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Diversity Supplements

Additional Grant Mechanism Opportunities to Promote Diversity

Introduction

Diversity Supplements are administrative supplements sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), intended to help increase the numbers of underrepresented scientists in biomedical and behavioral research. Funding is provided to existing NIH research grants to support an underrepresented minority, disabled or disadvantaged student or investigator, who wants to pursue a career in the biomedical or behavioral research sciences. The program supports individuals at the high school, undergraduate, predoctoral (graduate), postdoctoral and investigator levels. This information applies to applications requesting research supplements to active National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) grants only.

This page clarifies the application process and requirements for NIAAA grantees, including NIAAA-specific limitations and recommendations. It is not intended to replace the detailed information on the program announcement. The full program announcement is available at Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (Admin Supp - Clinical Trial Not Allowed). Please also refer to the updated Notice of NIH’s Interest in Diversity NOT-OD-20-031.

The project summary or abstract of the diversity supplement must describe the diversity candidate’s proposed research within the scope of the parent grant, and brief overview of the mentoring plan. Non-compliant applications may be returned (see NIAAA Administrative Supplement Kiosk).

Diversity Supplement funds are awarded to support projects that are consistent with the overarching mission and research priority areas of NIAAA (LINK).

NIAAA will no longer be receiving diversity supplement applications on a rolling deadline. Two (2) application deadlines for electronic receipt of submissions have been established: November 1st and May 1st. No invitations to submit will be required as long as Investigators indicate they are responding to the current funding announcement for diversity supplements (currently, PA-23-189: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-23-189.html). Investigators are encouraged to contact their Program Official prior to submitting their electronic application and/or the Diversity Supplement staff at NIAAA to ensure that they meet submission eligibility guidelines. All future diversity supplement applications will be reviewed internally for fit with NIAAA's overarching mission and research priority areas (LINK) as well as candidate training potential. Investigators will be notified approximately 6-8 weeks after the application receipt date of their status.

Receipt Periods

  • November 1 (February 1 first possible award date)
  • May 1 (August 1 first possible award date)

Administrative Requirements

Administrative requirements to apply are described in “Required Applications Instructions” section in Part 1 of PA-23-189.

Funding through PA-23-189 is applicable to principal investigators (PIs) at domestic institutions who hold an active award through activity codes listed in Part 1 of PA-23-189. However, NIAAA does not support and will not accept diversity supplement applications to R03 funding mechanism.

NIAAA will provide training support from a minimum of 1 year to a maximum of 3 years. Applications for supplements to grants or contracts with less than one year of research support remaining may be considered for high school, undergraduate, and medical or other health professional students research support for a summer experience or during the academic school year.

Duration of support depends on the candidate’s career level, as well as the amount of time remaining on the parent award (excluding an NCE) and may be adjusted by the review committee. If a candidate received a prior NIAAA diversity supplement award, regardless of career stage, they are not eligible to apply for a second NIAAA diversity supplement.

To be eligible, the parent award must be active, and the research proposed in the supplement must be accomplished within the competitive segment. At the time of submission of a supplement application, the parent award must have a minimum period of 15 months remaining before the project period end date. Parent grants entering a no cost extension or that are currently in a no cost extension are not eligible to apply for a diversity supplement.

Prior to submission of a supplement application the Principal Investigator (PI) is encouraged to contact their Program Official to discuss questions related to scientific content, overlap with parent grant, and mentorship plans. PI is also encouraged to contact NIAAA diversity supplement staff (contact information listed below) to discuss the proposed supplement including the administrative requirements, research and mentoring plan activities (more detailed information on which can be found below), and eligibility. Also, the PI and their trainee should work with their university’s office of sponsored research programs at the very outset of planning to submit a diversity supplement application. A diversity supplement application to the parent award can be submitted ONLY under the diversity program announcement (PA-23-189).

