NIH Limits AI Use in Grant Proposals

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has issued a notice to limit the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in proposal writing. The policy states that the NIH will not consider applications that are either “substantially developed by AI, or contain sections substantially developed by AI, to be original ideas of applicants.” The policy is not an outright restriction on the use of AI tools for limited aspects of application preparation; however, applicants should proceed with caution when using AI tools to develop ideas and/or draft applications. It is the research team's responsibility to check for plagiarism, fabrication, and/or falsification of information and citations. NIH uses AI-detection software, and detection of AI at the post-award stage may have serious consequences with respect to research misconduct. We will keep ai.utah.edu up to date as more information becomes available, but please refer to the guidelines provided by the federal funding agency as the official statement.

Read more about the NIH notice from the University of Utah Office of Sponsored Projects.

Read more about AI guidelines and policies at the University of Utah.