Formatting Requirements and System Validation for SAMHSA Grant Applications

SAMHSA Formatting Requirements

SAMHSA created these formatting requirements to standardize the process for all applicants.

All attachments must be submitted as Adobe PDF files. See “eRA ASSIST Formatting and Validation Requirements” in this section for more on PDF requirements.
Text must be legible. Your application must be in black type and single-spaced. Use Times New Roman 12-point font and one-inch margins on all sides. Times New Roman 10-point may only be used for charts and tables.
See Application Review Information in the NOFO for the Project Narrative page limit. The application will not be reviewed if it is over the page limit.
Citations may be submitted as a PDF attachment instead of part of the Project Narrative.
When submitting more than one application under the same NOFO, the Project Title in Field 15 of the SF-424 must be different on each application.

Grants.gov Formatting and Validation Requirements

Grants.gov allows only the following characters when naming your attachments: A–Z, a–z, 0–9, underscore, hyphen, space, and period. See items 8 and 9 in the eRA Commons Validation Table in this section.
You must save any scanned images as PDFs at 150–200 dpi/ppi. Using a higher resolution or different file type could result in your application being rejected.
Any files uploaded or attached to the Grants.gov application must be PDFs and contain a valid file format extension in the filename.

eRA Commons Assist Formatting and Validation Requirements

Files uploaded to ASSIST must be:

PDFs

Less than 6MB file size

8.5” x 11” page size

Flattened for fillable PDFs

Error-free

Files must NOT have:

Password protection

Live hyperlinks (Use only plain text URLs.)

Bookmarks or signature boxes

A filename exceeding 50 characters including spaces

Complete these steps for fillable PDFs:

Fillable PDFs are documents with fields that can be edited manually. An example is the SF-424. If you are submitting fillable forms, you will need to “flatten” them to ensure that the information you entered in the fields is saved. Flattening a form is different from “locking” it. Locking a form restricts access to editing, printing, and copying the document. Do not lock your fillable PDFs.

To flatten a fillable PDF:

Go to print settings by selecting File > Print.
On the printer pull-down menu of options, choose Adobe PDF or Microsoft Print to PDF, then click OK.
After clicking OK, a pop-up window will open with options to save the PDF. Give this PDF a different file name than the original PDF. File names cannot exceed 50 characters.
Open the document to confirm that the information you entered in the fields was saved.

You will receive an email from era-notify@mail.nih.gov to correct and resubmit your application if it has any of these errors.

If you experience any system validation or technical issues after hours on the application due date, contact the eRA Commons Service Desk and submit a web ticket to document your attempt to submit your application.

eRA Commons Validation Table

The following table includes formatting requirements and system validations required by eRA Commons. If you do not meet a requirement, an error message will result.

