NIH Just-in-Time (JIT) 2026: What It Is and How to Respond

The NIH grant review and award process has two separate stages that investigators often blur together. Stage one is scientific review: a study section evaluates and scores your application, and the summary statement follows. Stage two is funding consideration: the institute weighs the review, program priorities, and its budget to decide which applications to fund. If you're still decoding your score, start with how NIH scores work and how to read your summary statement.

Just-in-Time sits between these stages. When the institute is actively considering your application, its staff ask for documents that would otherwise have been part of the application. Deferring them spares investigators whose applications won't be funded from chasing approvals they don't need. There's no point getting IACUC sign-off for an application that won't be funded.

The friction is predictable. A PI who waits two or three weeks to forward the request runs into the sponsored programs office's own internal deadlines, an IACUC renewal nobody checked, or a SciENcv account that isn't linked to ORCID. Each of those can push a Notice of Award back, and in August or September a late award can slip into the next fiscal year.

NIH Award Timeline: Where JIT Falls

NIH runs 3 review cycles a year, and scientific review happens 4 to 5 months after the due date, not weeks. According to NIH's standard due dates (opens in a new tab), a new R01 due February 5 is reviewed in June or July, goes to council in August or October, and can start as early as September or December:

NIH notes that a council may meet in the month before or after the one listed, and that awarding components can't always honor the requested start date. NIH also no longer runs separate AIDS due dates: the standard dates now apply to AIDS and non-AIDS applications alike.

JIT is requested after review and before award. Timing varies by institute: some ask before council, some after. According to the eRA Commons JIT page (opens in a new tab), the JIT link appears on your eRA Commons Status screen within 24 hours after the impact score is released for every application. That link isn't a request. eRA says applicants shouldn't submit anything until the awarding institute emails a specific request.

The JIT Request: What NIH Sends You

NIH Grants Policy Statement section 2.5.1 (opens in a new tab) names 4 standard elements, and NIH notifies applicants, mainly by email, when they're needed. Your institution then submits the material through the Just-in-Time feature in eRA Commons. The request lists exactly what the institute wants. The standard components:

Other Support. Other support covers all resources made available to a researcher in support of their research, whether or not those resources have monetary value and whether or not they're based at your institution. It includes active and pending grants, in-kind contributions such as lab space or a postdoc paid by an outside source, consulting agreements that involve research outside your appointment, and foreign appointments. Training awards, prizes and true gifts are excluded. Effort is reported in person-months. For JIT submissions on or after May 8, 2026, NIH requires the Current and Pending (Other) Support Common Form, which must be prepared and certified in SciENcv (opens in a new tab). NIH's form page says there's no blank template to download and fill out elsewhere. If any senior/key person has a foreign appointment or employment, the Grants Policy Statement requires copies of those contracts, translated if they aren't in English, as part of the Other Support submission.

Human Subjects Education Certification. If the project involves human subjects research, you certify that every senior/key person involved in that research has completed education in the protection of human subjects. NIH doesn't prescribe a specific course. Its human subjects training page (opens in a new tab) says NIH no longer offers its own PHRP course and points institutions to the HHS Office for Human Research Protections training. How often people must retake training is set by your institution, so check your IRB office's rule.

IACUC Approval. For projects involving live vertebrate animals, NIH asks for verification of the date of IACUC approval for the animal-use sections, plus any changes the IACUC imposed. Pending or out-of-date approvals aren't acceptable. If your approval will lapse before the likely award date, get it renewed now.

IRB Approval. For non-exempt human subjects research, NIH asks for certification that an appropriate IRB reviewed and approved the project. The Grants Policy Statement says pending or expired approvals are not acceptable, so start IRB review early enough that approval is in hand when the request arrives.

