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Standard Operating Procedure Table of Contents
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Purpose
To enable NIAID to add funds to a grant or cooperative
agreement for defined purposes that do not significantly expand a project's scope.
Procedure
Administrative
supplements are funds awarded above
study section-recommended levels or outside the fiscal
year funding
policies. NIAID provides these funds for administrative purposes, and we generally pay only for items resulting from events unforeseen when the competing application was submitted.
NIAID awards administrative supplements under rare circumstances and only if the divisions have sufficient funds in their discretionary pools. Applicants must justify their budgets and provide a scientific rationale; read instructions below. If no funds remain, a division may request an allocation from NIAID's budget office. Administrative supplements are
not peer
reviewed.
NIAID
awards administrative supplements to do the following:
- Reinstate grant funds that were approved by the scientific review group but cut due to NIAID’s 20 percent cap on renewal applications (first year only).
- Reinstate scientific review group reductions of budget, years,
or both. This can be done during any year of a grant except the
last. A specific
aim can be reinstated, but only with Council approval.
- Support an unanticipated increase in approved direct costs,
including items thought to be available at the time of award that later
became unavailable to a PI. Examples include increases in animal costs
and loss of equipment identified in an application.
- Use or preserve a unique research material or resource. Example:
maintaining a unique knockout mouse model.
- Add patients, populations, or other items related to a protocol --
such as items related to safety issues or data
and safety monitoring boards (DSMB) needs -- due to enrollment
issues, a need for statistically significant data, or responses to
protocol and DSMB reviews. NIAID can supplement a grant to obviate
threats to patients in a clinical
trial by addressing issues in an FDA clinical
hold for an investigational
new drug application or investigational
device exemption.
- Provide an orderly termination or temporary continuation
of support to prevent loss of research resources or hardship
of personnel, which includes taking advantage of a rare event with
an immediate need, e.g., salvaging a rare animal model.
- Address special time-critical cases such as countering
a major threat to public health, e.g., creating smallpox vaccines to
counter a bioterrorism threat or developing the capacity to respond
to a new epidemic, such as West Nile virus.
Administrative
supplement requests must meet the following financial considerations:
- PI cannot pay for the requested resource by rebudgeting funds.
- PI's unobligated balances either cannot cover the request
or total less than 10 percent of the annual award.
- Grant cannot be in the first or last year of the competitive
segment. Exceptions are clinical trials, renewal applications, and reinstatement of scientific
review group reductions.
- NIH policy does not allow us to award an administrative supplement
to pay for increased costs due to an investigator's transfer
or promotion.
Keep in mind that NIAID will consider repeated requests on a case
by case basis and only for extreme circumstances.
Administrative supplements may not be awarded to pay for
a PI to move in a new scientific direction or use a new technology.
For example, beginning use of microarray technology or an animal
model not specified in the application. If
additional funds are needed for such purposes, investigators
should apply
for another R01 or a small grant such as an R03 or R21.
If grantees need additional funds for a significant expansion in project scope, they should request a revision (competing supplement) rather than an administrative supplement. See the Revision of a Grant SOP.
Principal Investigators
- With your institutional
official, contact your program
officer to discuss requesting an administrative supplement. Make
sure you have read the criteria listed above. Your program
officer can advise you further about
the circumstances in which NIAID awards supplements.
- Do not use administrative supplements as a
regular funding request.
- Have your institutional official email your request to your program officer and include the following. Form pages must be scanned documents and sent as PDF files.
- Reason for the request. Describe your reason in the body of the email.
- Detailed budget (form page 4) and composite budget page if more than one year is requested (form page 5).
- Justification for the funds (form page 5).
- Biographical sketch and human subjects documentation (if applicable) for any new key personnel.
- Checklist from the PHS 398.
Program Officers
- Advise PIs about NIAID's criteria for administrative supplements.
When unsure about a request, discuss it with a grants
management specialist before advising a PI.
- Review requests for compliance with NIAID guidelines as well as fiscal and scientific need.
- Check whether a PI repeatedly requests administrative
supplements. If this is the case, advise the investigator on preparing
a budget to cover fiscal needs.
- Discuss a request with your division
director. If you both agree, create an administrative supplement request
in the Council Action
and Approval Program (CAAP) section of the NIAID Planning and Reporting System (NPARS) and forward the grantee's
request to your program division NPARS coordinator.
- Ask your NPARS coordinator to forward the NPARS request to the appropriate grants management specialist.
- If the grants management specialist recommends disapproving the request, and
you do not agree, work with him or her and the GMP
division coordinator to resolve the issue.
- If NIAID does not approve an award,
inform PI about alternative actions such as rebudgeting or carryover of funds.
Grants Management Specialists
- Upload the request into eGrants.
- Review requests and financial information (e.g., most
recent financial
status report, Payment Management System reports, and Data Warehouse reports) to determine whether the supplement eligibility criteria are met, a financial need is documented, and the request cannot
be covered by prior year funds or unobligated funds.
- Check whether a PI repeatedly requests administrative
supplements.
- Approve or disapprove the supplement
request in the CAAP section of NPARS and add the justification. Email it to the GMP division
coordinator. If you plan to recommend
disapproval of the request, discuss it with the GMP division coordinator. Notify the program officer as well.
- Upload the NPARS worksheet to eGrants.
- Issue an award after NIAID's budget office has issued a release list approving funding and all required assurances and approvals are in place. Restrict
funds for the requested purpose.
Read GMP's Administrative
Supplements SOP and End-of-Year Funding SOP for more responsibilities.
Contacts
See Grants
Management Program Contacts for the appropriate
GMP specialist.
Ann Devine, ad22x@nih.gov, 301-402-5601
Program Division NPARS Coordinators
DAIDS: Contact
for NIAID Staff
DMID: Contact
for NIAID Staff
DAIT: Contact
for NIAID Staff
If
you have knowledge to share or want more information on this topic, email deaweb@niaid.nih.gov with
this link and your message. Thanks for helping us clarify and expand
our knowledge base.
Links
CAAP and NPARS SOP
Definitions of Special Issues Presented to Council
NIAID Funding Policy and Process SOP
Special Issues Requiring Council Review SOP
Supplements
Supplements to Grants Questions and Answers
GMP's CAAP SOP
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