Key Dates

Related Announcements

PA-20-272 - Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional) 

Issued by

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)

Purpose

Tackling Acquisition of Language in Kids (TALK) is a cooperative initiative supporting activities to better understand early language learning. As a first step of this initiative, this Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) is focused on building understanding of language development trajectories in children identified as late talkers. Late talking, also known as late language emergence, is diagnosed when a child, usually over the age of 18 months, is not meeting expressive language milestones. Approximately 10% to 20% of children receive this diagnosis. Children may be at higher risk for late talking for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to, premature birth, exposure to maltreatment or trauma, and intellectual and developmental disorders; and yet other children present as late talkers for no other known reason and with no other symptoms. Developmental trajectories differ across these groups of children who may exhibit late talking, but their unique predictors and developmental sequelae are yet unknown. Further research is needed to enhance our understanding of the full range of language development from infancy through childhood and adolescence for children who exhibit signs of late talking and to build a more robust knowledge base for this unique population so as to better inform parents and other caregivers, clinicians, public health officials and other stakeholders regarding the nature, extent, and longitudinal, developmental course of late talking children as broadly defined. 

The purpose of this NOSI is to supplement currently funded projects addressing various aspects of development beginning in the first few years of life to engage in activities that will help to elucidate the unique trajectories and needs of late talking children. The goal of this NOSI is to fund projects targeting a range of populations and potential risk factors for late talking. Further, applicants responding to this NOSI are required to describe plans for the rapid sharing of data and results to foster a rich shared knowledge base in this area. It is anticipated that those who receive supplements will participate in knowledge sharing activities related to the TALK Initiative.

Eligible research projects for TALK supplements:

Principal Investigators of an active NIH-funded grant are eligible. The intention is to fund supplements to existing cooperative agreement research network (U mechanisms), program project (P mechanisms), or research project (R mechanisms) grants to enrich their ability to contribute to understanding of developmental antecedents and outcomes for late talking children. The original focus of the active parent grant does not have to be centered around child language development or late talking children per se but must be able to collect or access measures of language development during the second and/or third year of life to contribute to an understanding of late talking.

Supplement applications must include a clear justification for how the proposed sample, design, and methods will contribute to understanding of development in late talkers. Applications must ensure appropriate expertise on the investigative team pertaining to the activities proposed. Characteristics of supplement activities that would be considered eligible include, but are not limited to:

• Enhancing the assessment of child language
• Adding additional assessment timepoints
• Identifying measures/factors that best predict and characterize differential trajectories across subgroups of late talking children 
• Expanding population diversity of an existing subject pool
• Comparison to other existing data sets of late talking populations
• Investigating developmental sequelae of late talking
• Examining cognitive, linguistic, social, cultural, socio-environmental, geographic, environmental, instructional, or neurobiological predictors of trajectories of late talking
• Assessing the impact of service accessibility and delivery on trajectories and outcomes of late talking children
• Archiving existing datasets of late talkers to facilitate secondary analyses

For supplements to parent awards that include multiple PDs/PIs, the supplement may be requested by any of the PDs/PIs (in accordance with the existing leadership plan) and submitted by the grantee institution of the parent award.  Visit the Multiple Program Director/Principal Investigator Policy in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide for more information.

NIH strives for rigor and transparency in all research it funds. Applicants are specifically referred to NIH application instructions related to rigor and transparency (https://grants.nih.gov/policy/reproducibility/guidance.htm). The rationale for the proposed studies should be based on robust supporting data, which means that data should be collected via methods that minimize the risk of bias and be reported in a transparent manner. If previously published or preliminary studies do not meet these standards, applicants should address how the current study design addresses the deficiencies in rigor and transparency. Proposed projects should likewise be designed in a manner that minimizes the risk of bias and ensures validity of results.

Budget

To be eligible, the parent award must typically be able to receive funds at the time of the award. The proposed project period must be within that of the parent award. The administrative supplement budget request is limited to 1 year. The activities proposed in the supplement must typically be accomplished within the competitive segment of the active award. Projects in no-cost extensions (NCEs) or expecting to request NCE should contact their Program Officer and their institute’s Scientific/Research Contact (listed below) regarding eligibility, as the sponsoring institutes have differing practices/policies.

Supplement budget requests must be appropriate for the scale of the research effort requested and the overall parent grant, reflecting actual needs of the proposed project. Applicable F&A (indirect) cost can also be requested. Budgets may not exceed the total direct costs of the current parent award. Categorical budgets are permitted. Awards are subject to availability of funds.

Flexible use of supplemental funds is highly encouraged, including but is not limited to computational services, supplies, equipment, and supported effort of additional scientific staff to address needed scientific expertise. 

Application and Submission Information

Application Due Date: Submissions must be received by May 15, 2023, at 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization.

Supplement requests must be submitted in accordance with the parent program announcement: Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional) PA-20-272 or its subsequent reissued equivalent. Note that administrative supplement requests must be within the scope of the peer reviewed and approved parent award.

Supplement requests must be submitted electronically.

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and the notice of funding opportunity used for submission must be followed, with the following additions:

• For funding consideration, applicants must include “NOT-DC-23-005” (without quotation marks) in the Agency Routing Identifier field (box 4B) of the SF424 R&R form. Applications without this information in box 4B will not be considered for this initiative.
• The Research Strategy section of the application is limited to 6 pages.

It is strongly recommended that the applicants contact their respective program officers at the Institute supporting the parent award to confirm ahead of time that the supplement falls within scope of the parent award, and to notify the scientific program contact at the Institute supporting the parent award (see IC-specific contacts below) that a request has been submitted in response to this NOSI in order to facilitate efficient processing of the request.

Administrative Review Process

Applications will be reviewed by their respective IC and by representatives of the TALK Initiative. The ICs of the parent grants will support the most meritorious applications submitted for consideration, pending availability of funds.

Criteria:

1. Are the new activities proposed within the scope of the parent award?
2. Will the activities described in the administrative supplement contribute to the understanding of the developmental trajectories for late talking children?
3. Does the parent award support the capacity for the project to collect or access measures of language development during the second and/or third year of life to contribute to an understanding of late talking?
4. Is there a strong plan for data sharing and other dissemination of findings?

Inquiries

 Please direct all inquiries to:

NIDCD

Holly Storkel, PhD, CCC-SLP 
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Telephone: 301-451-6842
Email: holly.storkel@nih.gov 

NICHD

Virginia Salo, PhD 
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Telephone: 301-402-3682
Email: virginia.salo@nih.gov

NIMH

Lisa Gilotty, PhD 
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Telephone: 301-443-3825
Email: gilottyl@mail.nih.gov 

NINDS

Kristina K. Hardy, PhD 
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Telephone: 301-480-1258
Email: kristi.hardy@nih.gov  

NCATS

Tiina Urv, PhD 
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)
Telephone: 301-827-2746
Email: tiina.urv@nih.gov