According to the Grants Policy Statement, institutes may also request other items:

• The human embryonic stem cell line(s), if the application didn't name a line from the NIH Registry
• A Genomic Data Sharing Institutional Certification for projects subject to NIH's Genomic Data Sharing policy that generate human genomic data
• The Required Disclosure of Foreign Affiliations or Relationships to Foreign Countries form for SBIR and STTR applications, plus the SBIR or STTR Funding Agreement Certification when asked (see the NIH SBIR and STTR guide)
• A revised budget, or changes to the human subjects or vertebrate animals sections, on a case-by-case basis
• Updated Common Forms carrying the research security training certification, for some applications submitted for due dates on or after May 25, 2026 (covered below)

How to Respond Efficiently

A good JIT response is 5 steps of coordination, not a writing task. The documents should already exist. The work is assembling them quickly and getting them through your institution.

Step 1: Read the request and assign each item. Identify each item and who owns it. Other support comes from each senior/key person, who must certify their own Common Form in SciENcv. Human subjects education records come from the PI and senior/key personnel. IACUC and IRB dates come from those offices.

Step 2: Tell your sponsored programs office the same day. At most institutions, the signing official submits JIT, not the PI. According to NIH's JIT information page (opens in a new tab), PIs must work with their organization's administrative officials to prepare and submit JIT materials. Many offices set their own internal turnaround for JIT, so ask what it is the day the request arrives.

Step 3: Rebuild other support in SciENcv. This is usually the slowest item, because it must be accurate as of the JIT submission, not the application date. New awards, new collaborations, newly pending applications and in-kind support all go in. Each person needs an ORCID iD linked to both SciENcv and their eRA Commons profile, because NOT-OD-26-079 says the ORCID on the form must match the one in the eRA Commons profile named on the application. Fix account links early: the eRA Service Desk handles ORCID conflicts.

Step 4: Confirm IACUC and IRB status. Approvals expire or need continuing review. If yours lapsed after you applied, renewal has to finish before JIT is complete.

Step 5: Submit complete, then keep it current. NIH sets no formal deadline, but the award waits on you, and a partial response just restarts the back-and-forth with grants management. After you submit, the Grants Policy Statement makes you responsible for promptly reporting substantive changes up to the time of award, such as a new grant that creates overlap or effort above 12 person-months for any senior/key person.

Grantsights Analysis: When New R01 Awards Are Issued

Grantsights analysis of NIH RePORTER data found that 45.6% of new R01 awards in FY2026 (2,270 of 4,983) had award notices dated in August or September, the last 2 months of the federal fiscal year. Method: Grantsights pulled every new (Type 1) R01 record for fiscal years 2024 through 2026 from the public NIH RePORTER API (opens in a new tab) on October 17, 2026 and counted award notice dates by month, keeping only notices dated within each fiscal year.

Two more findings from the same data. In FY2026, the median award notice was dated 1 day before the project's budget start date, and only about 10% arrived 12 or more days before it. And the end-of-year crowding isn't just at the margins: 349 of FY2026's new R01 notices (7.0%) were dated between September 15 and September 30.

What that changes for you: if your application went to an August or October council, assume your JIT and award will land in the busiest weeks of the year for grants management staff. The next action is to check IACUC, IRB, training and SciENcv status as soon as your score posts, not when the JIT email arrives. One university in Washington state shows how tight the window can be: Washington State University's new NIAAA R01 (1R01AA033274-01 (opens in a new tab), $688,500 in RePORTER) carries an award notice dated September 17, 2026 and a budget start of September 20. Georgia Institute of Technology's new NHLBI R01 (1R01HL187527-01, $736,461) has a notice dated September 17, 2026, two days after its September 15 budget start.

Limits: RePORTER shows when awards were issued, not when JIT was requested or answered, so this measures the end-of-year bunching of awards, not JIT delays themselves.

