Other Support Reporting - NIH

Researchers who receive any federal funding are reminded that the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects’ standard operating policy SOP 200.03 requires:

“every disclosure to an external funding agency of a faculty member’s active and pending sources of support for research and other sponsored activities be true, complete and accurate to the best of the faculty member's knowledge. This requirement applies regardless of the source of support, [or] the official recipient of the source of support…  False, fictitious, or fraudulent statements or claims (including intentional omissions) in violation of this policy may result in criminal, civil, administrative or University penalties.”

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), in particular, released an update to the NIH Grants Policy Statement in 2019 that clarifies “Other Support” reporting requirements. NIH stated that resources requiring disclosure as “Other Support” include:

NIH requires disclosure of all financial and non-financial resources to which a faculty member may have direct or indirect access, including but not limited to research-related grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements (regardless of the legal recipient), as well as non-U-M appointments/positions and in-kind resources provided by non-U-M entities that are not freely available to other researchers (e.g., laboratory equipment, research materials, lab personnel, etc.).

In order to comply with NIH policy, keep in mind the following key concepts when submitting “Other Support” information (e.g., in Just-In-Time materials, Research Performance Progress Reports, etc.):

1. “Other Support” encompasses all of the resources that you have access to – not just the grants and contracts that support your research, with limited exceptions as specifically outlined by NIH.
2. “Other Support” includes resources that do not have a dollar value attached to them (AKA “in-kind”), as well as resources that do have monetary value.
3. “Other Support” includes resources that are related to your research, in addition to the resources that directly support your research.
4. “Other Support” also includes resources that are not received through 
   U-M, including those received in the U.S. as well as those received in other countries outside the U.S.

How to Comply

Other Support must be disclosed according to the requirements in the NIH Grants Policy Statement. To assist in understanding NIH’s guidance, the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects (ORSP) has developed an “Other Support” template and an “Other Support” template with examples and the following Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

FAQs
Download NIH Other Support FAQs (PDF)