Key Dates

Related Announcements

PA-20-272 - Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional)

Issued by

Office of The Director, National Institutes of Health (OD)

National Eye Institute (NEI)

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)

National Institute on Aging (NIA)

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

All applications to this funding opportunity announcement should fall within the mission of the Institutes/Centers. The following NIH Offices may co-fund applications assigned to those Institutes/Centers.

Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH)

Purpose

The NIH Office of Data Science Strategy (ODSS) announces the availability of funds for Administrative Supplements to certain institutional research training, career development, or research education awards (see eligibility below). The funds will support the development and implementation of curricular or training activities at the interface of information science, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), and biomedical sciences to develop the competencies and skills needed to make biomedical data FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and AI/ML-ready. For the purposes of this Notice, AI/ML is inclusive of machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), and neural networks (NN).

This Notice will support creative, educational activities to develop the competencies and skills needed to make biomedical data FAIR and AI/ML-ready with a primary focus on:

• Curriculum development: exportable training modules and integrated training plans
• Training: events or other educational experiences where the structure and outputs are shared

All curriculum and training offerings developed must be aligned with NOT-OD-20-031, "Notice of NIH's Interest in Diversity".

Applicants are strongly encouraged to discuss potential requests with their Institute/Center (IC) Program Official before submitting the supplement request.

Background

Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) are a collection of data-driven technologies with the potential to significantly advance biomedical research. Much of this potential is unrealized, however, because biomedical data are not collected and prepared in ways that would allow them to be used efficiently and effectively by AI/ML applications. The task of making data FAIR and AI/ML-ready is not only algorithmic. It requires multi-disciplinary expertise, experimentation and, often, iterative feedback from AI/ML applications and experts. Particularly for biomedical data, AI/ML-readiness should be guided by a concern for human and clinical impact and therefore requires attention to ethical, legal, and social implications of AI/ML including but not limited to: (1) biases in datasets, algorithms, and applications; (2) concerns related to privacy and confidentiality; (3) impacts on disadvantaged or marginalized groups and health disparities; and (4) unintended, adverse social consequences of research and development.

Some aspects of AI/ML-readiness are relatively better understood than others. For example, popular AI/ML tools, such as PyTorch and TensorFlow, that are used to build and deploy AI/ML applications, each require specific data formats. Important biomedical AI/ML applications often require data from different sources to be combined, so making data FAIR through the use of data and metadata standards (ontologies, taxonomies, terminologies) is a foundational component of AI/ML-readiness. In addition, other aspects of data, such as the representation of information, presence of noise, specificity or uncertainty of labels, and the amount of data, can influence the computational feasibility of AI/ML learning and the accuracy of the resulting models in ways that are currently difficult to predict without testing. Furthermore, there are increasing expectations around data documentation to include information about data provenance and bias to help researchers make more informed and ethical decisions about AI/ML-applications.

Research Education Objectives

NIH seeks to train new scientists who are experts in FAIR and AI/ML-ready data, and are able to advance the field of data science for AI/ML in biomedicine. With this NOSI, NIH seeks to provide training opportunities for people from a variety of backgrounds and career stages to specialize in the competencies and skills needed to make data FAIR and AI/ML-ready, and in the skills needed to collaborate effectively with researchers across the fields of information sciences, biomedical research, and AI/ML.

It is recognized that different disciplinary areas and data types may need personnel with different sets of expertise and training experiences, including basic, clinical, population, behavioral and social sciences. Programs are not expected to cover all of these disciplines, but the educational experiences should prepare those who complete the program to work with a range of data types.

NIH expects that the outputs of activities funded under this NOSI will be made available to the broadest possible audience. Training modules and curriculum plans should be exportable and shared.

Applications that are not explicitly relevant to making data FAIR and AI/ML ready will be deemed as non-responsive to this initiative.out of scope.

NIH expects successful activities and training materials broadly available at no cost to the user. Dissemination plans that rely on fee-based access to activities and training materials will be deemed as non-responsive to this initiative and out of scope.

General Eligibility

See IC specific eligibilities below. The parent award must be active when the supplemental application is submitted (e.g., within the originally reviewed and approved project period) and have a project end date of May 31, 2022 or later. Awards in a No-Cost Extension (NCE) are not eligible.

