dkNET Authentication Report  

How can dkNET assist in preparing the “authentication of key biological and/or chemical resources” report for your grant application?

The NIH is committed to promoting rigorous and transparent research in all areas of science supported by a variety of grant programs. The updates to NIH research grant and career development award application instructions and review language focus on four key areas: Rigor of the Prior Research, Scientific rigor (design), Biological variables and Authentication. dkNET has developed tools to help researchers with Authentication.

* Updates: Please note that an updated guideline was released in September, 2018, and we have also uploaded the updated guideline infographic here. Beginning with applications due on and after January 25, 2019, the term "rigor of the prior research" will replace "scientific premise" under the Significance section. Applicants will be also asked to describe plans to address weaknesses in the rigor of the prior research in the Approach section (see NOT-OD-18-228 and NOT-OD-18-229).

Authenticating Key Biological Resources

From now own, NIH requires you to include an attachment that briefly describes methods to ensure the identity and validity of key biological and/or chemical resources used in proposed studies. NIH specifies what constitute key resources (includes but is not limited to cell lines, antibodies, specialty chemicals, and other biologics) although they do not provide specific guidance on what should be in an authentication plan. View an example (Authentication of Key Biological and/or Chemical Resources; PDF), prepared by Dr. Anita Bandrowski, University of California San Diego.

dkNET Authentication Report for Your Resources

dkNET provides easy access to information about key biological resources like antibodies and cell lines, which can be used in an authentication plan. We recommend that researchers provide unambiguous identification of the resources they are planning to use by providing a unique research resource identifier, the RRID, for each key resource.

Start your authentication plan using dkNET’s authentication reports (see an example here). If you have resources in addition to what is supported, you can download your report and add these entries to those contained in your authentication report.