If applicable, documentation must be provided that the proposed research experience was approved by or that an application for such has been submitted to the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or human subjects Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the grantee institution must be provided. Other human subjects’ requirements (including compliance with NIAAA’s data archiving policy at NOT-AA-23-002) relevant to the parent award must continue to be observed. If no need to update approvals is necessary, please specify.

The PI will be required to submit a separate budget and progress report for the Diversity Supplement as part of the annual type 5 renewal. Should the Diversity Supplement awardee receive additional funding, especially an award for which s/he is the PI (like an F31, F32, R or K award), this should be reported immediately to the PO and Grants management officials.

Contact Information

Gary Murray, Ph.D.
Phone: (301) 443-9940
Email: gary.murray@nih.gov

Eligibility for the Program

In general, candidates who have been supported on the parent grant are NOT eligible for a Diversity Supplement. You also are not eligible for a Diversity Supplement if you are currently appointed to a T32, at the time of submission. Additionally, candidates CANNOT rotate off of a T32 in order to receive a Diversity Supplement. Please see the full PA-23-189 for more information. If further clarification is needed, please contact the Diversity Supplement Coordinator should you have questions about your candidate's eligibility.

All applications for Diversity Supplements should include a signed statement from the Principal Investigator (PI) and an institutional official establishing the eligibility of the candidate for support under this program. The statement must include information and, where appropriate, documentation on citizenship or Visa status. The statement must also include a convincing description of how the appointment of this specific candidate will address the issue of diversity within the national scientific workforce or within the workforce or the relevant population at the grantee institution (see Section I: Notice of Funding Opportunity Description).

For the supplement program to support individuals with disabilities, the application should include a statement providing information on the disability signed by the PI and countersigned by an Institution official. The institution should also indicate what, if any, reasonable accommodations the institution has supported or plans to provide along with a full description of how any additional support for accommodation might be used. The relationship of the proposed accommodation to the proposed project must be described.

An individual who has received previous funding from NIH as an independent PD/PI on a research grant (e.g., R01), as the project leader on a component of a program project or center grant (e.g., P01, P50, G12), or as PD/PI on an individual research career development award (e.g., K01, K02, K07, K08, and K23), or as a Scholar on an Institutional Career Development Award (K12, KL2) is not eligible as a diversity supplement candidate.

CRITERIA FOR INVESTIGATOR LEVEL CANDIDATES FOR DIVERSITY SUPPLEMENTS

A candidate for an investigator level Diversity Supplement (DS) must have a doctoral degree, be beyond the level of a research trainee, typically employed at the junior faculty level (instructor or assistant professor) with at least one year of postdoctoral or equivalent research experience. On occasion, NIAAA may consider providing support on a DS for Investigator Level candidates who is several years past their post- doctoral training. They are allowed to request support under a DS to conduct research in the biomedical, behavioral, clinical or social sciences as long as their record does not demonstrate that they already have been engaging in research as an independent scientist. An example would be an MD who is transitioning from a clinical to research career or a junior faculty moving from a teaching college to a research institution. NIAAA will carefully consider the research credentials of the candidate and how the DS will enhance his or her research career capabilities.

Project Summary/Abstract

The project summary or abstract of the diversity supplement must describe the diversity candidate’s proposed research within the scope of the parent grant, and brief overview of the mentoring plan. Non-compliant applications may be returned (see NIAAA Administrative Supplement Kiosk).
 

Research Plan

The activities proposed in a supplement application must both advance the objectives of the parent grant and support the research training and career advancement of the candidate. Applications will be reviewed on the merit of the research training potential of the application and the application's relevance to the candidate's career potential.

Provide a brief summary or abstract of the diversity candidate’s proposed research within the scope of the parent grant as well as a brief overview of the mentoring plan designed to meet training goals. Include:

  1. The actual work proposed for the candidate including a timeline for the work proposed;
  2. A discussion of how the proposed research will enhance and foster the candidate's research capabilities and what mentoring the candidate will receive;
  3. How the research plan is appropriate for the stage of the individuals’ research development and that it will enhance the individuals’ research potential; and
  4. The relationship of the proposed research experience to the overall goals of the parent grant.

