Academic Research Enhancement Awards

Purpose

To enable qualified scientists at institutions eligible for Academic Research Enhancement Awards (AREA) to receive support for small-scale research projects that expose undergrads and graduate students to NIH-funded research.

Procedure

Non-research intensive colleges and health professional schools are eligible for AREA if they have received less than $6 million a year in at least four of the last seven years. For more information on eligibility requirements and a list of ineligible institutions, see AREA Program Ineligible Institutions.

Qualified investigators must have a primary faculty appointment at an AREA-eligible institution and cannot be a PI on an active NIH research grant at the time they would receive an AREA award. However, they may work on another PI's grant. PIs may receive only one AREA award at a time, though they may have successive AREA grants.

NIAID approves awards for up to three years and up to $300,000 in combined direct plus facilities and administrative costs.

Institutions receive the entire award amount at the start of the project period, and may take a no-cost extension of up to twelve months to allow PIs to finish AREA projects. See the No-Cost Extension SOP for details.

For initial peer review, applications are clustered in groups of about fifteen and reviewed by standing study sections or special emphasis panels. For each cluster, those that score in the bottom half are not discussed. 

Grantees must send a progress report for each year. For details, see NIH Instructions for Progress Reports for Multi-year Funded (MYF) awards. For more on progress reporting, go to Understand the Annual Progress Report in the Strategy for NIH Funding.

Investigators

• If you're unfamiliar with NIH staff roles, read Contact Staff for Help in the Strategy for NIH Funding for background.
• Confirm that your institution is eligible for AREA funding before applying.
• Follow instructions in the Academic Research Enhancement Award program announcement.
• Submit your application by NIH's Standard Due Dates for Competing Applications.

Program Officers

• Evaluate applications for scientific and programmatic merit.
• Ensure that PIs submit annual progress reports. If you find a report to be unacceptable, ask the PI to submit a revised one.

Grants Management Specialists

• Confirm that PIs and institutions are eligible for AREA awards.
• If an institution has never received NIH funding, help it establish an employer identification number.
• See GMP's Academic Research Enhancement Awards (R15) SOP for more information.

Contacts

Applicants with questions should Contact Staff for Help.

AITrainingHelpDesk@niaid.nih.gov

Contact for NIAID Staff

If you have knowledge to share or want more information on this topic, email deaweb@niaid.nih.gov with the title of this page or its URL and your question or comment. Thanks for helping us clarify and expand our knowledge base.

Links

AREA Program Contacts, NIH

NIAID's Application portal

SF 424 Application Guide

NIAID Funding Policy and Process SOP

NIH Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) Grants, from NIH's Office of Extramural Research