Answers to Questions Cover the Following Topics:
Applicant institutions are limited to associate degree-granting and baccalaureate degree-granting colleges/ universities that meet the following two requirements: Received less than $7.5 million total cost/year from NIH over the past 3 fiscal years and have at least 25 percent undergraduate students supported by Pell grants.
No, Health Professional Schools cannot apply to the SPAD program. Health Professional Schools and Colleges may include schools of medicine, dentistry, osteopathy, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, public health, optometry, allied health, chiropractic, naturopathy and podiatry.
As part of the Diversity Program Consortium (DPC), the SPAD program contributes to the consortium’s mission of making a significant impact on the participation and persistence of individuals from diverse backgrounds in biomedical research, as well as on transforming the culture and efficacy of biomedical research training and mentoring nationwide. Research-capacity building and developing excellence in research training at primarily undergraduate institutions are integral parts of the DPC mission.
For this FOA: An academic component of an institution (any school, college, center, or institute) that is not a Health Professional School or College is eligible to apply. Health Professional Schools and Colleges may include schools of medicine, dentistry, osteopathy, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, public health, optometry, allied health, chiropractic, naturopathy and podiatry.
Institutions that offer nursing degrees are eligible to apply.
Yes.
An R1 institution may be eligible to apply if they are an associate degree-granting and baccalaureate degree-granting college/university that meets the following two requirements: Received less than $7.5 million total costs/year from NIH over the past 3 fiscal years and has at least 25 percent undergraduate students supported by Pell grants.
The applicant should use the most recent data available in IPEDS and check this website.
The university is eligible to apply but the application cannot be submitted by the college of nursing.
No, previous and current awardees of NIH infrastructure development and/or research capacity programs (e.g., EARDA, BRAD, BUILD, RCMI, SNRP, MBRS (S06), RIMI, COBRE, INBRE, BRIC) are ineligible.
No, SPAD funds cannot be used for seed funding. SPAD funds must be used by the applicant institution to develop an Office of Sponsored Programs (OSPs), or to enhance the services of existing OSPs or similar entities.
Yes. For this program, innovation is considered using existing products or processes in different and more effective ways, or in creating more effective processes or products. Review will look at whether novel concepts or approaches to build sponsored projects capacities, to increase faculty competitiveness in obtaining external research support, and/or to enhance biomedical research training are described.
An Institutional Eligibility Letter (1-page maximum and it must certify institutional eligibility at the time of the application), and Institutional Commitment Letter, and the Mentors’ Letters of Support are required. All letters should be combined into a single PDF file. Additional letters of support are allowed, but not required.
No, an Appendix is not allowed.
The application budgets are limited to $200,000 direct costs per year. Indirect costs are allowed at the negotiated rate.
The maximum project period is three years.
No, the program requires a multi-PD/PI submission. One PD/PI must be the current or future Director of the Office of Sponsored Programs (DOSP) and the other PD/PI must be a senior institutional official (SIO). The application must include a multi-PD/PI plan.
Yes, however, if the PD/PI is also the organizational Signing Official, they must have two distinct eRA Commons accounts, one for each role. Please note that obtaining an eRA Commons account can take up to 2 weeks.
No, there are not limits on percent efforts for these individuals.
No, a Ph.D. is not required. However, the PD/PI must have a regular, full-time appointment at the applicant institution.
No, the mentor is not required to have a Ph.D.
The application must include a Leadership Succession Plan for the Director of the Office of Sponsored Programs (DOSP) and the Senior Institutional official (SIO) in the event one of the PDs/PIs leaves the project.
The PD/PI must include a plan for a mentoring relationship with an individual from an institution that already has a well-developed Office of Sponsored Programs. The mentoring plan should include information about the frequency and mode of meetings, and the training topics. Both mentors can be from the same institution, however, they cannot be based at the applicant’s institution.
Yes, it is required that the mentor has experience with NIH and/or other federal research and research training grant mechanisms. The mentor should be from an institution that has a grant portfolio greater than or equal to $40,000,000. These requirements help ensure that the mentor can provide guidance to the PD/PI as they develop or improve the Office of Sponsored Programs at the applicant institution.
Yes, the mentor should be listed as a member of the Senior/Key Personnel in the application, and the mentoring relationship should be described in the application, including the meeting frequency, mode of the meetings and the training topics.
No, no salary or fringe benefits may be requested for the mentors.
The receipt date is June 26, 2020 by 5:00 PM local time of the applicant organization.
No, only one application per institution is allowed.
Yes, applicants are encouraged to apply early. This will allow adequate time before the due date to make any corrections to errors found in the application during the submission process.
Yes, applicants who submitted to the first round and were not funded are encouraged to revise and resubmit the application for the second receipt date, June 26, 2020. Applicants should follow the “resubmission” instructions in the Application Guide.
Applicants should use FORMS F for Research Applications [PDF] for the June 26, 2020 submission.
