Eligible Applicants

Eligible Organizations

Higher Education Institutions

• Public/State Controlled Institutions of Higher Education
• Private Institutions of Higher Education

The following types of Higher Education Institutions are always encouraged to apply for NIH support as Public or Private Institutions of Higher Education:

• Hispanic-serving Institutions
• Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
• Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs)
• Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions
• Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs)

Foreign Institutions

Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions) are not eligible to apply.

Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations are not eligible to apply.

Foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed. 

Required Registrations

Applicant Organizations

Applicant organizations must complete and maintain the following registrations as described in the SF 424 (R&R) Application Guide to be eligible to apply for or receive an award. All registrations must be completed prior to the application being submitted. Registration can take 6 weeks or more, so applicants should begin the registration process as soon as possible. The NIH Policy on Late Submission of Grant Applications states that failure to complete registrations in advance of a due date is not a valid reason for a late submission.

• Dun and Bradstreet Universal Numbering System (DUNS) - All registrations require that applicants be issued a DUNS number. After obtaining a DUNS number, applicants can begin both SAM and eRA Commons registrations. The same DUNS number must be used for all registrations, as well as on the grant application.
• System for Award Management (SAM) (formerly CCR) – Applicants must complete and maintain an active registration, which requires renewal at least annually. The renewal process may require as much time as the initial registration. SAM registration includes the assignment of a Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Code for domestic organizations which have not already been assigned a CAGE Code.
• NATO Commercial and Government Entity (NCAGE) Code – Foreign organizations must obtain an NCAGE code (in lieu of a CAGE code) in order to register in SAM. 
• eRA Commons - Applicants must have an active DUNS number and SAM registration in order to complete the eRA Commons registration. Organizations can register with the eRA Commons as they are working through their SAM or Grants.gov registration. eRA Commons requires organizations to identify at least one Signing Official (SO) and at least one Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) account in order to submit an application.
• Grants.gov – Applicants must have an active DUNS number and SAM registration in order to complete the Grants.gov registration.

Program Directors/Principal Investigators (PD(s)/PI(s))

All PD(s)/PI(s) must have an eRA Commons account.  PD(s)/PI(s) should work with their organizational officials to either create a new account or to affiliate their existing account with the applicant organization in eRA Commons. If the PD/PI is also the organizational Signing Official, they must have two distinct eRA Commons accounts, one for each role. Obtaining an eRA Commons account can take up to 2 weeks.

Mentors

The primary mentor at the U.S. institution and the primary LMIC mentor must have eRA Commons accounts. Obtaining an eRA Commons account can take up to 2 weeks.

Eligible Individuals (Program Director/Principal Investigator)

Any candidate with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research as the Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) is invited to work with his/her mentor and organization to develop an application for support. Individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups as well as individuals with disabilities are always encouraged to apply for NIH support. Multiple PDs/PIs are not allowed.

Current and former PDs/PIs (including Multiple PDs/PIs) on NIH research project (R01), program project (P01), research training (D43), or center (P50) grants, sub-projects of program project (P01) or center (P50) grants, other major individual career development awards (e.g., K01, K07, K08, K22, K23, K25, K76, K99/R00), or the equivalent to these grants/awards (including non-NIH equivalent grants/awards from other research funding organizations) are not eligible. Current and former PDs/PIs (including Multiple PDs/PIs) of an NIH Small Grant (R03), Exploratory/Developmental Grant (R21), Dissertation Award (R36), or SBIR/STTR (R41, R42, R43, R44) remain eligible. Individuals supported by institutional K awards (K12 or KL2) remain eligible but cannot exceed 6 years of combined institutional K plus individual K01 funding.

Candidates for this award must have a research or health-professional doctoral degree (including PhD, MD, DO, DC, ND, DDS, DMD, DVM, ScD, DNS, PharmD or equivalent doctoral degrees) received at least two years prior to the application deadline and have research experience beyond their doctoral training.

