March 8, 2023
PA-20-272 - Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional)
Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
The need to develop a comprehensive understanding of how and why humans initiate, adopt, maintain, and sustain behaviors that impede or promote health and wellbeing is well-documented. This NOSI encourages use of behavior change theories and models that use variables that can explain individual and interpersonal mechanisms of action (MOA). When testing theory-based MOAs, operational definitions and measurement approaches with prior evidence of association with behavior change are encouraged.
Use of behavior change theories and identification of the underlying MOAs corresponds to OBSSR’s priority to facilitate more cumulative, integrated, and synergistic behavioral and social sciences that can be optimized and translated across conditions based not only on the efficaciousness of the intervention but also on data demonstrating that the intervention influenced a unique human mechanism that led to healthier behavior (https://obssr.od.nih.gov/sites/obssr/files/OBSSR-SP-2017-2021.pdf).
Program Description and Requirements
Understanding the how and why NIH-funded interventions are (or are not) effective will improve our ability to harness behavior change strategies to improve health outcomes and increase collective knowledge regarding how to facilitate behavior initiation, adoption, maintenance and sustainment during and after interventions. This NOSI should support activities that further the understanding of the how and why that are related to the primary outcomes in the parent study.
This administrative supplement NOSI is designed to provide support to NIH-funded investigators to add novel analytical approaches to their currently funded project that can illuminate potential new or alternate mechanisms of action, processes, and contextual variables to develop more comprehensive understandings as to why an intervention works or does not work initially and over time. Approaches that help explain differential effects between populations and context of implementation are especially encouraged.
Parent grants that originally posited mechanistic clinical trials as part of their original scientific aims may be eligible for supplemental funding under this NOSI if the supplement proposes to examine potential explanatory processes and MOAs that extend yet are consistent with those specified in their original specific aims.
Administrative supplement requests can include quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods approaches to elucidate novel or underexplored causal process, MOA or contextual variables that might explain what an intervention works or doesn t work, for whom, and under what circumstances. over the course of behavior change, from initiation to sustainment.
For more on mixed methods, see: https://obssr.od.nih.gov/sites/obssr/files/Best_Practices_for_Mixed_Methods_Research.pdf
Applications that are not appropriate for this administrative supplement NOSI include:
- Projects that do not address a mechanism of action, biopsychosocial process, or contextual factors that are hypothesized to influence phases of behavior change, maintenance, and adherence.
- Methodological development unless accompanied by assessment of a behavior change outcome.
- Projects that are out of scope of the parent project including those that propose new clinical trials.
- Applications that propose to change the parent grant intervention focus, intended behavior change, or disease outcome.
- Projects with direct costs that exceed $250,000.
Applicants are strongly encouraged first to contact the IC Program Officer on their parent grant, an additional IC-based Scientific Contact with unique expertise related to this notice, and the OBSSR Scientific Contact staff listed in Section VII prior to submission of a supplement application to ensure that the content area proposed is consistent with the intent of the NOSI and within the scope of the parent grant.
One-year administrative supplements are available for parent projects that have at least two (2) full years of active funding (excluding no-cost extension periods) remaining at the time of submission. The proposed project period in an application submitted through this notice cannot extend beyond that of the parent project. Research proposed in the supplement applications must fall within the broad scope of the parent award.
As noted in PA-20-272, administrative supplements in response to this NOSI, can be used to cover cost increases that are associated with achieving certain new research objectives, as long as the research objectives are within the original scope of the peer reviewed and approved project, or the cost increases are for unanticipated expenses within the original scope of the project. Any cost increases need to result from making modifications to the project that would increase or preserve the overall impact of the project consistent with its originally approved objectives and purposes.
Description of circumstances for which administrative supplements are available.
Application and Submission Information
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 addition
- Application Due Date(s) April 3-10, 2023, by 5 PM local time of applicant organization.
- For funding consideration, applicants must include NOT-OD-23-083 (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 one year of support only.
- The Research Strategy section of the application is limited to 6 pages.
- Only existing awardees as specified by participating Institutes and Centers are eligible to apply.
- Applicants are strongly encouraged to notify the program contact at the Institute supporting the parent award that a request has been submitted in response to this FOA in order to facilitate efficient processing of the request.
- Additionally, applicants may communicate with the OBSSR contact to determine whether and how a potential supplemental project corresponds with this OBSSR-led NOSI's Background, and Program Description and Requirements.
Applicants first should contact the IC Program Officer associated with a NIH-funded parent project. The following contacts have subject-matter expertise expressly related to this notice and are listed alphabetically by NIH ICO:
David Dean Jr., Ph.D., M.S.
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Email: chipper.dean@nih.gov
Laurie Friedman Donze, Ph.D.
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Email: laurie.donze@nih.gov
Elise Rice, Ph.D.
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Email: elise.rice@nih.gov
Stephanie M. George, PhD, MPH, MA
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)
E-mail: stephanie.george@nih.gov
Rosalind B. King, PhD
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Email: rozking@mail.nih.gov
Holly Marie Moore, PhD
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
E-mail: holly.moore@nih.gov
Maureen Monaghan Center, PhD
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
E-mail: maureen.center@nih.gov
Mercedes Rubio, Ph.D.
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Email: mercedes.rubio@nih.gov
Michael Stirratt, PhD
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Email: stirrattm@mail.nih.gov
Arielle S. Gillman, PhD, MPH
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
E-mail: arielle.gillman@nih.gov
Karen A. Kehl, PhD, RN
National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)
Email: karen.kehl@nih.gov
William Elwood, PhD
Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)
Email: william.elwood@nih.gov
and Human Services (HHS)
