Slots: 1
Deadlines
Internal Deadline: Friday, January 10th, 2025, 5pm PT
LOI: 30 days prior (Not required).
External Deadline: March 25, 2025
Award Information
Award Type: Grant
Estimated Number of Awards & Award Amount: NIDA intends to commit approximately $500,000 in FY 2026 to fund 2-3 awards.
NINDS intends to commit approximately $1,000,000 – $1,350,000 in FY 2026 to fund up to 6 awards.
Who May Serve as PI: The PD/PI should be an established investigator in the scientific area in which the application is targeted and capable of providing both administrative and scientific leadership to the development and implementation of the proposed program. The PD/PI will be expected to monitor and assess the program and submit all documents and reports as required.
PD/PI eligibility for this NOFO is limited to PD(s)/PI(s) or MPI teams that include at least one PD/PI of a grant from the following T32 NOFOs: Jointly Sponsored Institutional Predoctoral Training Program (JSPTPN), PAR-22-265; NINDS Advanced Institutional Research Training Program, PAR-21-149; NINDS Institutional Translational Research Training Program, PAR-19-228 and PAR-24-108; NINDS Institutional AD/ADRD Research Training Program, PAR-23-113; or Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Institutional Research Training Grant, PA-23-048. For institutions/organizations proposing multiple PDs/PIs, at least one of the PD/PIs must be the PD/PI of an active institutional training grant (T32) from one of the participating institutes.
Link to Award: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-NS-25-027.html
Process for Limited Submissions
PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) Application Portal: https://rii.usc.edu/oor-portal/. Use the template provided here: RII Limited Submission Applicant Template
Materials to submit include:
- (1) Two-Page Proposal Summary (1” margins; single-spaced; standard font type, e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 2-page limit will be excluded from review. You must use the template linked above.
- (2) CV – (5 pages maximum)
Note: The portal requires information about the PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.
Purpose
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recognizes the need to promote a diverse biomedical, clinical, behavioral and social sciences (collectively termed “biomedical”) research workforce. There are many benefits that flow from a diverse NIH-supported scientific workforce, including fostering scientific innovation, enhancing global competitiveness, contributing to robust learning environments, improving the quality of research, enhancing public trust, and increasing the likelihood that health disparities and the needs of underserved populations are addressed in biomedical research. NIH strives to ensure that future generations of researchers will be drawn from the entire pool of talented individuals, bringing different skills, perspectives, interests, and experiences to address complex scientific problems.
In spite of recent advances, individuals from certain groups and backgrounds are underrepresented in the biomedical sciences research workforce. For more information, see Notice of NIH’s Interest in Diversity. The under representation of these groups becomes more severe at each training stage.. For example, students from certain racial and ethnic groups, including Blacks or African Americans, Hispanics or Latinos/Latinas, American Indians or Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders comprise ~39 percent of the college age population (Census Bureau data), but earn only ~17 percent of bachelor’s degrees and ~15 percent of Ph.D. degrees in the life sciences (National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics). Additionally, while the United States has seen a significant increase in the number of Ph.D. degrees in the biomedical sciences earned by scientists from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in the biomedical research workforce, a corresponding increase in the ranks of the faculty in basic science departments has not occurred (Gibbs, et al., eLife 2016;Valantine, Lund & Gammie, CBE-Life Sciences Education, 2016). Similarly, women have earned a majority of biomedical Ph.Ds. since 2008 (NSF data), but only approximately a third of NIH-funded principal investigators are women (NIH Databook).
This Limited Competition Doctoral Readiness (DR) Program is intended to provide neuroscience research experience, neuroscience education, skills development and education about choosing graduate programs, mentors and careers to research-oriented postbaccalaureate participants from diverse backgrounds, including those from groups underrepresented in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. Completion of this two-year research education program should enable participants to successfully transition into strong, research-focused, doctoral degree programs (e.g., Ph.D., M.D./Ph.D., or D.D.S./Ph.D.) in biomedical fields. These DR Programs are only intended to support individuals from institutions that do not offer undergraduates access to substantive research opportunities. Funded programs are expected to provide participants with a strong research experience, together with neuroscience education and activities that will build a strong cohort of neuroscience research-oriented individuals.
Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.