How a Slow JIT Response Can Delay an Award

Because 45.6% of FY2026 new R01 notices came in August or September, a JIT request that sits unanswered in late summer collides with the fiscal-year close. For example, suppose a PI gets a JIT request in mid-August, sees it a week later, and forwards it to the department, which forwards it to the sponsored programs office, which has its own processing time. If the IACUC approval lapsed in July, renewal adds more weeks. If a senior/key person's SciENcv account isn't linked to ORCID, eRA validation can stop the Other Support upload. By mid-September, the institute may be closing out its fiscal-year awards, and the award can slip into the next fiscal year.

None of that delay comes from the JIT requirements themselves. Forward the request the day it arrives, and check IACUC, IRB and SciENcv status as soon as you see your score. If you're planning a resubmission instead, the same prep shortens your next JIT.

Common JIT Mistakes

The IACUC must do a complete review of each approved animal activity at least once every 3 years under the PHS Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (opens in a new tab), and approval timing is only one of the ways a JIT response stalls.

Using the old Other Support format page. This is now the most common mistake to avoid. NOT-OD-26-079 says that on May 8, 2026, eRA system warnings became errors that stop any JIT, RPPR, prior approval or application submission that doesn't use compliant Common Forms. A Word-template Other Support file from an earlier award won't go through.

Incomplete other support. Missing a pending application, leaving out in-kind support, or skipping a foreign appointment are the problems grants management staff look for. Each person's SciENcv certification states that the form is true, complete and accurate. Incomplete disclosures can delay an award for corrections or, in more serious cases, lead to findings of non-disclosure. See conflict of interest rules for federal grants for the related disclosure obligations.

Expired IACUC approval. If your approval came up for its 3-year review after you applied, you may be caught without current approval when JIT arrives. Check status as soon as you receive your score.

Slow response. Every week of delay in your JIT response can be a week of delay in your Notice of Award. If the delay pushes the award past September 30, the award may move to the next fiscal year.

Assuming JIT = award. This is a red flag for your institution's risk office. Some investigators respond to JIT by starting procurement, hiring, or renovating lab space. NIH says a JIT request isn't even an indicator of possible funding, let alone an award. Wait for the Notice of Award before making commitments.

What Happens After JIT: Budget Negotiation

In FY2026, the median new R01 award notice was dated just 1 day before the budget start date, according to NIH RePORTER records, so budget talks often end close to the start date. After JIT is complete, program and grants management staff review the budget, and the award can come in below the requested amount.

According to NIH's funding decisions page (opens in a new tab), institute directors consider the budget to award for each grant, not relying solely on the requested budget as evaluated by peer reviewers, but also assessing actual needs and opportunity costs. Issues that come up at this stage:

• Scope-based reductions. If reviewers recommended trimming an aim, program staff may propose a smaller budget to match. The NIH modular budget guide explains how module counts change.
• Effort and overlap. The Grants Policy Statement says overlap, whether scientific, budgetary, or commitment above 100 percent (12 person-months), isn't permitted. Staff resolve overlap with you and the PI at the time of award, and only funds needed for the approved project are included.
• Salary above the cap. Requested salaries above the NIH cap get cut back; the NIH salary cap guide has the current limit.

To see other open NIH funding while you wait, search the Grantsights grant database.

Budget negotiation is typically an email exchange between your institution's grants office and the NIH grants management specialist. You provide scientific justification if asked. For tactics, see how to negotiate a grant award. Once negotiation is complete, the Notice of Award is issued. The notice is the binding legal document authorizing expenditure.

2026 Changes: Common Forms, SciENcv and Research Security

Five NIH notices issued between July 2025 and April 2026 change what a JIT package looks like:

A few details from those notices matter at JIT. According to NOT-OD-26-079, SciENcv added the research security training certification back to the Common Forms on April 22, 2026. If you applied for a due date on or after May 25, 2026 with forms certified before that change, NIH staff will collect updated documents at JIT. The same notice says the 2026-1 version of the Other Support form allows zero person-months for proposals, active projects and in-kind contributions where that applies, and that the eRA JIT module now accepts Common Forms one person at a time instead of a single combined PDF. If you're updating biosketches at the same point, the NIH biosketch guide covers the Common Form version.

