Administrative Supplements

An administrative supplement is a non-competing award that provides additional funding to a currently funded grant to meet increased costs that are within the scope of the approved project, but that were unforeseen when the new or competing renewal application was awarded.

Active Administrative Supplement Opportunities

NIH offers administrative supplement funding opportunities for specific programs:

Research Supplements to Promote Diversity: Funding Opportunities
- Aimed at diversifying the biomedical research workforce via support of investigators from diverse & underrepresented groups at various career stages.
Research Supplements to Promote Re-entry & Re-integration into Health-Related Research Careers: Funding Opportunities
- The Re-entry Supplements provide mentored research training opportunities to scientists who’ve had at least 6 months of career interruption due to experience of critical life events.
- The Re-integration Supplements provides opportunity for pre/postdoc students experiencing unsafe or discriminatory environments to transition to safer, more supportive research environments and continue their graduate careers.
Research Continuity Supplements: Funding Opportunities
- Supplements to Promote Research Continuity and Retention of NIH Mentored Career Development (K) Award Recipients and Scholars).
- Supplement for Continuity of Biomedical and Behavioral Research Among First-Time Recipients of NIH Research Project Grant Awards.
A parent administrative supplement funding opportunity for requests that do not fall under a specific program
Notices of special interest that identify an administrative supplement opportunity for application submission
All Administrative Supplement Opportunities

All administrative supplement requests must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov to NIH using ASSIST, Grants.gov Workspace, or a system-to-system solution (NOT-OD-20-128.)

Requirements for Submitting Requests for Administrative Supplements

Submit a request for supplemental funding before the awarded grant expires.
Consult with the NIH grants management officer and program official assigned to your award before submitting a request for an administrative supplement.
Review the awarding institute and center's (IC) web site for any IC-specific submission deadlines or eligibility criteria before submitting an administrative supplement request.
Identify an appropriate funding opportunity by searching the NIH Guide to Grants and Contracts. Using the advanced search feature, use the activity code field and select "Admin Supp" (activity code will show as "333").
Find the application package linked from the funding opportunity that is appropriate for the parent award.
Complete all required fields in the application package that you would for a competing revision (including an Introduction) unless the funding opportunity specifies otherwise.
Provide additional information justifying the supplemental dollars as described in the funding opportunity.
Cover letter attachments are not allowed since administrative supplements are sent directly to the awarding institute and bypass the receipt and referral staff with access to cover letters.

Three Methods to Initiate an Administrative Supplement Through eRA Systems

Initiate in ASSIST, enter the notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) number for an administrative supplement, and enter information manually.
Initiate in ASSIST and after entering the Federal ID number of the parent grant award, some of the information from the parent award is pre-populated.
Initiate through eRA Commons and after identifying a specific grant for administrative supplement, be directed by the system to ASSIST where some information from the parent award is pre-populated.

For steps and screenshots, see:

Initiating an Administrative Supplement Application topic in the ASSIST online help.
Manage Administrative Supplement topic in the eRA Commons online help.

Also see: eRA Information: Use of ASSIST Expanded for Submission of Administrative Supplements