New Changes to NIH’s AREA Coming Soon: Are You Ready?

Grants Resource Center – by Fatoyinbo, Willette B.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) just released a guide notice to inform the extramural research community of funding criteria changes applied to the Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA). The guide notice confirms the scope of award and eligibility changes applicable to future applicants beginning in January 2019 (NOT-OD-19-015). 

The most obvious program change is the elimination of the AREA Parent Announcement which will soon transition into the AREA for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions (R15 – Clinical Trial Not Allowed). Take a moment to review new AREA eligibility requirements to ensure your institution meet the new criteria, which include the following:

  • Only predominately undergraduate institutions are eligible;
  • Applicant institutions must serve as an accredited public or non-profit private school that grants baccalaureate degrees in biomedical sciences;
  • All non-health professional components of the institution must receive combined support of less than $6 million per year (in both direct and F&A/indirect costs) in 4 of the last 7 years at the time of application submission. All types of Health Professional Schools are ineligible to apply and are not considered in this calculation;
  • As of January 24, 2019, applications due on (or after) February 25, 2019 will require a signed letter from the Provost or similar official with institution-wide responsibility verifying the eligibility of the applicant institution at the time of application submission and NIH will no longer refer to the list of ineligible institutions;
  • Schools, colleges, centers, or institutes within an institution (e.g. School of Arts and Sciences) must have an undergraduate student enrollment that is greater than graduate student enrollment. The research team must be composed primarily of undergraduate students; and
  • Non-health professional components of the applicant institution must show NIH support less than $6 million per year in total costs in four of the last seven years.

NIH also recently unveiled a new program coined the Research Enhancement Award Program (REAP), a new opportunity open to health professional schools and graduate schools of arts and sciences. According to NIH, the creation of the REAP program will help the agency improve tracking systems linked to undergraduates at under-resourced institutions by separating undergraduate and graduate-level programs. Similar to the new AREA eligibility criteria, LEAP applicants must show institutional research support totaling less than $6 million per year in total costs in four of the last seven years. REAP applicants also have the option to choose or bypass clinical trials. REAP solicitations are expected to surface in December.

Prior to the start of the new year, applicants are strongly encouraged to visit NIH’s R15 “cheat sheet” and search RePORT to determine eligibility under the new policy changes.

When in doubt, feel free to contact Alexandra Ainsztein, program director at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at 301-594-0943 or alexandra.ainsztein@nih.gov. Dr. Ainsztein will join GRC at the 2019 Funding Summit on February 19-22, 2019 and has agreed to do private consultations during the afternoon of Friday, February 22 shortly following her presentation on AREA/REAP. GRC will open the schedule in late January. Additionally, Michael Lauer, NIH’s deputy director for extramural research, will give his annual overview of NIH priorities during the Funding Summit as well. Follow his blog, Open Mike, for detailed information on the AREA changes and other happenings within NIH.