The research plan should address specific skills, responsibilities, and activities that demonstrate increasing independence as researchers. Include timeline for applying for the next step toward independent research funding. The proposed research must fall within the scientific scope of the parent grant but not be redundant with the aims already funded in the parent award. (Note: NIAAA will not support new research, an ancillary study to a parent clinical trial, or research that expands the scientific scope of the funded parent project.)

Career Development Plan/Mentoring Requirements

The PI will prepare and submit a detailed career development/mentorship plan that will include:

  1. Objectives for helping the candidate make the transition to the next stage of his/her research career (e.g. routine meetings, supervision in writing, publishing, etc.);
  2. A timeline in Gantt-style format delineating specific research milestones and other activities that will facilitate progress toward independent research funding (i.e., anticipated publications, grantsmanship workshops, timeframe for grant application submissions);
  3. Details of the mentor-candidate interactions:
    The plan should go well beyond simple laboratory assignments and supervision plans or stating that the candidate will attend seminars or lab meetings. The career development plan should be structured, specific and stage-appropriate for the candidate and include parameters such as the frequency of meetings, topics to be discussed, and how progress will be monitored.

NIAAA encourages Investigators to plan for two (2) publications per year depending on the stage of career of the candidate.

  1. The PI must describe how s/he will assist the candidate in achieving the objectives and goals they have described in their candidate statement (see information below);
  2. The final mentoring objective should be preparing an application for the next step in the candidate’s research career development or prepare the applicant to reach their next stage of career (e.g., High school student to apply to an undergraduate program; graduate student to apply for an F31 or obtain a post-doc position; post-doc to submit an F32, career award, or research project grant). Planning for the future application submission can include a F31, F32, career (K) award, R03, and R21.

Candidate Statement/Biosketch

  • A current biographical sketch or curriculum vitae, format available at https://grants.nih.gov/grants-process/write-application/forms-directory…, from the candidate that details their education, training and work experience, science and research experiences, and publications. Publications, including manuscripts in preparation that demonstrate the candidate’s alcohol research interest and experience, should be listed.
  • The candidate should discuss how the planned activities are related to or will facilitate achievement of their future career goals, outlining his/her short- and long-term research objectives and include evidence of scientific achievement or interest in the area of alcohol research.
  • If the candidate is enrolled in a master's level program or is in postbac status, s/he should indicate plans to enter a Ph.D. or equivalent program.
  • The specific source of current funding must also be listed. Under no circumstances can the candidate have received support from the parent grant. Support on other NIH funded awards should be discussed with the Program Official and NIAAA staff during development of the application. Candidates that are currently on an NIH Training Grant (typically T32s) at the time of submission are not eligible for a diversity supplement until their term on the training grant has ended.

Transcript Requirements

A strong emphasis is placed on the GPA as it reflects academic performance. Official transcripts must be provided for high school, undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, post-masters, medical students or graduate students.

Budget and Salary Requirements

  • All budgets should be submitted using the R&R Detailed Budget Form as instructed in ASSIST. You do not need to submit a separate budget page apart from the instructions from ASSIST. If the initial budget period requested is less than 12 months, the budget must be prorated accordingly. For example, if the diversity supplement starts May 1st and the current grant year ends December 31st, the first budget period should prorate all expenses for eight months. Please note that the required minimum duration for a diversity supplement award is 12 months, and up to a maximum of 3 years as indicated in the FAQ below. 
  • No equipment, including computers, will be considered allowable expenses.
  • Applications that come in with budgets that exceed $100,000 AND 25% direct cost/year over the parent grant's active year budget require IC Director's sign off which may delay funding.
  • The salary should be consistent with the institutional salary policies. Institutional salary rates that exceed the hourly minimum wage must be justified. In general NIAAA follows NRSA and K award salary caps (see NOT-OD_22-132 for NRSA information).

