcoming soon.
At this time, the requirement to provide copies of contracts and an electronic signature applies only to NIH awards. It is possible, however, that other federal funding agencies may follow suit; we will update you if and when that happens. Other funders have already taken different measures to address foreign influence concerns, including NSF (by expanding the grant-related reporting requirements) and DOE (by prohibiting DOE-funded investigators from participating in foreign talent programs). Up-to-date information on these additional measures is available on the JHU Research website at the link shared above.
Finally, and as has been previously communicated to you, the NIH’s expectations with regard to Other Support disclosures have been evolving beyond the two changes articulated above. To aid in your decision making about what to include in Other Support, the university has prepared a FAQ webpage related to these changes. It is posted on the university’s website about Other Support. To the extent that your question is not resolved after reading the FAQ, please feel free to contact your divisional vice dean.
Best,
Denis Wirtz
Vice Provost for Research
Jon Links
Professor, Vice Provost, and Chief Risk Officer
*Please note that you must be connected to the JHU VPN to view the document “Forthcoming NIH Requirements Related to Other Support Disclosures“.
Published: September 9, 2021
Although not required until January 2022, more and more applicants and recipients are following our advice and transitioning now to the updated formats and instructions for biosketch and other support documents.
As a result, we’ve received a number of requests for additional clarification to our policies. We’ve updated and added FAQs, posted clarified instructions, and adjusted our other support sample document in response. All of these improved resources are accessible from our biosketch and other support pages.
Here’s a sample of new/updated FAQs:
Check out the biosketch FAQs and other support FAQs for further clarification.
If you have any questions, please email reach out to your assigned grants associate.
Published: May 25, 2021
This message addresses the Implementation of Changes to the Biographical Sketch and Other Support Format Page (NOT-OD-21-110).
For all applications and submissions on or after May 25, 2021, JHURA and School of Medicine ORA will require the use of the new NIH Other Support and Biosketch forms, without the new signature/certification requirement. The signatures/certifications will not be required from all JHU faculty until January 25, 2022.
While NIH is not requiring use of the new Other Support and Biosketch forms until January 25, 2022, applicants are still responsible for capturing all of the necessary information set forth in their original notice (NOT-OD-21-073).
JHU has decided to delay implementing the NIH signature requirement for the Other Support page; however, all investigators remain personally responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their Biosketch and Other Support disclosures on all submissions, including proposals, JIT requests, and RPPRs.
In addition, investigators should ensure that all agreements that relate to any foreign appointment or an item listed on the Other Support page have been reviewed and approved by their Dean’s Office prior to being included in the Other Support. JHURA will not include any agreement that has not been vetted through the investigator’s Dean’s Office, but NIH may request such documents. Therefore, please be sure that all outside appointments and related agreements are on file, translated, and ready to be submitted to NIH upon request.
Information about each school’s process for reviewing foreign appointments may be found here.
Please consult the original NIH Notice and FAQs, as well as JHU’s Current and Pending Support page for additional guidance on what needs to be disclosed.
Please contact your research administration representative with any questions.
Published: April 7, 2021
Effective May 25, 2021, NIH will require the following from recipients:
Read more about new NIH Other Support requirements here.