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. We generally pay only for items resulting from events unforeseen when the competing application was submitted.

Funding

NIAID makes awards under rare circumstances and only if the divisions have sufficient funds in their discretionary pools. If no funds remain, a division may request an allocation from NIAID's Budget Office.

While there is no limit to the amount of funding applicants can request, they must justify their budgets and provide a scientific rationale.

For administrative supplements funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), grantees must follow the rules at NIAID Supplements Through the Economic Recovery Act. For example, if a supplement will be funded with ARRA funds:

• The request can be for no more than one year.
• Equipment purchases are generally capped at $100,000. However, applicants may request more if they are the only PI who will use the equipment and they fully justify the request.

Procedure

Administrative supplements are not peer reviewed, but they are reviewed by NIAID staff with relevant expertise.

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, time, 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 that may otherwise be lost. 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.
• Natural disasters.

Requirements

Administrative supplement requests must meet the following requirements:

• 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. This requirement is waived on requests for ARRA funding.
• 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. This requirement is waived on requests for ARRA funding.
• Administrative supplement cannot 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.

Requests must stay within the scope of the research. 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. Send as a single PDF file.
  • Reason for the request. Describe your reason in the body of the email in addition to including it in the PDF attachment.
  • 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.
• Have your institutional official verify that required financial reporting (FSR-269 form) is up to date.

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 to determine whether the supplement eligibility criteria are met
• Review financial information.
  • Financial Status Report (FSR) if available.
  • Payment Management System or Data Warehouse information if grantee reports a large unobligated balance and a recent FSR is not available.
  • Do not check Payment Management System or Data Warehouse if the grant is in its first year.
• 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.

GMP staff can see 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

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 -- Administrative, Revision, and Research questions and answers

GMP staff can see GMP's CAAP and NPARS SOP