NIAAA will not allow budget requests for any personnel other than the candidate for diversity supplements. Salary for Senior/Key Personnel are not supported by NIAAA. Some allowances for support staff necessary for a disabled candidate can be considered.
Reasonable Accommodations: As part of these awards, funds may be requested to make changes or adjustments in the research setting that will make it possible for a qualified individual with a disability to perform the essential functions associated with his/her role on the project. See PA for specific types of accommodations that may be provided under these awards.

Submission and Receipt of Applications

All candidates for diversity supplement support must have a profile in the eRA Commons. You can find instruction on how to create profiles on the eRA Commons website.

Electronic diversity supplement applications are due via www.grants.gov no later than:

  • November 1 (February 1 possible award date)
  • May 1 (August 1 possible award date)

The processing of applications during the first few months of a new fiscal year is often delayed pending Federal Budgetary processes.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

These FAQs summarize guidelines and policies that NIAAA and the NIH have established for research supplements for underrepresented minorities and persons with disabilities. FAQs are not intended to replace the NIH-issued Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research, NIH Guide, PA-23-189, issued May 29, 2020. We strongly encourage anyone interested in applying for funding through the NIAAA research supplements program to use these FAQs and NIAAA instructions for NIAAA-specific guidance.

What are Diversity Supplements?

Diversity supplements are administrative supplements sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), intended to help increase the numbers of underrepresented scientists in biomedical and behavioral research. Funding is provided to existing NIH research grants to support a minority, disabled, or disadvantaged student or investigator who wants to pursue a career in the biomedical or behavioral research sciences.

Who is eligible to apply for Diversity Supplements?

  • NIAAA principal investigators who hold active grants with the exception of the R03, R13/U13, and T32 funding mechanisms.
  • Mentored and Non-Mentored K (career development) activity codes are not eligible for diversity supplements.
  • The parent award must be active and the research proposed in the supplement must be accomplished within the competitive segment.
  • At the time of submission of a supplement application, the parent award must have a minimum of 15 months remaining before the project period end date. Parent awards entering a no cost extension or that are currently in a no cost extension are not eligible to apply for a diversity supplement.
  • If the mentor project is a clinical trial, the candidate’s ability to gain experience on the mentor’s clinical trial is encouraged; however, proposing an auxiliary/pilot clinical study for the candidate to conduct is not allowed.
  • At the time of submission, the candidate may not be supported by the parent grant or a T32.
  • If a candidate received a prior NIAAA diversity supplement award, regardless of career stage, they are not eligible to apply for a second NIAAA diversity supplement award. A “new” diversity supplement for the same diversity trainee and the same training plan is not allowed under any circumstances if the original diversity supplement application received an NIAAA award. Extensions of diversity supplements are not permitted.

Who is eligible to receive Diversity Supplement funding through NIAAA?

NIH’s interest in Diversity is located in this Notice of Interest NOT-OD-20-031. High school, undergraduate, and graduate students, and postdoctoral and independent investigators who belong to underrepresented ethnic or racial groups, have disabilities, or are from disadvantaged backgrounds determined to be underrepresented nationally in biomedical or behavioral research are eligible to receive diversity supplements. Please refer to NOT-OD-20-031 for further guidance on NIH's Interest in Diversity and definitions. Candidates for diversity supplements must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the U.S.

Who determines the eligibility of a supplement candidate?

The Institution from which the supplement is submitted determines eligibility of candidates based on statistical or quantitative evidence of the underrepresentation of that particular group in biomedical or behavioral research at that Institute or in the scientific research community. Many refer to the National Science Foundation statistical data for further justification.

For supplements to support individuals with disabilities the application should include a statement providing information on the disability signed by the PI and countersigned by an Institutional Official.

Before the diversity supplement is awarded, the candidate needs to be accepted to and enrolled in the program where the diversity training will take place. An award will not be issued until the candidate is certified by the Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) that they are at the location where the training will take place.

