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Percent Effort and Concurrent Salary Support for Research Career Development (K) Awards

Individual Research Career Development (K) Awards (K01, K08, K22, K23, K25, and parent K99) require at least 75 percent effort (nine person months) of the professional time devoted to the funded K award.

For the NIAID Physician-Scientist (PS) K99, we require a minimum of 50 percent effort (six person months).

Follow these rules for effort, salary supplementation, and salary sources:

  • For effort directly committed to the K award, salary supplementation is allowable but must be from non-federal sources unless explicitly authorized by the federal program from which such funds are derived as described in Section 12.8.1 of the NIH Grants Policy Statement.
  • The remaining effort (up to 25 percent or 50 percent for the NIAID PS K99) can be divided among other research, clinical, and teaching activities only if these activities are consistent with the goals of the mentored K award.
  • K award recipients may devote effort, with compensation, on federal or non-federal sources as the program director/principal investigator (PD/PI) or in another role (e.g., co-investigator), as long as the Specific Aims of the other supporting grant(s) differ from those of the K award.

For valid reasons, such as personal or family situations, you may change your appointment to part-time or reduce your percent effort. Both need NIAID approval. For more information, see the Career Development Grants SOP.

In the last two years, with prior NIAID approval, K awardees may receive concurrent salary support from any peer-reviewed grant if the following criteria are met:

  • The K award recipient must be one of the named PIs on a competing NIH Research Project application (e.g., R01, R03, R15, R21, R34) or a sub-project director on a competing Multiproject research or center grant or Cooperative Agreement application (e.g., P01, P50, U01) or an equivalent application from another federal agency or non-federal (private) source.
  • The K award must be in its final two years before the reduction in effort to a minimum of six person months (50 percent full-time professional effort) is permitted.
  • The K award must be active when the competing research grant application is submitted.

NIAID will adjust the total salary support committed to the K award consistent with the adjusted level of effort.

Note: NIAID Career Transition Award (K22) and Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) awardees must provide strong justification and institutional assurance that the additional research responsibilities of concurrent salary support will be beneficial to their overall career development. 

More Information

Learn more on the NIAID Research Career Development (K) Awards main page.

Email your questions to AITrainingHelpDesk@mail.nih.gov.

She can also advise you on your eligibility for a particular K program and whether your proposed research aligns with NIAID if you send her your NIH-formatted biosketch and Specific Aims page. Learn more at Create Biosketches and Draft Specific Aims.

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