eRA Validations	eRa Error Mesages
Item 1: Insert your Applicant Identifier in Item 4 on the SF-424
You must provide the Program Director or Program Investigator Credentials (Commons Username).	"The Commons Username must be provided in the Applicant Identifier field for the PD/PI.
The username provided must match a valid eRA Commons account.	“The Commons Username provided in the Applicant Identifier is not a recognized Commons account.”
The username must be affiliated with the organization that submits the application and the PI.	“The Commons account provided in the Applicant Identifier field for the PD/PI is either not affiliated with the applicant organization or does not hold the PI role. Check with your Commons Account Administrator to make sure your account affiliation and roles are set up correctly.”
Item 2: The Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number that you provide must include valid characters that consist of 12 numbers)	“The UEI number provided has invalid characters (other than 12 numbers)”
Item 3: You must submit the documentation (forms) required in the NOFO.	The format of the application does not match the format of the NOFO. Contact the eRA Service Desk for help.
Item 4: If you make a change or correction to address an error, you must select “Changed/Corrected” in Item 1 on the SF-424).	“This application has been identified as a duplicate of a previous submission. The ‘Type of Submission’ should be set to Changed/Corrected if you are addressing errors/warnings.”
Item 5: The application cannot exceed 1.2 GB.	“The application did not follow the agency-specific size limit of 1.2 GB. Resize the application to be 1.2 GB or less before submitting.”
Item 6: The correct NOFO number must be provided.	“The Funding Opportunity Announcement number does not exist.”
Item 7: You must submit at all documents and attachments as PDFs.	“The <attachment name> attachment is not in PDF format. All attachments must be provided to the agency as PDFs with a .pdf extension.
Item 8: All attachments must comply with the following formatting requirements: PDF attachments cannot be empty (0 bytes). PDF attachments cannot have metadata missing, be encrypted, password protected, or secured documents. The size of PDF attachments cannot be larger than 8.5” x 11” (horizontally or vertically). (Note: SAMHSA suggests you limit the size of attachments to 35 MB.) PDF attachments must have a valid file name. Valid file names must include the following UTF-8 characters: A–Z, a–z, 0–9, underscore (_), hyphen (-), space, period.	“The <attachment name> attachment contained formatting or features not currently supported by NIH: [condition returned].” “Filename <file name> cannot be larger than U.S. standard letter paper size of 8.5” x 11.” “The <attachment name> attachment filename is invalid. Valid filenames may only include the following characters: A–Z, a–z, 0–9, underscore ( _), hyphen (-), space, or period. No special characters (including brackets) can be part of the filename.”
Item 9: The email addresses for the Contact Person (SF-424 8f) and the Authorized Representative (SF-424 below Section 21) must contain a ‘@’, with at least 1 and at most 64 characters preceding and following the ‘@’. Control characters (ASCII 0 through 31 and 127), spaces and special characters < > ( ) [ ] \ , ; : are not valid.	“The submitted email address for the person to be contacted <email address>, is invalid. Must contain a ‘@’, with at least 1 and at most 64 characters preceding and following the ‘@’. Control characters (ASCII 0 through 31 and 127), spaces, and special characters < > ( ) [ ] \ , ; : are not valid.”
Item 10: Congressional district code of applicant (after truncating) must be valid. (SF-424, items 16 a and 16 b.)	“Congressional district <Congressional District> is invalid. To locate your district, see house.gov.”

Budget Errors

eRA Validations	eRA Error Messages
SF424-A: Section A – Budget Summary The numbers at the end of each row or at the bottom of each column must add up correctly. The total should be the same as the sum of the individual numbers in that row or column.	SF424-A: Section A – Budget Summary The numbers at the end of each row or at the bottom of each column must add up correctly. The total should be the same as the sum of the individual numbers in that row or column.
SF424-A: Section B – Budget Categories The Total in Section B (Column 5 - Row k) must equal the Total in Section A – Budget Summary (Row 5, Column g).	“Ensure the TOTALS l (Column 5, Row k, column 5) equals the Budget Summary Totals in section A, Row 5, Column g.”
SF424-A: Section D – Forecasted Cash Needs The Federal Total for the 1st Year (Line 13) must equal the Total in Section A (Row 5, Column g).	“Ensure the Federal Total for the 1st year, in Section D-Forecasted Needs equals Section A, New or Revised Budget Federal Totals (Column e, Row 5) amount.”
The Non-Federal Total for the 1st Year sum must equal Estimated Unobligated Funds Non-Federal Totals in Section A (d-5) + New or Revised Budget Non-Federal Totals (f-5).	“Ensure the Non-Federal Total for the 1st year equals the sum of Estimated Unobligated Funds Non-Federal Totals (Column d, Row 5) and New or Revised Budget Non-Federal Totals (Column f, Row 5) in Section A.”
The 1st Year TOTAL in Section D must equal the Total (Row 5, Column G) in Section A.	“Ensure the Forecasted Cash Needs: Row 15 TOTAL equals SECTION A – Budget Summary Totals: Line 5, Column (g).”
SF424-A: Section E – Budget Estimates of Federal Funds Needed for Balance of the Project7 The number of budget years/periods must match the span of the project. The number of years in the project period in Block 17 on the SF-424 must align with the future funding periods.	“Ensure the project period years on the SF 424 block 17 match the budget periods in the SF-424A. Enter data for the first budget period in Section D and enter future budget periods in Section E.”

Last Updated: 10/30/2024