Administrative Supplements to NIGMS Predoctoral Training Grants for Development of Curricular or Training Activities to Enhance Predoctoral Training

Notice Number: NOT-GM-19-015

Key Dates
Release Date: January 10, 2019

Related Announcements

PA-18-591

PAR-17-341

PAR-19-036

Issued by
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)

Purpose

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) announces the availability of funds for Administrative Supplements to NIGMS-funded Predoctoral T32 training grant awards. These funds are intended to support the development and implementation of curricular or training activities aimed at (1) providing graduate students with a strong foundation in research design and methods in areas related to conducting reproducible and rigorous research; (2) broadening training to better prepare students for research careers in the biomedical research workforce ; (3) providing graduate trainees with the technical, operational, and professional skills required to be a biomedical scientist; and (4) providing trainees with the knowledge and skills to enhance laboratory safety.

Awardees will be expected to attend a meeting organized for Program Directors of NIGMS training programs. Grantees are expected to present an overview of the curricula or training activities they have developed, results of their implementation to date and, if successful, plans for incorporating the activities into the ongoing conduct of the training grant(s).

Budget

Application budgets are limited to $80,000 direct costs under the Training Related Expenses category and must reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. Funds from this supplement may be used for salary support of individuals designing, directing, and implementing the proposed training activity. Funds may also be used for administrative staff salaries, consultant costs, equipment, research supplies, faculty/staff travel, and other expenses directly related to the proposed curricular or training activity. These expenses must not duplicate items generally available at the applicant institution. Funds from this supplement must be expended by June 30, 2020.

Applicants should note that the funds from this supplement cannot be used to support additional trainee slots.

Eligibility

Applicants must have an NIGMS-funded predoctoral T32 training grant that will be active on June 30, 2020. Applicants with pending competing applications for parent grant awards scheduled for the July 2019 start date are not eligible.

An applicant institution (normally identified by having a unique DUNS number or NIH IPF) may only submit one application in each activity category indicated above and must identify the applicable activity in the application (see Application Instructions below). For institutions with 2 or more NIGMS predoctoral training grants, it is expected that faculty on these grants will cooperate to develop curricula and/or activities that are broadly applicable to trainees at their institution. The applicant institution must select one training grant, and the request for supplementary funds must be submitted by the institution on behalf of the PD(s)/PI(s) of this training grant.

Institutions that received awards for the development and implementation of curricular or training activities described in items (1) through (4) above under any of the previous FOAs (PA-15-136, PA-16-060, PA-16-133, PA-16-142, PA-18-756, PA-18-757, PA-18-758, and PA-18-759) are NOT eligible to apply for support for activities with a similar goal or purpose.

Application Instructions

Applications must be submitted to PA-18-591 "Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional)" by March 25, 2019. Electronic submissions are strongly preferred for this funding opportunity.

All page limitations applicable to the parent award as described in the Application Guide and the Table of Page Limits must be followed, with the following exceptions:

The Program Plan is limited to 3 pages.

Follow the application instructions in PA-18-591 "Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional), with the following exceptions:

R&R Cover form: In addition to the instructions to select "Revision" in the "Type of Application" field, the following instructions must also be followed for the Agency Routing Identified field:

Agency Routing Identifier: Identify the curricular or training activity category to which you are applying from the list below by entering the one-digit code and abbreviation (e.g., 1 RR).

1 RR: Rigor & Reproducibility

2 CD: Career Curriculum Development

3 SD: Skills Development

4: LS: Laboratory Safety

PHS 398 Research Plan form: The instructions for the PHS 398 Research Plan form are not relevant to training grant applications. Instead, the following are the instructions for the Research Training Program Plan form.

Research Training Program Plan: In the Program Plan attachment, include the summary or abstract of the funded parent award, and describe the following:

  • The need for the proposed curricular or training activities.
  • A description of the curricular or training activities and their potential impact on the biomedical predoctoral training at the institution.
  • How the effectiveness of the curricular or training activities will be assessed.
  • If proven to be effective, how the curricular or training activities will be incorporated into the existing biomedical training program(s).
  • Plans for disseminating the activities and outcomes.
  • Institutional commitment for sustainability of the proposed activities.

Application Review Information
NIH staff will consider whether the budget and the requested period of support are fully justified and reasonable in relation to the proposed research. Additionally, staff will evaluate applications using the following criteria:

  • Will the administrative supplement increase or preserve the likelihood for the program to exert a sustained, powerful influence on the predoctoral training at the institution?
  • Is there a clearly identified need for the proposed curricular or training activities?
  • What is the potential impact of the proposed curricular or training activities on biomedical predoctoral training at the institution?
  • Are the plans to assess the outcomes likely to provide evidence of the effectiveness of the training or curricular activity?
  • If successful, is there a plan to incorporate the activities into the ongoing conduct of the training programs?
  • Are the plans to disseminate the activities and outcomes feasible and likely to reach the intended audience?
  • Is there appropriate institutional commitment for sustaining the proposed activities?


Eligible investigators are strongly encouraged to discuss potential requests with their predoctoral training program directors before submitting applications.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Alison Gammie, Ph.D.
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Email: alison.gammie@mail.nih.gov

Shiva Singh, Ph.D.
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Email: singhs@mail.nih.gov