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NIH Fellowship Activation & Termination

Purpose

Provide guidance to NIH fellowship awardees, their faculty sponsors, and departments for activating and terminating the award. 

Applicability

Principal Investigators (PIs) and fellows awarded NIH fellowships must follow all applicable NIH Grants Policies including 11.2.11.1 Activation Notice and 11.2.11.3 Termination Notice. 

Activation Instructions

  1. Fellows will receive a notice of award (NOA) that will state the latest activation date (highlighted below).  
    F31
  2. All fellows must complete an Activation Notice for the first year of their fellowship, indicating their start date under the fellowship and other requested information. An activation notice bearing original signatures must be submitted to the awarding component before funds are expended. No funds may be disbursed until the fellow enters on duty and the proper forms are submitted to PHS.
    • An Activation Notice is not required in subsequent years unless the fellowship is at a foreign or Federal site.  
    • In addition, a Payback Agreement MUST be submitted, along with the Activation Notice, for all postdoctoral trainees beginning their initial Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) appointment. 
    • An appropriate statement regarding degrees (certified by degree-granting institution) MUST be attached if such contingency appears on the award notice.
  3. The fellow and/or department admin must contact their Sponsored Projects Officer (SPO) to coordinate Institutional Business Official signature.
  4. When ready, the fellow and/or department admin must send the signed forms to the awarding agency using the address provided in the Notice of Award. If unsure, please verify with SPO. There is no electronic submission system for fellowship activation notices - but since COVID, NIH has been more flexible with accepting electronic signatures via email.
    • This should be submitted immediately after the fellow enters on duty.
    • Parties should keep a copy for their records.
  5. Once activated the University will receive a notice of award that shows the start date. This NOA, along with the signed activation form, and the original Notice of Fellowship Award, should be attached to the new project setup request in eAward. 
    start date

Termination Instructions

  1. As a condition of the activation, all NRSA fellows agree to complete and submit a Termination Notice (PHS 416-7) immediately upon completion of support.
    • Fellows who have active NRSA support must use the eRA Commons xTrain system to prepare and submit a Termination Notice
    • Fellows without active NRSA support are not required to prepare or submit a Termination Notice
  2. Login to eRA Commons > go to xTrain > find your grant record > Initiate TN (Termination Notice)
  3. Termination notices should be assigned/routed to the Business Official (BO) Sally Peterson (Grants & Contracts Accounting) in xTrain and GCA will verify and submit. Questions re: the Termination Notice should be sent to GCA.  
  4. The Termination Notice (along with the PHS 2271 Statement of Appointment form) is the basis for validating the total period of Kirschstein-NRSA support and establishing the amount of payback obligation, if any, for each Kirschstein-NRSA trainee.
  5. The PD/PI is responsible for submitting a Termination Notice for each trainee within 30 days of the end of the total period of support even if the trainee is not available for signature. 

  6. In most cases, the information on the form must be verified by the program director and an institutional business official, however, in cases where the program director is not available to sign the Notice within the required timeframe, the form may be verified by the institutional business official alone. The lack of timely and accurate information on this form could adversely affect data collected associated with aggregate NRSA support and the payback process. Recipients are required to submit the PHS 416-7 data electronically using the xTrain application. 

    No Termination Notice is required for prebaccalaureate (T34) trainees

Termination Notice Editing 

In some instances NIH will require corrections to the Termination Notice (TN). The PI, fellow, and department administrator will need to work with the Business Official (BO) in GCA, Sally Petersen, to coordinate any needed updates and edits to the TN. 

In general, the person who has the TN in their queue can make edits to the document. If the fellow does not have it in their queue, please discuss with GCA. If the GCA BO does not have it in their queue, the GCA BO should reach out to NIH to find out who it is currently with or the fellow should recall the TN form to their queue for editing. 

OSP receives reminders of award closeout but the xTrain process, TN, and financial closeout are handled by Grants and Contracts Accounting (GCA). Questions regarding xTrain and TN processes should be directed to the BO Sally Petersen. 

Resources: 

Last Updated: 6/6/24