Eligible Organizations are in Section III of the NOFO. A wide range of organizations are eligible, including:

• Higher Education Institutions (public and private).
• Non-profit organizations.
• For-profit organizations (including small businesses).
• Local, state, and tribal governments.
• Independent school districts, public, private, and charter schools.
• Faith-based or community-based organizations.

The program has multiple application due dates with the first due date being September 25, 2026. See NOFO under Key Dates for details.

Institutions may submit multiple applications if the programs are distinct from each other.

A PI is not required to have an advanced degree if they have the necessary research and/or teaching expertise and relevant leadership experience needed to organize, administer, monitor, and evaluate the research education program.

Yes. A previously trained group of mentors or anyone further along in a similar professional journey can be included as near peer mentors if well justified. Be sure to include a justification for how those near peer mentors will be recruited and trained as mentors for your program.

You may only include hyperlinks in the biosketch. For more information regarding the use of hyperlinks, please refer to https://grants.nih.gov/grants-process/write-application/how-to-apply-application-guide/format-attachments.

An advisory committee is not required. If an advisory committee is proposed applicants should describe the desired expertise of committee members and the committee’s roles and responsibilities. Any description of advisory committee should be included in the 25-page Research Education Program Plan. Only pre-existing Advisory Committee members should be named in the application. Potential Advisory Committee members should not be identified or contacted prior to receiving an award.

You can, but generally, CSR Division of Receipt and Referral (DRR) will make the assignment based on the overall application. Applications will be assigned to the institutes (ICs) where they fit best programmatically.

Projects proposing a student or teacher laboratory internship component are expected to include robust participant training plans to improve the culture and practice of laboratory safety through the implementation of best safety practices in the laboratory.

Renewal applications are not accepted under this funding opportunity.

Resubmission applications (A1) are not allowed under this funding opportunity. Therefore PD/PIs should submit a new application. Consistent with NIH policy, applicants submitting a new application should not include an introduction or a response to previous reviewer critiques, not should they reference the prior review anywhere in the application. Instead, any changes or improvements should be incorporated directly into the new application.

Direct costs for the award are limited to $250,000 per year. This amount excludes any Facilities and Administrative (F&A) costs for consortium partners.

The maximum project period is 5 years.

Yes. The PD/PI must commit a minimum of 2.0 person-months per year to the project. If justified, up to 4.8 person-months of effort can be requested. For projects with multiple PDs/PIs, each must commit a minimum of 2.0 person-months, with a combined total of up to 4.8 person-months.

You can request salary and fringe benefits for individuals who are designing, directing, and implementing the program. These costs must be appropriate for the time they dedicate to the project and align with your institution's salary policies and the current congressionally mandated salary cap.

Yes. If mentoring and other interactions with participants are considered part of an individual's regular academic duties, the costs for these activities cannot be charged to the grant.

Yes, participants may be compensated for taking part in activities that are specifically required by the program. These costs must be sufficiently justified and itemized in the budget.

The budget can include justified costs for:

• Consultants
• Equipment and supplies
• Travel for key personnel, including attendance at the annual SEPA Conference. These expenses must be specifically required for the project and not duplicate resources that are generally available at your institution.

Indirect costs are reimbursed at a fixed rate of 8% of modified total direct costs. This is a specific rate for this program and is used instead of an institution's negotiated F&A rate. The calculation excludes tuition/fees, equipment costs, and consortium costs that exceed $25,000.

No, cost-sharing is not required.

Pre-award costs are allowable only as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement Section 7.9.1. Incurring costs before the official notice of award is at the applicant's own risk.

Yes, but with specific conditions. Your institution can submit a new application if the proposed project is in a different biomedical research area, scientifically distinct from the active SEPA project, and led by different Program Directors/Principal Investigators (PD/PIs).

No, an individual may serve as the PD/PI on only one active SEPA grant at a time. You can apply for a new SEPA grant if you are currently a PD/PI, but there cannot be more than a six-month overlap between the end date of your current grant and the potential start date of the new one.

No. This funding opportunity has strict rules against foreign involvement. Foreign (non-U.S.) organizations are not eligible to apply. Furthermore, U.S. organizations cannot include foreign components or issue foreign subawards as part of their project.

If your institution has other training grants (e.g. NRSA T32 or T34) or educational grants (R25 Research Experiences), your proposed SEPA project must offer educational experiences that are different from those already supported by federal funds. The application must clearly distinguish the new activities. For example, a SEPA project might focus on a K-12 audience, while a T34 grant focuses on undergraduate training.

This is the core of your application and must be uploaded in the "Research Strategy" section. It needs to contain eight specific parts:

• Proposed Research Education Program: The rationale, objectives, and scientific focus of your project.
• Program Director(s)/Principal Investigator(s): Your administrative and scientific leadership plan.
• Program Faculty: The roles and expertise of other faculty involved.
• Program Participants: A description of the students/teachers you will recruit.
• Institutional Environment and Commitment: A description of the resources and support your institution will provide. A letter of institutional commitment must be attached as part of Letters of Support
• Plan for Instruction in the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR): A detailed plan for RCR training.
• Evaluation Plan: How you will measure the program's success.
• Dissemination Plan: A plan for sharing your project's materials and results nationally, which must include the development of a project website.

Your RCR must address five required components:

• Format: The method of instruction (e.g., face-to-face lectures, real-time discussion groups). Online-only instruction is not acceptable.
• Subject Matter: The topics covered (e.g., conflict of interest, authorship, data management, research misconduct).
• Faculty Participation: The role your program faculty will play in the instruction.
• Duration: The total number of contact hours for the training.
• Frequency: Instruction must occur at least once every four years for each participant.

Applications lacking a plan for instruction in responsible conduct of research will not be reviewed.

NIH recognizes that the format and length should be appropriate to the career stage of the participants and the duration of the program. For short-term research education programs (such as R25 programs), the RCR plan should be scaled appropriately and justified in the application. For example, a four-week summer program would not be expected to provide months-long RCR instruction. Instead, applicants should propose an RCR curriculum that is appropriate for a four-week experience, addresses the required topics, and incorporates interactive instruction. In addition, the expectation is that the PD/PI and project team will have the appropriate expertise to develop and deliver RCR instruction. See also NOT-OD-10-019 and NOT-OD-22-055.

You must include a plan to develop a website to disseminate the resources you create. This website must be launched within six months of the award date, be free and open to the public, and display the NIH award number on its home page. It can be a new website or a new section on an existing institutional website.

An annual Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) is required. This report must include a dedicated section detailing your progress toward the goals outlined in your Evaluation Plan. It should also include data on participant engagement and learning. At the end of the grant, a final RPPR is required for closeout. Instructions for completing the annual RPPR can be found here.

NIGMS will periodically evaluate the program's effectiveness using metrics such as:

• The number and characteristics of participants.
• Feedback from participants and users of developed curricula.
• Assessment of new knowledge or skills acquired by participants.
• The extent of dissemination and adoption of new curricula or methods. PD/PIs and participants may be contacted for follow-up information even after the grant period has ended.