By the time of award, the individual must be a citizen or a non-citizen national of the United States or have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence (i.e., possess a currently valid Permanent Resident Card USCIS Form I-551, or other legal verification of such status).

Cost Sharing

This FOA does not require cost sharing as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

Additional Information on Eligibility

Number of Applications

Applicant organizations may submit more than one application, provided that each application is scientifically distinct, and each is from a different candidate.

The NIH will not accept duplicate or highly overlapping applications under review at the same time. An individual may not have two or more competing NIH career development applications pending review concurrently. In addition, NIH will not accept:

• A new (A0) application that is submitted before issuance of the summary statement from the review of an overlapping new (A0) or resubmission (A1) application.
• A resubmission (A1) application that is submitted before issuance of the summary statement from the review of the previous new (A0) application.
• An application that has substantial overlap with another application pending appeal of initial peer review (see NOT-OD-11-101)

Candidates may submit research project grant (RPG) applications concurrently with the K application. However, any concurrent RPG application may not have substantial scientific and/or budgetary overlap with the career award application. K award recipients are encouraged to obtain funding from NIH or other Federal sources either as a PD/PI on a competing research grant award or cooperative agreement, or as project leader on a competing multi-project award as described in NOT-OD-08-065.

Level of Effort

At the time of award, the candidate must have a “full-time” appointment at the academic institution. Candidates are required to commit a minimum of 75% of full-time professional effort (i.e., a minimum of 9 person-months) to their program of career development. Candidates may engage in other duties as part of the remaining 25% of their full-time professional effort not covered by this award, as long as such duties do not interfere with or detract from the proposed career development program. 

Candidates who have VA appointments may not consider part of the VA effort toward satisfying the full time requirement at the applicant institution. Candidates with VA appointments should contact the staff person in the relevant Institute or Center prior to preparing an application to discuss their eligibility.

After the receipt of the award, adjustments to the required level of effort may be made in certain circumstances.  See NOT-OD-09-036 for more details.

In-country requirement: Awardees must be able to spend a minimum of 50% of their cumulative effort over the total project period (all years) physically in-country conducting research at the LMIC institution. In addition, in each year of the award, awardees must spend a minimum of three months at the LMIC institution. For example, a candidate with 75% effort on a 5-year IRSDA K01 must spend 22.5 months at the LMIC institution.

Mentor(s)

Before submitting the application, the candidate must identify a primary mentor based at the U.S. applicant institution and a primary mentor based at the collaborating LMIC institution who are accomplished investigators in the research area proposed and have experience in successful development of independent investigators. Together, the two primary mentors will supervise the proposed career development and research experience. The LMIC primary mentor should hold a primary appointment at the collaborating LMIC institution and should not be a U.S. citizen who holds a joint appointment at the LMIC institution. The institutional affiliations of the mentors should be clear from the biosketches, mentor support letters, and institutional letters. The mentors should be active investigators in the area of the proposed research and committed both to the career development of the candidate and direct supervision of the candidate's research. The primary mentors must document the availability of sufficient research support and facilities for the candidate's research. Candidates are encouraged to identify additional co-mentors to form a mentoring team if this is deemed advantageous for providing expert advice in all aspects of the research career development plan. Additional mentors can be from other LMIC or high income countries. The candidate must work with all mentors (primary and co-mentors) in preparing the application.

The mentor(s) or mentoring team must demonstrate appropriate expertise, experience, and ability to guide the applicant in the organization, management and implementation of the proposed research and, if proposed, clinical trial experience.

Institutional Environment

The U.S. and LMIC institutions must have a strong, well-established record of research and career development activities and faculty qualified to serve as mentors in biomedical, behavioral, or clinical research.

Eligible Countries:

Sponsor Institute/Organizations: National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Sponsor Type:

Address: National Institutes of Health; 31 Center Drive; MSC 2220; Bethesda; MD 20892-2220; USA

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