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

Administrative supplements to NICHD awards are contingent on the availability of NICHD funds and must support work within the approved scope of the parent award and address needs that cannot be met through rebudgeting or unobligated balances such as unanticipated project costs, equipment needs, preservation of key research resources, recruitment or retention costs, or emergency situations.

Applications are accepted year-round but must be submitted by June 17 for consideration in the current fiscal year.

Investigators should consult with their NICHD Program Officer prior to submission or address inquiries to [email protected].

NICHD provides limited support for scientific conferences and meetings that directly align and are within the areas of research supported by NICHD in response to funding announcements for support of conferences and scientific meetings in which NICHD participates. 

• Awards are generally limited to $20,000 in direct costs per year for applications assigned to NICHD. Applicants may seek co-funding from other NIH Institutes or Centers (ICs). 
• Co-funding of applications assigned to other ICs is generally limited to $5,000 in direct costs per year.
• Applications that include funding for junior investigator and/or trainee participation are strongly encouraged.

Conference applications should be submitted as early as possible to allow adequate time for review and award processing. 

For NICHD funding consideration:

• Events held December–March: submit by the April 12 application due date.
• Events held April–June: submit by the August 12 application due date.
• Events held July–November: submit by the December 12 application due date. 

NICHD will consider support requests for single event conferences or for a series of recurring conferences for up to 5 years. 

Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact NICHD prior to submission, and ideally at least 10 weeks before the intended submission date, to confirm relevance of the conference or workshop to the NICHD mission. 

Inquiries should be addressed to your current Program Director or to NICHD R13 Conference Grants Email: [email protected].

• NICHD offers individual career development awards in research areas relevant to NICHD’s mission. 
• For Mentored Research Scientist Development Awards, NICHD will only consider applications in child abuse & neglect, population sciences, rehabilitation medicine, and Down Syndrome related projects.
• NICHD prioritizes applications from early career individuals within 6 years of completion of postdoctoral or clinical fellowship training. Applicants must demonstrate a need for further mentored training in order to establish an independent research program. 

Project periods are expected to be 3-5 years in duration, depending on research experience and prior sources of training support.

NICHD has a 6-year limit of cumulative support on institutional K awards and individual mentored K awards.

Salary Support: Generally, salary support for individual career development awards from NICHD is $75,000 per year plus fringe benefits. For career development awards focusing on clinician-scientist training, salary support may be up to $100,000 plus fringe benefits per year. 

Research Support and other Program Related Expenses: Up to $25,000 per year. 

• NICHD expects scholars to devote a minimum of 75% (9 person-months) of full-time professional effort toward research and career development activities.
• To maintain specialty clinical competency, U.S. licensed surgeon-scientists with active surgical duties may, with prior approval and institutional justification, devote 50-75% full-time effort to K award activities.

For general inquiries, contact [email protected]. For questions about existing awards and renewal applications, contact the Program Officer or Grants Specialist identified in the Notice of Award. 

NICHD offers predoctoral and postdoctoral NRSA fellowships in areas relevant to NICHD’s mission.

Current NRSA stipends, tuition/fees, and budgetary levels apply.

Interested applicants are encouraged to contact NICHD staff to assess program relevance and institute-specific requirements. 
Email: [email protected] 

• NICHD offers institutional career development awards in areas relevant to the institute’s research mission. The institute prioritizes programs in pediatrics, women’s health, reproductive sciences, pediatric clinical pharmacology, rehabilitation research, and pediatric critical care and trauma. 
• Institutional career development programs provide 2-4 years of mentored research support for junior faculty or individuals who have completed postgraduate clinical training who aim to become independent investigators. Programs may support slots for basic, behavioral, or clinical scholars.

• The overall project period for the institutional program is limited to 5 years.
• Scholars typically spend 2 to 3 years in the program, with a maximum cumulative limit of 6 years if they transition to an individual NIH mentored career development award. 

• Budget considerations: Contacting NICHD staff prior to submission is strongly encouraged.
• Administrative and Program Personnel costs: Salary support for program administration and management generally should not exceed $50,000 per year.
• Scholar Salary Support: Generally, scholar salaries for institutional career development awards from NICHD are $75,000 per year. For programs focusing on clinician-scientist training, salary support for scholars may be up to $100,000 per year.

• Scholar Research Expenses and Travel: Generally limited to $25,000 per year.
• Other Program Related Expenses: Generally limited to $25,000 per year. 

• NICHD expects Scholars to devote a minimum of 75% (9 person-months) of full-time professional effort toward research and career development activities.
• To maintain specialty clinical competency, U.S. licensed surgeon-scientists with active surgical duties may, with prior approval and institutional justification, devote 50-75% full-time effort to K award activities.

For general inquiries, contact [email protected]. For questions about existing awards and renewal applications, contact the Program Officer or Grants Specialist identified in the Notice of Award. 

NICHD offers institutional training grants in areas relevant to the institute’s research mission.

