Human Cognitive and Behavioral Science — Request for Applications: How to Apply

The deadline for application submission is Thursday, May 4, 2023, 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time

Applications must be submitted via the Simons Award Manager (SAM). Please click on the Funding Opportunities icon and navigate to the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative – 2023 Human Cognitive and Behavioral Science award call. Click the Create Application button to begin. Applications should be started and submitted under the applicant’s own account in SAM. After creating an application, navigate to the “Applications in Progress” section on your homepage to access the in-progress application.

Please note that anyone submitting an application will be added to the SFARI newsletter mailing list.

Informational Session for Potential Applicants
The Simons Foundation will host an informational session on the scientific content of the RFA with members of the SFARI science team on Tuesday, March 7, 2023 at 1:00 p.m. ET Click here to register.

Additionally, informational videos on submitting applications in SAM can be found here.

Application Submission Instructions
To submit an application, the following sections must be completed:

1. Proposal Tab:
   1. Applicant Details & Personal Data: Enter required fields. The contact PI may edit information via the Edit Profile button as needed.
   2. Academic Degrees: Click the Add/Modify Degree(s) button to provide this information.
   3. Application Details: Provide the required information. Hovering over the question mark icons will provide additional information on required fields. Available start dates include October 1, November 1, and December 1, 2023.
   4. Proposal – The following information/upload must be provided:
      1. Simons Collections Data and/or Biospecimens: If there are SSC, Searchlight, SPARK or AIC samples or phenotypic data requested in the application, indicate accordingly.
      2. Specific Aims: Upload via template provided.
      3. Proposal Narrative: Upload via template provided.
      4. Human Participants Study Information Sheet: Upload via the template provided (only applicable if you are conducting human participant research/clinical studies).
      5. Statement of Changes: Upload via the template provided (only applicable if your application is a resubmission. Not a visible field for new submissions).
      6. Personnel Biosketches: Provide biosketches for all key personnel on the project. Upload using the template provided or using your NIH biosketch or NIH SciENcv.
      7. Resources and Research Environment: Upload via template provided.
      8. Other: Upload any application materials that were specifically requested. Additionally, in-press papers can be included, as well as any papers that you consider essential for the work of the review committee. Include no more than three (3) papers. Any other material should be included, if possible, in the narrative.
   5. Data & Renewable Reagents: Indicate your plan for sharing data and renewable reagents (if applicable) by answering the provided questions.
2. Contacts and Personnel Tab:
   1. Institution Administrative Contacts: At least one institution signing official and financial officer must be added to the Institution Administrative Contacts section before you will be able to submit your application.
   2. Project Personnel: Please indicate all key personnel on the proposed project. Important: Please do not include the contact PI (main PI) in this section. Key personnel include any other individuals who contribute to the scientific development or execution of a project in a substantive, measurable way, whether or not they request salaries or compensation. This may include co-investigators, collaborators, postdoctoral research associates or equivalent employee positions.
      1. Project personnel who will be named in the budget must be added to the Project Personnel section on this tab before they will display as available options in the budget module. This does not apply to TBD personnel.
      2. Instructions for Multiple PIs: The applicant PI will be the designated contact PI for the project. The contact PI will be responsible for directing the project and will coordinate all administrative deliverables.
         1. Applications with multiple PIs from different institutions who would like to be paid separately must list the additional PI(s) in the Project Personnel section and use the Application Role dropdown that indicates “Principal Investigator (Multi-Site).” This will generate a linked application that the additional PI and their institution must complete. Additional PIs will be notified via email that they have been invited to participate in a collaboration and will be able to access their application upon logging into SAM, which includes a budget and requires sign-off by a signing official from the individual PI’s institution. Additional PIs can work on their applications at the same time as the contact PI.
         2. Applications with multiple PIs from different institutions who would like to be paid directly by the main institution are considered subcontracts. Subcontract PIs should be listed in the Project Personnel section either with or without access.
            1. Subcontract PIs with access should be added using the Application Role dropdown that indicates “Subcontract Lead – With Application Access,” which will generate an email notification that they have been added to the application with access to view or edit the main or any subcontract budgets.
            2. Subcontract Leads without access should be added using the Application Role dropdown that indicates “Key Personnel (Including Subcontracts) – Without Application Access,” which will not notify the Subcontract PI and will not give them access. Instead, this allows the contact PI to fill out the subcontract budget on their behalf.

