Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp - Clinical Trial Optional) | PA 18 591

Opportunity Information: Apply for PA 18 591

The NIH funding opportunity PA 18-591, titled "Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp - Clinical Trial Optional)," is designed for investigators who already hold certain active NIH research grants or cooperative agreements and need additional funds to cover unexpected, legitimate cost increases that arose after the original application, renewal, or non-competing continuation progress report was submitted. The key point is that these are not new standalone research projects. Instead, they are add-on funds meant to keep an already approved project on track when unanticipated expenses appear, as long as the requested activities and costs stay within the scientific and programmatic scope of the parent award.

These requests are treated as administrative supplements, which NIH considers a type of prior approval request under the NIH Grants Policy Statement (referenced as Section 8.1.2.11). In practical terms, that means the supplement application is reviewed and handled in the context of the existing grant rather than competed like a typical new grant application. The request is routed directly to the Grants Management Officer assigned to the parent award, and the supplement is evaluated based on whether the added costs are reasonable, necessary, allowable, and clearly tied to completing the approved aims of the existing project.

A central feature of this FOA is that funding is not guaranteed. Even if an applicant submits a strong request, the awarding NIH Institute or Center (IC) may not have funds available for supplements at that time, or may prioritize certain supplement needs over others. Because of that, NIH strongly encourages applicants to communicate with their awarding IC before submitting anything. This early conversation helps confirm whether the IC is open to supplement requests, what types of costs or justifications they consider acceptable, and whether there are any institute-specific instructions that go beyond the general FOA language.

Another important requirement is that applicants must review and comply with IC-specific guidance posted on the NIH administrative supplements page. NIH maintains a list of web pages for each awarding IC at https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/adminsupp/index.htm. Those pages can include extra eligibility restrictions, preferred submission windows, required formatting details, or specific budget limitations. In other words, meeting the general FOA requirements is necessary but may not be sufficient if the particular IC funding the parent grant has additional rules.

The opportunity is labeled "Clinical Trial Optional," which signals that, depending on the parent award and the purpose of the supplement, the supplement activities may involve a clinical trial, but they do not have to. The supplement must still remain within the scope of the parent project, so this does not create an open door to add a brand-new clinical trial that changes the fundamental nature of the funded research. Instead, it provides flexibility for projects where clinical trial-related costs or activities are already part of the approved scope or can be supported without expanding beyond what NIH originally approved.

Eligibility is broad in terms of institution types, but it is narrow in the most important way: the applicant must be the PD(s)/PI(s) on an eligible active NIH grant or cooperative agreement mechanism listed in the full FOA. Assuming the parent award qualifies, a wide range of organizations may be able to submit supplement requests, including state, county, city, township, and special district governments; independent school districts; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments; tribal organizations that are not federally recognized; public housing authorities; nonprofits (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3)); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); small businesses; and other eligible entities. The FOA also explicitly highlights additional eligible applicant categories such as HBCUs, Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions, faith-based or community-based organizations, certain non-U.S. (foreign) organizations, regional organizations, U.S. territories or possessions, and eligible federal agencies. The inclusion of these categories reflects NIH's broad institutional eligibility framework, but again, actual eligibility depends first on holding the right kind of parent NIH award.

From a topic and mission standpoint, the FOA spans a large set of NIH program areas, which is reflected in the long list of CFDA numbers associated with the opportunity. The activity categories listed (such as health, education, environment, food and nutrition, income security, and social services) indicate that supplements could support many different kinds of NIH-funded work, as long as the supplement request is directly tied to completing the originally approved project and addressing unforeseen within-scope costs.

Finally, the administrative details provided in the source information indicate this is a discretionary grant opportunity administered by NIH, created on January 25, 2018, with an original closing date of October 31, 2020. The listing does not specify an award ceiling or expected number of awards in the summarized fields, which aligns with how administrative supplement funding often works: availability and size depend heavily on the parent grant, the nature of the need, institute priorities, and year-to-year budget conditions.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, environment, food and nutrition, health, income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp - Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.113, 93.121, 93.142, 93.143, 93.172, 93.173, 93.213, 93.233, 93.242, 93.273, 93.279, 93.286, 93.307, 93.310, 93.313, 93.321, 93.350, 93.351, 93.352, 93.361, 93.393, 93.394, 93.395, 93.396, 93.397, 93.398, 93.399, 93.837, 93.838, 93.839, 93.840, 93.846, 93.847, 93.853, 93.855, 93.856, 93.859, 93.865, 93.866, 93.867, 93.879, 93.989.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2018-01-25.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-10-31. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

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