Under no circumstances must the candidate’s postdoctoral position, faculty position or equivalent appointment be contingent upon awarding of the Diversity Supplement.

How much support (funding) is provided?

  • NIAAA does not support salary for Senior/Key personnel.
  • Salary and other direct costs for diversity supplements funded by the Institute are determined by the eligibility level of the diversity candidate. Please refer to NOT-OD-23-076 for additional information for NRSA stipends.
  • Please remember when developing the supplement application to use the word “salary”. Using the word “stipend” will hold up processing the application.
  • Applications submitted with budgets that exceed $100,000 AND 25% direct cost/year over the parent grant's active year budget require IC Director's sign off which may delay funding.

How long can I receive support from the Diversity Supplements program?

NIAAA will provide training support from a minimum of 12 months to a maximum of 3 years. After receipt of award, the diversity trainee should maintain their position for a minimum period of 1 year. NIAAA may consider less than 12 months for high school, undergraduate, and medical or other health professional students for a summer experience or during the academic school year. Duration of support depends on the candidate’s career level, as well as the amount of time remaining on the parent award (excluding a no cost extension), and may be adjusted by the review committee. Recipients of prior diversity or disability supplement funding from NIH institutes other than NIAAA are eligible to apply for NIAAA funding. However, if a candidate received a prior NIAAA diversity supplement award, regardless of career stage, they are not eligible to apply for a second NIAAA diversity.

How many applications can a PI submit per parent award?

As per PA-23-189 section on Additional Information on Eligibility, a parent award may support more than one individual on a supplement; however, each request must be strongly justified and include assurances that each candidate will receive appropriate mentoring.  In addition, the PI of a parent award, who is interested in submitting more than one diversity supplement application, must request and obtain a prior approval from the PO and the Diversity Supplement Coordinator. Candidates may receive support from only one administrative supplement at a time, but may be supported by more than one supplement during the development of their research careers.
 

Can a diversity supplement award be transferred to another institution or individual trainee?

Support under the diversity supplement is not transferable to another individual or transportable to another institution (see PA-23-189).

Who do I contact at NIAAA if interested in applying for Diversity Supplements?

Gary Murray, Ph.D.
Phone: (301) 443-1282
Email: gary.murray@nih.gov

 

When can applications be sent to NIAAA? Are there special submission dates?

Applications for diversity supplements are now being submitted via an electronic submission process at www.grants.gov. More information on the electronic submission process can be found on the Electronic Research Administration’s (eRA) website: http://era.nih.gov.

Applications submitted to NIAAA are due:

  • November 1 (February 1 possible award date);
  • May 1 (August 1 possible award date)

The continuous submission policy applies only to new/resubmission Type 1 or Type 2 R01s, and new/resubmission R21 and R34 mechanisms. Continuous submissions do not apply to diversity supplements. Please refer to this link for more information: FAQs--Continuous Submission.  
Applications for diversity supplement funds will be reviewed by Program staff, Divisions, and NIAAA leadership for fit with NIAAA’s overarching mission and research priority areas (LINK) and training potential of the candidate.

Investigators will be notified approximately 6-8 weeks after the application receipt date of their status.

What Is the Review Procedure for Diversity Supplements?

Diversity supplement applications submitted to NIAAA are reviewed by Program staff, Divisions, and NIAAA leadership for fit with NIAAA’s overarching mission and research priority areas (LINK) and training potential of the candidate.

Investigators will be notified approximately 6-8 weeks after the application receipt date of their status. Program staff are available to discuss the outcome of review and next steps.

How long will it take to receive a decision on my application?

Supplement applications will be reviewed by Program staff, Divisions, and NIAAA leadership. The Investigator will be notified approximately 6-8 weeks after the application receipt date of their status.

How can I find out more about the diversity supplements program?

Complete information about the NIH diversity supplements program can be found in the NIH program announcement Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research, NIH Guide, PA-23-189 (https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-23-189.html), issued June 29, 2023.