Administrative Supplements to Grants and Cooperative Agreements

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 Administrative supplements are not peer reviewed.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 requests 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

Research Supplements

Special Issues Requiring Council Review SOP

Supplements to Grants questions and answers

GMP's CAAP and NPARS SOP