What NIH's JIT Process Doesn't Tell You

The automated eRA email that once went to every application with an overall impact score of 30 or less was retired on October 1, 2024, according to NOT-OD-24-165 (opens in a new tab). Older university pages still describe it. Today the only JIT request that counts is the email from the awarding institute's staff.

JIT isn't a payline signal, and paylines are gone. According to NIH's funding decisions page (opens in a new tab), institutes no longer use cutoff points in overall impact scores to decide which applications to fund. They weigh peer review in its entirety along with program priorities, investigator career stage, geographic balance, the investigator's existing NIH funding, and available funds. A JIT request means you're under consideration, nothing more. Older payline tables still circulate, so read NIH paylines explained with that change in mind.

Institute directors decide. NIH's funding decisions page says IC directors keep the delegated authority to decide what's funded, and advisory councils can flag cases where more investment in an area or investigator isn't justified. Talk to your program officer about where your application stands; the JIT email itself won't tell you.

The Grants Policy Statement lags the notices. NOT-OD-26-079 says the March 25, 2026 Grants Policy Statement couldn't fully incorporate the Common Forms requirements, which will come in the next update. Where section 2.5.1 and the notices differ on format, follow the notices.

Fiscal year timing affects awards. NIH runs on the federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30). In FY2026, 20.4% of new R01 award notices were dated in September alone, according to Grantsights analysis of RePORTER data. A JIT package that's incomplete in August or September carries the most risk of slipping.

Related NIH Guides

• NIH Grants: The Complete Guide
• How to Resubmit an NIH Grant
• How to Respond to Grant Reviewer Comments
• NIH Study Sections Explained
• NIH R01 vs R21 vs R03 Comparison
• NIH K01 Career Development Award

Sources

• NIH Grants Policy Statement 2.5.1, Just-in-Time Procedures (revised March 2026): grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/nihgps/html5/section_2/2.5.1_just-in-time_procedures.htm (opens in a new tab)
• NIH Just-in-Time (JIT) Information: grants.nih.gov/grants-process/award/just-in-time (opens in a new tab)
• eRA Commons, Submit Just-in-Time: era.nih.gov/about-era/services-for-grant-applicant-grantee/other/overview-jit.htm (opens in a new tab)
• NOT-OD-24-165, Retirement of NIH's Automated Just-in-Time Email Notification: grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-24-165.html (opens in a new tab)
• Current and Pending (Other) Support Common Form: grants.nih.gov/grants-process/write-application/forms-directory/cpos-common-form (opens in a new tab)
• NOT-OD-26-018, Common Forms implementation: grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-26-018.html (opens in a new tab)
• NOT-OD-26-033, Adjusted timeline for Common Forms: grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-26-033.html (opens in a new tab)
• NOT-OD-26-079, End of the Common Forms leniency period: grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-26-079.html (opens in a new tab)
• NOT-OD-26-017, Research Security Training requirements: grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-26-017.html (opens in a new tab)
• NOT-OD-25-133, Other Support disclosure training requirement: grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-25-133.html (opens in a new tab)
• NIH Funding Decisions: grants.nih.gov/grants-process/award/funding-decisions (opens in a new tab)
• NIH Human Subjects Training and Resources: grants.nih.gov/policy-and-compliance/policy-topics/human-subjects/training-and-resources (opens in a new tab)
• PHS Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals: grants.nih.gov/policy-and-compliance/policy-topics/animal-welfare/laws-regulations/phs-policy (opens in a new tab)
• NIH Standard Due Dates: grants.nih.gov/grants-process/submit/submission-policies/standard-due-dates (opens in a new tab)
• NIH RePORTER API (new R01 award records, FY2024 to FY2026): api.reporter.nih.gov (opens in a new tab)