Office of Sponsored Programs Administration

Guidelines for the NIH Authentication of Key Biological and/or Chemical Resources Requirement

The NIH is committed to promoting rigorous and transparent research in all areas of science supported by a variety of grant programs. Updates to application instructions and review language intended to enhance reproducibility through rigor and transparency have been implemented for research grants and mentored career development awards. Updates to institutional training grants, institutional career development awards (K12/KL2) and individual fellowships will be forthcoming in 2017 or later.

As part of this initiative, NIH research and career award applications now include an Authentication of Key Biological and/or Chemical Resources document.

Content
If applicable to the proposed science, briefly describe methods to ensure the identity and validity of key biological and/or chemical resources used in the proposed studies. If key resources have been purchased or obtained from an outside source that provided data on prior authentication, the investigator is still expected to provide their own authentication plans for these key resources. A maximum of one page is suggested.

For example, applicants proposing to use cell lines should describe the method they plan to use to verify the identity and purity of the lines, which might include short tandem repeat (STR) profiling and mycoplasma testing. Applicants proposing to use chemicals that are key to the research should describe the method that will be used to validate the chemical, which might include liquid or gas chromatography or mass spectrometry. When published consensus standards exist, these may be cited in this section as the procedure(s) that will be used for validation.

Authentication data should not be included in the plan.

Rockefeller Resources
If using biological or chemical resources that will be obtained from an RU Resource Center, please consult with the director of the Resource Center. The University has arranged for access to STR service from the MSKCC Genomics Core Lab at the internal price of $36/sample. This covers the assay and delivery of raw .fsa files, PDFs of each sample’s fluorescence peaks with allele calls, and a table of the genotypes and raw data, along with a genotype quality score, for each locus. If you need assistance with locating commercial sources, please contact Chris Keogh.

For More Information
NIH page on Rigor and Reproducibility
NIH FAQs on Authentication of Key Biological and/or Chemical Resources
Open Mike article

 

 

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