To help streamline the proposal review and award process, NIH requires that proposals requesting $250,000 or less in direct costs per year be submitted as "modular grants." Funds are requested in $25,000 increments, or "modules," based on a locally-generated detailed budget that is not sent to the funding agency. Ordinarily the same number of modules should be requested in each year of the award period. Additional restrictions and guidelines are outlined at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/modular/modular_features.htm. Key points include:

• The budget narrative must include all personnel by position, role and level of effort. This include consultants, personnel on any consortium/contractual arrangements and any "to be appointed" positions.
• Any variation in the number of modules requested must be explained in the budget justification. Equipment costs should not be explained unless they result in a variation in the number of modules being requested.
• The inclusion of a subaward does not preclude using the modular submission format. In such cases the proposal should include a statement of intent to establish a consortium between the participating institutions. The subawardee should provide the PI sufficiently detailed (non-modular) budget information so that the cost of the consortium agreement (which includes the subawardee's associated F&A costs) can be estimated to the nearest $1,000.
• The NIH Checklist page should indicate the calculated F&A costs for each year of the project, based on the number of modules requested less any non-overhead-bearing exclusions.

Please note that SPA requires a detailed budget to be prepared for modular grants, even though a detailed budget is not required by NIH, in order to confirm that F&A cost calculations are correct.

For a full description on which grants are eligible for the modular format, with instructions on how to complete a modular application, please refer to:

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/modular/modular.htm