On Thursday, Aug. 7, NIH updated its No Cost Extension (NCE) process to once again allow initial NCEs to be submitted via eRA Commons.  This was communicated in a Guide Notice reversing the agency's May policy change which had required that all NCEs, including initial extensions, follow NIH's Prior Approval process.

 

With this new change, we can revert to our previous procedure of initiating an NCE using a completed UPAS (University Prior Approval System) form routed via the Award Modification Request (AMR) action in Huron.

 

While this Notice indicates that NCE requests previously submitted using the Prior Approval function should be re-processed in Commons, this option is not available for awards with past Project Period End Dates. For those awards, we've been told by NIH staff that the original request will be reviewed, and no additional Commons steps are required.