NIH Institute, Center, and Office (ICO) Funding Considerations for Research Capacity Building

NIAID supports capacity building in the following areas:

Building Research Capacity at Research Limited Institutions
NIAID supports research capacity building at institutions that do not receive substantial funding from NIH; this is accomplished through funding mechanisms supporting investigator-initiated research in any of NIAID’s general interest areas to support students with high-quality research experiences. These awards enable the development of research excellence of investigators and provide students with research opportunities while enhancing the institutional research culture and enriching the research environment. Institutional eligibility information can be found in the individual notice of funding opportunities. 
NIAID participates in:

• Support for Research Excellence (SuRE) Award (R16) 
• Support for Research Excellence – First Independent Research (SuRE-First) Award (R16)
• Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions (R15) 
• Research Enhancement Award Program (REAP) for Health Professional Schools and Graduate Schools (R15)  
   

Building Research Capacity and Training Within American Indian and Alaska Native Communities
NIAID supports efforts to support health-related research, research career enhancement, and research infrastructure enhancement activities in NIAID’s general interest areas within American Indian and Alaska Native communities.
NIAID participates in:

• Intervention Research to Improve Native American Health (IRINAH)
• Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH)
   

Building Research Capacity to Develop Sustainable Research Programs
NIAID supports the purchase or upgrade of commercially available research instrumentation or an integrated instrumentation system that is unavailable to applicant institutions. Instruments are to be shared among users, create new research opportunities, encourage collaborative research and training, and strengthen long-term research capabilities. 
NIAID participates in:

• Seed Instrumentation Support (SIS) Program (S10)
• Shared Instrumentation Grant (SIG) Program (S10)

Program Contacts
Support for Research Excellence (SuRE) Award (R16)
Support for Research Excellence – First Independent Research (SuRE-First) Award (R16)
Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions (R15)
Research Enhancement Award Program (REAP) for Health Professional Schools and Graduate Schools (R15)
Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH)
[email protected] 

Intervention Research to Improve Native American Health (IRINAH)
[email protected] 

Seed Instrumentation Support (SIS) Program (S10)
Shared Instrumentation Grant (SIG) Program (S10)
[email protected] 

Financial/Grants Management Contact
[email protected] 

NIDA supports capacity building in the following areas: 

• Data Science Training
  NIDA supports research and training initiatives to build data science capacity among researchers, including to equip them with the skills needed to take advantage of large data sources, computational methods, and advanced analytic approaches to answer questions relevant to substance use, addiction, and related fields.
   
• Building Research Capacity and Training Within American Indian and Alaska Native Communities
  NIDA supports efforts to strengthen research capacity and training within American Indian and Alaska Native communities, with an emphasis on training researchers and establishing research partnerships that will advance the conduct of local, AIAN community-prioritized research in substance use, addiction, and pain.
   
• Entrepreneurship Training 
  NIDA supports training and capacity building, including through the NIH SBIR and STTR programs and the Growing Great Ideas Program, to help researchers and small businesses translate innovative scientific discoveries into substance use- and addiction-relevant products, technologies, and services. These programs provide opportunities to develop entrepreneurial skills and strengthen the pathway from research discoveries to commercialization.
   
• Building Research Capacity at Research Limited Institutions.
  NIDA provides support for research training and mentoring at the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels with a goal of building research capacity at resource limited institutions and strengthening investigators’ ability to conduct rigorous, innovative research relevant to substance use and addiction. 

NIDA participates in the following programs:

• Support for Research Excellence (SURE)
• Biomedical Research Environment & Sponsored Programs Administration Development (BRE-SPAD)

Office of Research Training and Career Development (ORTCD)
[email protected]

NIDCR supports capacity building through several programs:  

• Institutional Development Award (IDeA) – To build biomedical research capacity in IDeA-eligible states through competitive research support, workforce development, and infrastructure improvements. NIDCR supports Research Project (R01) and Research Enhancement Awards (R15) applications from investigators in IDeA-eligible states with consideration for IDeA Co-funding support with NIGMS. 
• Support for Research Excellence (SuRE) – NIDCR supports investigator‑initiated research in biomedical, clinical, behavioral sciences at eligible higher education institutions, aiming to enhance research productivity and competitiveness.  
• Biomedical Research Environment & Sponsored Programs Administration Development (BRE‑SPAD) – To help resource-limited institutions build research environments, sponsored programs administration capacity, and internal pilot funding programs.  
  • Applicants propose plans to build capacity in a combination of ways, such as sponsored programs administration, research environment, or pilot research project programs.  
  • NIDCR will support partnerships from dental schools and/or low resourced institutions through plans and activities that enhance their research environment, development of sponsored program administration or pilot research programs.  
  • NIDCR does not consider BRE-SPAD applications that fall outside the NIDCR mission. 

NIDCR follows standard receipt dates.

