Key Dates

Related Announcements

• August 20, 2021 - Notice of Special Interest: National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) T32 Complementary and Integrative Health Practitioner Supplement Program for Pre- and Postdoctoral Candidates. See Notice NOT-AT-21-014.
• October 9, 2020 - Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional). See NOFO PA-20-272.

Issued by

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

Purpose

Background

NCCIH announces an opportunity to allow existing NCCIH-funded Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Institutional Research Training Grant (T32) programs to apply for an administrative supplement to support an additional training slot for predoctoral and postdoctoral candidates with professional clinical complementary and integrative health degrees. NCCIH encourages applications for administrative supplements to support complementary and integrative health degreed individuals and practitioners in an intensive, supervised research experience that will lead to a better understanding of, and practical experience in, complementary and integrative health research. For this notice, complementary and integrative health degrees include (but are not limited to): acupuncture, music therapy, chiropractic, naturopathic, physical therapy, and/or osteopathic degrees. A very limited number of supplementary slots will be available in each fiscal year and the number awarded will depend on the number and merit of applications received and the availability of funds.NCCIH recognizes a compelling need to develop clinician scientists from clinical complementary and integrative health degree backgrounds. Providing more flexibility to add predoctoral or postdoctoral trainees from clinical complementary and integrative health backgrounds to T32 programs will help enhance the pipeline for clinician-scientist training in complementary and integrative health research.

T32 Program Eligibility for a Predoctoral or Postdoctoral Complementary and Integrative Health Practitioner Supplement

Programs must email their NCCIH program officer to confirm their eligibility prior to applying.

The T32 program must have at least 1 year of funding remaining at the time of the supplement award. T32 programs under a no-cost extension are not eligible for supplements, and supplements will not be awarded beyond the funded period of a parent T32. The minimum duration of the supplement is 1 year, the maximum duration is 3 years. The T32 program must have enough active years of funding remaining on the parent award to cover the requested time of the supplemental award (e.g. if the program requests a 3 year supplement, there must be at least 3 years of funding remaining on the parent award). Postdoctoral trainees appointed through this supplement will incur a payback obligation for the first 12-mo of support as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, thus a minimum 2 yr supplement duration is recommended for postdoctoral candidates, or the PI should provide justification for how the payback obligation will be completed..

All NCCIH-funded slots on the T32 grant must be filled at the time that the supplement request is submitted, with documentation submitted and accepted by NCCIH. In addition, there must be strong evidence that the T32 program has been following their Diversity Recruitment and Retention Plan to ensure diversity within the funded slots of the parent T32 award.

Individual Eligibility for a Supplementary Complementary and Integrative Health Practitioner Predoctoral or Postdoctoral Slot

Complementary and Integrative Health Practitioner predoctoral or postdoctoral candidates must meet all of the administrative requirements for any trainee supported by a NRSA (e.g., citizenship requirements, payback obligation; please see FAQs at https://researchtraining.nih.gov/programs/training-grants for more information) and must meet the standards for prior training, experience, and commitment to research expected of any other trainee in the T32 program proposing to support them.

Individuals must have a clinical complementary and integrative health degree to be eligible (e.g. acupuncture, music therapy, chiropractic, naturopathic, physical therapy, and/or osteopathic degrees). Please check with NCCIH program staff to confirm eligibility of the proposed degree background.

A T32 program may not request a supplementary slot for an otherwise eligible predoctoral or postdoctoral trainee who is appointed to a regular slot on the parent T32 grant, or to another T32 at the same institution, at the time of submission of an NCCIH T32 diversity supplement application.

The training experience for the complementary and integrative health practitioner supplement candidate must take place in the laboratory of a previously approved mentor in the T32 program.

Instructions for Electronic Application Submission through Grants.gov: Use the “Apply” button(s) in Part I of the PA-20-272 program announcement to access the application forms package posted at Grants.gov.

When presented with more than one form package, use the form package with Competition ID “FORMS-F-ADMINSUPP-RESEARCH.”

Prepare applications using the SF424 (R&R) forms associated with the chosen package. Please note that some forms marked optional in the application package are required for submission of applications for this announcement. Follow all instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide to ensure you complete all appropriate required and optional forms, with the following additional guidance:  

• Documentation of the recent efforts of the T32 program to recruit and retain clinician-scientist candidates, and a description of the process by which this nominated complementary and integrative health practitioner candidate was identified and selected. (1 page limit)
• For predoctoral candidates, the most recent transcript. Transcripts are not required for postdoctoral candidates. Predoctoral candidates must be already accepted and enrolled in a doctoral program. (no page limits)
• A statement of the training plan for the candidate (prepared by the T32 PI). If the projected T32 appointment is expected for only 1 year, the applicant should provide a justification that the duration is appropriate and outline plans for the candidate to extend their training and complete their NRSA payback obligation in the T32 program is not renewed. If longer than 1 year, the applicant should justify this according to the program’s normal appointment durations and the expected appointment times of the currently appointed trainees. (2 page limit)
• A brief statement of the research plan for the candidate prepared jointly by the proposed T32 mentor and the candidate. In the case of a predoctoral candidate who will do lab rotations before choosing a mentor, the rotation scheme and timeline for choosing a mentor, and some potential research interests, should be identified. (2 page limit)
• A brief statement from the candidate describing their career goals and future plans. (1 page limit)
• Letter of Support: Include a letter, on institutional letterhead, signed by the T32 PI and the authorized institutional official, with a statement of the expected length of time needed for the supplement, as estimated by the expected tenures of trainees in the “regular” T32 slots.
• For funding consideration, applicants must include “NOT-AT-24-033” (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

Project/Performance Site Location form: Include the primary site where the proposed supplement activities will be performed.

