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T32 - Institutional National Research Service Award (NRSA)

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New Important note regarding Diversity Recruitment and Retention: The new T32 announcement describes a major policy change, calling for a "Recruitment and Retention Plan to Enhance Diversity." However, new instructions for responding to this policy will not be available until sometime in 2008.  Therefore, applications will not be held to this new policy until a new set of instructions are published. We encourage program directors to review the new policy in preparation for future applications. The new policy guidance can be found on the NIH Office of Extramural Research website.

 

The NINDS supports four types of Institutional Training Grants (T32; see below). The Broadly Based, Highly Focused, and Program to Increase Diversity support both predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees. The Jointly Sponsored Predoctoral Training Program supports only predoctoral candidates. There is just one application deadline, May 25, for all active programs. 

  • Broadly based training grants: The purpose of these grants is to encourage advanced predoctoral and postdoctoral research training in an interdisciplinary research environment that includes as mentors both Ph.D. and M.D. scientists in basic science and clinical departments. The NINDS defines broadly based programs as those that support 1) the broad education and training of students and fellows in basic neuroscience and other biological sciences, 2) basic scientists who study the mechanisms of disease, and 3) clinical neuroscientists who conduct basic or clinical research and apply advances in basic science to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of brain diseases. Applicants may request support for between four and eight trainees. Typically, only one grant with more than five trainees will be awarded to an institution. See NIH Program Announcement PA-08-226.

  • Highly focused training grants: This program supports training in a highly focused area of neuroscience or neurological disease research. Grants may support up to four trainees per year. Trainees may include postdoctoral (Ph.D., M.D. or other equivalent doctoral degree) candidates and advanced (dissertation phase) predoctoral candidates. A portion of these training grants will be reserved for clinical research training projects or for projects focused on a particular disorder or group of disorders. Preference will be given to programs that focus on support of trainees with an M.D. or other health professional degree, but applications that don't meet this criterion are welcome. See NIH Program Announcement PA-08-226.

The Broadly Based and Highly Focused Training grants may be used to support any combination of advanced (dissertation phase) predoctoral Ph.D. and M.D. candidates, who may be appointed for periods of one or more years, and postdoctoral candidates, who may be appointed for a period of one to three years. NINDS will not support first and second year, or pre-dissertation graduate students, under these programs. Support for first and second year graduate students in the neurosciences is provided through the Jointly Sponsored NIH Predoctoral Training Program in the Neurosciences (see below).

Applications must specify the anticipated predoctoral to postdoctoral ratio. After a training grant has been awarded, T32 directors who wish to make changes in this ratio must obtain prior approval of the Director of Training and Career Development. If the original application requested support exclusively for either pre-doctoral or postdoctoral trainees, additional information, provided for administrative review, is required for approval to support the alternative category of trainee. A letter of intent is NOT required for either of these two types of grants.

  • Jointly Sponsored NIH Predoctoral Training Program in the Neurosciences (JSPTPN): This training program, which sponsors neuroscience training of predoctoral students in their early, pre-thesis years, is jointly sponsored by NIA, NIAAA, NICHD, NIDCD, NIDA, NEI, NIGMS, NIMH, NINDS, NINR and ODS. The aim of this program is to encourage broad training in the neurosciences by offering institutions a single comprehensive training grant for the support of predoctoral trainees in the neurosciences. If you are interested in applying to this program, please see additional information on the JSPTPN website. See NIH Program Announcement PAR-08-101.

    Applicants for the JSPTPN program must submit a letter of intent by April 25 to Lindsey Grandison, Ph.D. (lgrandis@mail.nih.gov, 301-443-0606). Applicants should also contact Dr. Grandison to obtain the tables required for this application. The application deadline for this program is May 25.

 

  • Institutional Research Training Programs: Increasing Diversity (This RFA is no longer active, but may be re-issued in the future): This joint initiative from NINDS, NIMH and NIDA is intended to significantly enhance the number of minority scientists trained to conduct research in neuroscience and behavior. The purpose of this RFA is to encourage NRSA institutional research training grant (T32) applications designed to recruit, train, and retain minority individuals in doctoral and/or postdoctoral programs in research relevant to the mission of NINDS. Training programs in response to this RFA may propose a national or regional program with the capability of supporting trainees at multiple institutions across the country or region. Only T32 programs previously awarded as a result of RFA-MH-01-009 that were funded in fiscal year 2002 were eligible to respond to this recent announcement. See the Request for Application MH-07-030.

Application Procedures:

Last updated August 19, 2008