         3. Applications from multiple PIs at the same institution do not need to submit additional materials. Additional non-applicant PIs can be added to this section as “Key Personnel – With Access” or “Key Personnel (Including Subcontracts) – Without Application Access.” Under “add more details,” select the role “Non-Contact Principal Investigator.”
3. Budget Tab: Click the Edit/Modify button to add a detailed budget. Any errors that must be corrected before submission will be displayed in red above the budget. If a budget has more than one period, using the “copy from previous period” functionality will copy items from the previous period into the current period.
   1. Subcontractor Budgets, including budgets with PIs from different institutions who would like to be paid directly by the main institution, will be visible once the Subcontract is added in the Contacts and Key Personnel tab as described above.
   2. Multi-site budgets from different institutions that would like to be paid separately will be visible on each PI’s individual application, but they will not be able to see any individual salary information. They will see an aggregated personnel total.
   3. Budget Considerations
      1. Personnel: Please note that there is no salary cap for PIs or other faculty on a Simons Foundation grant; however, the compensation is prorated according to the individual’s percent effort on the grant. There is no minimum percent effort required for PIs or other personnel on any SFARI award type, but it is expected that the PI will commit sufficient effort to this project to provide a leading intellectual and guiding role on the project. PIs committing less than 15 percent effort to their project should justify their effort level in detail. SFARI funds may be used only for personnel considered employees of the grantee institution who are eligible for benefits. Funds may not be used for stipend or benefit supplementation unless specifically authorized under the terms of the program from which funds are derived. The Simons Foundation reserves the right to modify budgets when an application has been selected for an award (see Simons Foundation policies).
      2. Indirect costs (IDCs): Indirect costs to the primary institution are limited to 20 percent of direct costs with the following exceptions: equipment, tuition and any portion of each subcontract in excess of $25,000. The primary institution may take indirect costs on the first $25,000 modified total direct costs of each subcontract. Indirect costs paid to a subcontractor may not exceed 20 percent of the modified total direct costs paid to the subcontractor.
      3. Equipment: The Simons Foundation will own equipment purchased with foundation grant funds with a unit cost of $50,000 or more. At the end of the grant funding period or in the case of grant termination for any reason, the foundation reserves the right to retain ownership or cede ownership to the PI’s institution. Equipment with a unit cost of less than $50,000 shall be the property of the institution.
      4. Biospecimens: If the proposal includes the use of Simons Collection biospecimens (i.e., from the Simons Simplex Collection (SSC) or Simons Searchlight), the Simons Foundation will review the estimated cost based on the price list on SFARI.org. Biospecimen costs will be considered separately from other project costs. Enter the projected figure under “Other Expenses.” A description of use, including the number and type of biospecimens, should be included in the proposal narrative and budget justification. Biospecimen costs must be excluded from the IDC cost calculation: if they are calculated automatically, please manually exclude them from the IDC calculation.
      5. Budget Tracks: Applicants must choose either the Explorer, Expansion or Collaboration track (see the RFA for detailed descriptions of each track). Please ensure that your budget does not exceed the maximum for its chosen track. As with all Simons Foundation funded projects, it is at the foundation’s discretion to modify final budgets as needed. Grant progress will be critically evaluated at the end of each annual funding period before support for the upcoming year will be approved. As such, it is to the investigator’s advantage to include realistic budget estimations in their initial grant application.
4. Abstract and Keywords Tab: Enter your scientific abstract for a technical audience as text in this section. Do not exceed 500 words.
5. Publications & Other Support Tab:
   1. Publications: Follow instructions for providing publications for all key personnel on the project. Publications can be added as a batch from a Pubmed search by selecting Select publication from profile and then clicking the Assign Publications for this Proposal button. Note that publications will be used to determine conflicts of interest (COIs) for the review of your proposal; including a complete list of your publications over the last seven (7) years using this function, rather than the PDF upload option, will expedite the review process.
   2. Other Support: Follow instructions for providing other support information for all key personnel on the project.
      1. If using PDF upload, use NIH format.
6. Organization Assurances: Indicate if the application has organizational assurances, Including IRB and/or IACUC. If so, click the “Add/Modify Assurances” button to add the assurance type, status, approval date, expiration date, and protocol number.
7. Check Application Progress: Click the Check Application Progress button to check for any missing required information or files. All missing required information will be listed at the top of the screen and must be corrected before the application can be submitted.
8. Send for sign-off (one institution or multiple institutions paid directly by the main institution as subcontracts): When the application is complete, click on the “Send for sign-off” button to send to your signing official for signature. The Signing Official added to the application will see the application in the “Applications to Review” section when they log in and will be responsible for signing and submitting the application to the Simons Foundation.
9. Send for sign–off (multi-site applications paid separately): Multi-site applications for institutions paid separately have an additional step for final submission. Once all linked applications have been signed by each institution’s signing official as described above, the contact PI will receive a notification that the application package is ready for submission. The contact PI should click on “Submit Application Package” to finalize and submit the application package including all components from multiple sites.
10. Confirmation of submission: A confirmation page will appear once the application is successfully submitted. For non-collaboration applications, the Signing Official will see the confirmation page. For multi-site applications for institutions paid separately, the contact PI will see the confirmation page that the package has been submitted. Please note that you will not be able to submit an application if the deadline has passed.