Senior/Key Person form:

• List the PD/PI as the first person (regardless of their role on the supplement activities).
• List Senior/Key Personnel who will be serving as the candidate’s mentor.
• List the candidate proposed to be added through this supplement.
• Biographical sketch Senior/Key Personnel: Include a biographical sketch of the T32 PD/PI(s) and the proposed mentor.
• Biographical sketch Candidate: The personal statement of the candidate’s biographical sketch should include a description of their research objectives and career goals, and why their experience and qualifications make them particularly well-suited to receive an NCCIH T32 supplement award. Relevant factors include previous training and research accomplishments in complementary and integrative health research and any source(s) of current funding.

Budget forms: Using the R&R budget form,only include funds requested for the additional supplement activities.

R&R Other Project Information form, Facilities and Other Resources attachment: Describe how the scientific environment in which the career development activities will be done contributes to the probability of the candidate’s success (e.g., institutional support, physical resources, and intellectual rapport).

These items are meant to document the suitability of the complementary and integrative health practitioner candidate for a training position; therefore, they should be personalized for the individual being nominated. General descriptions of the selection process and research plan taken verbatim from the T32 application are not acceptable. Because NCCIH-funded T32 programs were found to be highly meritorious by peer review, the quality of the overall training program and the other mentors will not be reevaluated during the supplement review process. Therefore, detailed descriptions of the general training program and the biosketches of other T32 mentors should not be included in the supplement application.

Review  Considerations

The supplement materials will be subject to administrative review by NCCIH extramural staff. Because NCCIH- funded T32 programs were found to be highly meritorious by peer review, the quality of the overall training program and the other mentors will not be re-evaluated during the supplement review process.

The complementary and integrative health practitioner candidate will be evaluated for: 1.) The quality of their academic record (if predoctoral) and prior research experience and productivity; and 2.) Their potential to develop as an independent and productive researcher in biomedical, behavioral, or clinical science, as demonstrated in the training plan. These two aspects should be of roughly the same quality as those of other trainees at the same level who were awarded T32 slots in a particular program. The overall individual training plan, including coursework, research experiences, and the opportunity to build career skills needed for independent research, will be evaluated for its ability to provide the complementary and integrative health practitioner candidate with opportunities to become part of the broader scientific community and develop into an independent and productive research scientist. The research plan will be evaluated for: 1.) Its fit with the mission priorities of NCCIH; 2.) Its fit with the complementary and integrative health practitioner candidate’s stated career goals and future plans; and 3.) Its consistency with the complementary and integrative health practitioner candidate’s stage of research development.

Additional Criteria for Selection

Due to budget constraints, only a very limited number of T32 complementary and integrative health practitioner Supplement slots will be awarded in a given fiscal year. NCCIH program staff will evaluate the applications using the requested materials and evaluation process described above, in addition to the following criteria:

1. Are the program’s T32 slots consistently filled with high quality trainees?

2. Does the T32 program have an outstanding overall record of training predoctoral and/or postdoctoral trainees for successful research careers?

After review by NCCIH program staff, the T32 PI will be notified of the funding decision. If funding is approved, a supplemental Notice of Award will be issued by Grants Management. The complementary and integrative health practitioner supplemental slot will be administered in the same manner as other positions on the training grant.

Reporting Requirements

Progress for complementary and integrative health practitioner trainees supported via this mechanism must be reported in the same way as all other trainees in a Type 5 non-competing continuation application each year that the supplement is needed. The progress and plans of the candidate should be explained in a paragraph or two of text in the body of the progress report. The stipends for these complementary and integrative health practitioner slots should not be included in the budget pages for the Type 5 application because these funds will be awarded as a supplement each year. Instead, a separate budget page for the complementary and integrative health practitioner candidate should be included in the progress report. An individual supported by a complementary and integrative health practitioner supplement slot must be included in the usual reporting tables required for renewal (Type 2) as well as non-competing continuation (Type 5) applications.

Description of circumstances for which administrative supplements are available.

All requests for supplemental slots should be preceded by consultation with NCCIH program staff to determine availability of funds and to ascertain the suitability of the candidate.

Applications for this initiative must be submitted using the following opportunity or its subsequent reissued equivalent.

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

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and PA-20-272 must be followed, with the following additions:

• Application Due Dates: March 1, and June 3, and November 1, 2024., March 3, and June 2, and November 3, 2025, and March 2, and June 1, and November 2, 2026 ; by 5:00 pm local time of applicant organization
• For funding consideration, applicants must include “NOT-AT-24-033” (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
• Requests may be for a minimum of 1 year and a maximum of 3 years, consisting of 12-month appointments (depending on the eligibility of the parent award). Supplements will not be awarded beyond the funded period of the parent T32 award.
• Only existing NCCIH T32 awardees are eligible to apply for a supplement to support a new trainee.
• A T32 program may only apply for one NCCIH T32 Complementary and Integrative health Practitioner Supplement a year, and may only have up to 2 active NCCIH T32 Complementary and Integrative Health Practitioner Supplements at any given time.

Inquiries

Jennifer N. Baumgartner, Ph.D.
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
Phone: 301-402-4084 
Email: jennifer.baumgartner@nih.gov