NICHD supports slots for predoctoral fellows, postdoctoral fellows, or a combination of both. Short-term positions are allowed.

NICHD only considers Institutional training applications during January council.

Project period is limited to 5 years.

• Generally, institutional training budgets are below $500,000 direct costs per year. Renewals are limited to the maximum number of slots supported during the prior competitive segment.
• Travel Costs: $500 per trainee per year.

For general inquiries, contact [email protected]. For questions about existing awards and renewal applications, contact the Program Officer or Grants Specialist identified in the Notice of Award.  

NICHD invites applications to develop and conduct short-term research education programs to improve the knowledge and research skills of biomedical and behavioral scientists conducting research in areas relevant to the mission of NICHD. 

NICHD will support creative educational activities with a primary focus on:

• Courses and Curricula for Research Skills Development:  Programs may offer advanced courses in a specific discipline or research area, such as specialized areas of research, research models and methodology, or clinical procedures for research. Programs should have clear practical content, with an expectation that participants will acquire enhanced research capabilities related to the mission of NICHD.
• Research Experiences: Proposed programs should provide hands-on research experiences designed to stimulate the interest, skills, and knowledge base of participants. Programs may include complementary activities appropriate to the educational stage of program participants that support the participants' scientific development, such as scientific writing and presentation skills, and instruction to enhance rigor and reproducibility in research.
• Research Education Programs for K-12 students and teachers: Some education programs are designed to provide hands-on laboratory experiences for K-12 students, undergraduate students, or teachers. For students, the goal is to stimulate their interest in science, reinforce their intent to pursue science degrees, prepare them for graduate or medical school admissions, and/or prepare them for careers in research. For teachers, the goal is to enhance their knowledge of biomedical research and incorporate relevant concepts and approaches into classroom environments to improve student learning.

• Undergraduate
• Predoctoral
• Postdoctoral/Residency
• Early Career
• Established Investigator
• Other

  NICHD will prioritize proposed Courses and Curricula for Research Skills Development and proposed Research Experiences programs that include participants from the upper undergraduate to the professorial level.

Depending on the goals of the proposed training programs, the duration of the short courses can vary from one week or less to a maximum of 12 weeks. Recurring courses are allowed, if justified.

Award Budget: Application budgets are limited to $150,000 direct costs per year. 

Award Project Period: The scope of the proposed project should determine the project period. The maximum project period is 5 years.

Interested applicants are encouraged to contact NICHD staff to assess program relevance and institute-specific requirements. 
Email: [email protected] 

NICHD supports research that includes, but not limited to the following:

• Reproductive health, including fertility, conception, contraception, and pregnancy
• Health of women before, during, and after pregnancy, and fetal development and infant survival
• Typical and atypical development and growth in children and adolescents, including experiences of trauma and critical illness 
• Gynecologic health and disease; safe and effective therapeutics and devices for children and pregnant and lactating women; dynamics of human populations across the lifespan
• Optimizing function in people with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities

A. Development of interventions, devices, tools, and technologies to inform screening, prevention strategies, and interventions aimed at making measurable improvements in child outcomes and promoting optimal development across infancy and toddlerhood, childhood, adolescence, and the transition to adulthood.   
B. Reproductive health-related applications proposing late-stage preclinical and clinical research (e.g., screening tools/diagnostics, investigational new drug/investigational device exemption enabling studies, good lab practice studies, complex in vivo experiments, clinical trials).
C. Develop innovative technologies and/or software to guide genetic and molecular diagnosis of structural congenital anomalies and inform targeted treatment.
D. Technology development to improve screening, diagnosis, treatment, and management of intellectual and developmental disabilities.
E. Development and evaluation of immune-preventative or therapeutic candidates and novel technologies towards screening, diagnosis, and management of chronic and acute infectious diseases in pregnant and/or lactating women, infants, children and adolescents, including but not limited to HIV, CMV, Syphilis, tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, and respiratory infections.
F. Complex prototyping of therapeutics (e.g., combination products).  Regulatory-quality product development, manufacturing and evidence generation.
G. Development of reliable technologies, methods, and AI approaches to understand the composition of human milk and optimize infant nutrition, particularly premature infant.
H. Development of tools and methods to accurately assess and measure linear growth and bone density and microarchitecture in childhood. Technological innovations in screening for nutritional disorders.
I. The development of devices, innovative therapeutic technologies, and behavioral interventions to improve patient outcomes in children exposed to trauma, injury and/or critical illness.
J. Methods for enhancing measurement, sampling approaches, the protection of participant privacy, and protections against fraud in research on sensitive topics or among hard-to-reach populations.
K. Development of devices, novel methods, or innovative treatments that enable early detection, diagnosis, enhanced monitoring, or interventions that improve health outcomes for pregnant, postpartum, and neonatal populations.
L. Development of medical rehabilitation interventions and biomedical technologies to improve rehabilitation treatment for restoration of function.
 

NICHD Small Business Program

Email: [email protected]