An applicant institution (normally identified by having a unique entity identifier such as a DUNS number or NIH Institutional Profile File - IPF) may submit only one application in response to this administrative supplement opportunity. For institutions with two or more eligible grants, it is expected that the Program Directors/Principal Investigators will cooperate to develop curricula and/or activities that are broadly applicable to individuals at their institution and that a single supplement request will be submitted through one of the eligible awards.

NCI Eligibility

Applicants for this supplement must have an NCI-funded Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Institutional Research Training Grant (T32), Paul Calabresi Career Development Award for Clinical Oncology (K12), or one of the Cancer Research Education Grants Program (R25).

NEI Eligibility

Applicants for this supplement must have an NEI-funded Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Institutional Research Training Grant (T32) or Institutional Career Development Award (K12).

NHGRI Eligibility

Applicants for this supplement must have an NHGRI-funded training grant (T32) or research education program (R25) awarded through the following funding announcements and previous issuances:

• PAR-19-380, "Initiative to Maximize Research Education in Genomics: Diversity Action Plan (R25)"
• PAR-19-185, "Initiative to Maximize Research Education in Genomics: Courses (R25)"

NHLBI Eligibility

Applicants for this supplement must have an NHLBI-funded Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Institutional Research Training Grants (T32, T35), Institutional Career Development Award (K12), Research in Residency (R38) or one of the following Research Education Programs (R25) funding announcements and previous issuances:

• RFA-HL-22-009, "Summer Institute for Research Education in Biostatistics and Data Science (R25 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)"
• RFA-HL-19-024, "Short-Term Research Education Program to Increase Diversity in Health-Related Research (R25 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)"
• RFA-HL-19-002, "Programs to Increase Diversity Among Individuals Engaged in Health-Related Research (PRIDE) (R25 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)"

NIA Eligibility

Applicants for this supplement must have NIA-funded institutional training (Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA T32, T35) programs, research education programs (R25), or research education components linked to Center awards (RL5). Specific Funding Announcements (FOAs) listed below. Eligibility also applies to previous issuances of the FOAs:

• PAR-21-112, "Advance Translational Research on Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias (T32)"
• RFA-AG-21-027, "MD-PhD Training Program in Alzheimer's Disease and Its Related Dementias and the Behavioral and Social Sciences (T32)"
• PA-20-142, "Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Institutional Research Training Grant (Parent T32)"
• PAR-20-076, "Jointly Sponsored Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Institutional Predoctoral Training Program in the Neurosciences (T32 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)"
• PA-20-162, "Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Short-Term Institutional Research Training Grant (Parent T35)"
• PAR-21-141, "AD/ADRD Clinical Trials Short Course (R25 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed)"
• PAR-20-095, "Development of Research Education Resources for Geriatrics-Related Translational and Clinical Scientists (R25 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed)"
• PAR-20-317, "NIA MSTEM: Advancing Diversity in Aging Research through Undergraduate Education (R25 - Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed)"
• RFA-AG-21-024, "Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Centers (P30 Clinical Trial Optional)"
• RFA-AG-18-003, "Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR) (P30)", Research Education component (RL5)
• RFA-AG-18-002, "Alzheimer's-related Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (AD-RCMAR) (P30)", Research Education component (RL5)
• RFA-AG-20-020, "Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in Basic Biology of Aging (P30 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)", Research Education Component (RL5)

NIAAA Eligibility

Applicants must have an NIAAA-funded training (T32, T35) or research education program (R25) award. NIAAA encourages projects that use the NIAAA Data Archive or funded initiatives with data repositories, including Collaborative Studies on Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) study, Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, or the Monkey Alcohol Tissue Research Resource (MATRR).

NIAID Eligibility

Applicants for this supplement must have an NIAID-funded Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Institutional Research Training Grant (T32) or a NIAID Research Education Grant (R25).

NIAMS Eligibility

Applicants for this supplement must have an NIAMS-funded Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Institutional Research Training Grant (T32).

NIDA Eligibility

Applicants for this supplement must have a NIDA-funded training grant (T32) or research education program (R25) awarded. NIDA encourages projects that use data focused on addiction and/or neuroscience, including, but not limited to, the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. The ABCD Study collects multidimensional longitudinal data from nearly 12,000 children beginning at ages 9-10 and continuing for 10 years, and releases this data annually through the NIMH Data Archive.

NIEHS Eligibility

Applicants for this supplement must have an NIEHS-funded Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Institutional Research Training Grant (T32).