NIDCR may limit project periods as follows 

• Support for up to 5 years for most programs 
• Support for Research Excellence - First Independent Research (SuRE-First) Award is up to 4 years 
• BRE-SPAD projects may request a project period of up to 5 years. The scope of the proposed project will determine the requested project period. 

NIDCR makes funding decisions for these awards based on scientific and technical merit, as well as the availability of funds.

NIDCR Program Staff 
[email protected] 

Research Training & Career Development Branch  
[email protected]  

The NINDS mission is to fund scientific research that advances our understanding of the nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce suffering due to neurological disorders. NINDS supports research capacity building through research project grants and contracts. 

• Research Enhancement Awards (R15) - supports small-scale research projects at institutions that provide baccalaureate or advanced degrees for scientists that have not been major recipients of NIH support. NINDS prioritizes research that falls within NINDS mission and provides high-quality training experiences for undergraduate, graduate, and/or health professional trainees. There are two R15 programs: 
  • Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) for undergraduate-focused institutions
  • Research Enhancement Award Program (REAP) for health professional schools and graduate schools.  
• Support for Research Excellence (SuRE) Program (R16) - supports research capacity building at eligible higher education institutions that fall in the NIH mission areas. NINDS prioritizes research that falls within NINDS mission and provides high-quality training experiences for undergraduate and graduate trainees. There are two R16 programs: 
  • Support for Research Excellence (SuRE) supports faculty who are not currently funded by any NIH Research Project Grants (RPGs) with the exception of SuRE or SuRE-First awards.
  • Support for Research Excellence – First Independent Research (SuRE-First): supports faculty who have not had any prior independent, peer-reviewed, external research grants.
• Instrumentation Grant Program for Resource-Limited Institutions (S10) - supports the purchase of scientific instruments to enhance the research and educational missions of resource-limited institutions. NINDS prioritizes applications where majority of projects utilizing the funded scientific instrument fall within the NINDS mission.
• Biomedical Research Environment & Sponsored Programs Administration Development (BRE-SPAD) Program (UC2) - aims to support resource-limited institutions to conduct research, enhance their research environments, and increase sponsored programs administration capacity. NINDS prioritizes applications that support the needs of organizations to enhance research and training that fall within the NINDS mission.

See program specific NOFOs for additional details and eligibility information. 

Applications are prioritized during the following council rounds: 

• SuRE/SuRE-First (R16) - January and May council rounds
• AREA/REAP (R15) - January, May, and October council rounds
• S10 - January and October council rounds
• BRE-SPAD (UC2) - October council rounds 

NINDS may limit project periods as follows: 

• AREA/REAP (R15) - provides support for up to 3 years
• SuRE (R16) - provides support for up to 4 years
• S10 – made for one year only
• BRE-SPAD (UC2) - provides support for up to 5 years

• AREA/REAP (R15) - support for up to $375,000 in direct costs, excluding consortium indirect costs, for the entire project period of up to 3 years
• SuRE (R16) - support for up to $100,000 in direct costs per year, excluding consortium indirect costs
• SuRE-First (R16) - support for up to $125,000 in direct costs per year, excluding consortium indirect costs
• S10 - requests for a single, commercially available instrument or an integrated instrumentation system are considered
  • Since different instruments will range in cost, the amount of the award will vary
  • The minimum award is $25,000, and although there is no upper limit on the cost of the instrument, the maximum award is $250,000 
  • No indirect costs are supported for S10 awards.
• BRE-SPAD (UC2) - support for up to $500,000 in direct costs per year

NINDS Research Capacity Building RPGs and Contracts
[email protected]

NLM supports programs that help build research capacity related to biomedical informatics and data science in health-related domains.

The NLM participates in:

1. The Support for Research Excellence (SuRE) program, which provides support for investigator-initiated research at resource-limited institutions by full-time faculty who are not currently funded by any NIH Research Project Grants (RPGs) with the exception of SuRE or SuRE-First awards, to furnish students with high-quality undergraduate and/or graduate research experiences, and to enhance the institutional scientific research culture.
2. The Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) program supports small-scale biomedical research projects at institutions that have not been major recipients of NIH funding. 

NLM is interested in projects across Bioinformatics, Translational Bioinformatics, Clinical Informatics, Public Health Informatics, and Personal Health Informatics that advance:

• Trustworthy, reproducible, and rigorous biomedical AI
• Scalable and interoperable biomedical data infrastructure
• Sustainable reference resources and platform science
• Human-centered tools and methods with real-world impact

Eligible applications may focus on the development, evaluation, or implementation of innovative technologies, methods, tools, standards, software platforms, or data resources that support biomedical research, clinical care, public health, health data management and analytics, or the dissemination and application of health information. Projects should demonstrate potential to advance biomedical discovery, improve health and well-being, and address the growing need for robust, data-driven approaches in biomedicine.

NLM uses standard receipt dates for SuRE and AREA programs.

NLM uses standard project period considerations for SuRE and AREA grants.

NLM uses standard budget considerations for SuRE and AREA programs. 

NLM Extramural Programs
[email protected]