NIGMS Eligibility

Applicants for this supplement must have an NIGMS-funded training (T32, T34), Institutional Career Development (K12), or certain research education program (R25, see below) award. Only R25 awards in the following programs (and associated funding opportunity announcements) are eligible for this supplement:

• Bridges to Baccalaureate (PAR-16-110; PAR-17-210)
• Bridges to the Doctorate (PAR-16-109; PAR-17-209)
• Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) (PAR-14-121; PAR-17-053)
• Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) (PAR-14-076; PAR-17-051; PAR-20-066)
• Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) (PAR-16-118; PAR-16-361)

NIMH Eligibility

Applicants for this supplement must have an NIMH-funded Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Institutional Research Training Grant (T32) or Short Courses for Mental Health Related Research (R25)award through PAR-20-096 or previous issuances.

NINR Eligibility

Applicants for this supplement must have an NINR-funded Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Institutional Research Training Grant (T32).

Application and Submission Information

Applications for this initiative must be within scope of the parent award and must be submitted using the following opportunity or its subsequent reissued equivalent.

• PA-20-272 - Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional)

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and PA-20-272 must be followed, with the following additions:

• Application Due Date(s) – May 14, 2021, by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization.
• For funding consideration, applicants must include “NOT-OD-21-079” (without quotation marks) in the Agency Routing Identifier field (box 4B) of the SF424 R&R form. Applications without this information in box 4B will not be considered for this initiative.
• Only electronic submissions will be accepted for this funding opportunity. Use one of the methods described in PA-20-272. Paper submissions and applications submitted as email attachments will be rejected without review.
• Requests may be for one year of support only.
• Budget:
  • Application budgets are limited to $80,000 direct costs (plus applicable F&A costs) and must reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.
  • Funds from this supplement may be used for salary support of individuals designing, directing, and implementing the proposed training activity. Funds may also be used for administrative staff salaries, consultant costs, equipment, research supplies, faculty/staff travel, and other expenses directly related to the proposed curricular or training activity.
  • Funds from this supplement must be expended within 12 months of the supplement award issue date.
  • Applicants should note that the funds from this supplement cannot be used to support trainee stipends or tuition (T34 or T32) or participant costs (R25) or scholar costs (K12)
• Research Training Program Plan/Proposed Research Education Program (limited to 3 pages): In this attachment, include the summary or abstract of the funded parent award(s), and describe the following:
  • The need for the proposed curricular or training activities and what competencies and skills will be addressed. Describe how the activities will synergize with, but not duplicate, ongoing efforts in this area.
  • A description of the curricular or training activities and their potential impact on the biomedical training at the institution.
  • How the effectiveness of the curricular or training activities will be assessed.
  • If proven to be effective, how the curricular or training activities will be incorporated into the existing biomedical training program(s).
  • Plans for disseminating the activities and outcomes.
  • Institutional commitment for sustainability of the proposed activities.
  • If the application focuses on a particular area of biomedical research or clinical practice; data types; AI/ML technologies; or candidate types, then the application should provide the rationale for this scoping in terms of potential impact to the community.

Application Review Information

NIH staff will consider whether the budget is fully justified and will evaluate applications using the following criteria:

• Is there a clearly identified need for the proposed activities?
• Will the proposed activity have a broader impact on the training environment?
• Is the plan feasible and likely to accomplish the goal of the supplement?
• Is there an effective plan to incorporate and sustain the proposed activities into the ongoing training programs?
• Are the plans to assess the outcomes likely to provide evidence of the effectiveness of the proposed activity?
• Are the plans to disseminate the activities and outcomes feasible and likely to reach a broader audience?
• Are the costs allowable and fully justified?
• Are the proposed activities likely to develop expertise relevant to making biomedical data FAIR and AI/ML-ready?
• Does the application demonstrate an understanding of the challenges in making data FAIR and AI/ML-ready, and the competencies and skills needed to address these?
• If the application focuses on a particular area of biomedical or clinical research; data types; AI/ML technologies; or candidate types, then is this scoping well justified in terms of the potential impact to the community?
• Do the proposed curriculum and training offerings appropriately attend to concerns for human and clinical impact and align with NIH goals to improve minority health, and reduce health disparities for marginalized populations?

Applicants are strongly encouraged to notify the program contact at the Institute supporting the parent award that a request has been submitted in response to this NOSI in order to facilitate efficient processing of the request.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Laura Biven, Ph.D.
NIH Office of Data Science Strategy
Email: AI-workforce@nih.gov