If your U.S. university or institution of higher education serves historically underrepresented populations in biomedical research, be sure to consider NIH’s new notice of funding opportunity (NOFO), STrengthening Research Opportunities for NIH Grants (STRONG): Structured Institutional Needs Assessment and Action Plan Development for Resource-Limited Institutions (UC2, Clinical Trial Not Allowed).
Program Goal, Eligibility, and Activities
The program’s overall goal is to increase competitiveness in biomedical research and foster institutional environments that are conducive to research career development.
Check Section III. Eligibility Information for full qualifications. To fit NIH’s definition of a resource-limited institution, your organization must meet all of the following criteria:
- Have a documented historical and current mission to educate students from historically underrepresented populations in biomedical research, as defined in Section III.
- Award degrees in the health professions or sciences related to health, including science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), social, and behavioral sciences.
- In the past 3 fiscal years, your institution received an average of $0 to $25 million per year (total costs) of NIH research project grant support.
As detailed in Section IV of the NOFO, your application’s Research Strategy section should describe how you will complete both of the following steps:
- Conduct a rigorous Institutional Needs Assessment. Include how you will create, use, or adapt tools and instruments to study, monitor, and evaluate your institution’s research capacity at the individual and organizational level.
- Use the assessment results to develop an Institutional Action Plan that will meet identified needs and leverage existing strengths to increase research capacity. Include a realistic timeline, short- and long-term goals, and approaches to identify potential sources of funds to build capacity.
More Information
NIH hosted a Technical Assistance Webinar about STRONG on July 21, 2023. You can expect to find webinar materials posted there soon.
Submit your application before one of the three due dates: September 18, 2023, 2024, or 2025 by 5 p.m. local time of your applicant organization. Send your optional Letter of Intent 30 days before you apply.
NIH will make STRONG awards through the UC2 Cooperative Agreements activity code. Find a general overview of cooperative agreements in our October 19, 2022 article “Applicants—Understand What a Cooperative Agreement Signifies.”
Propose a project period of up to 3 years and a budget to fit the scope of your project’s actual needs. The direct cost limit is $250,000 per year.
For applications focused on NIAID areas of science, contact Diane Adger-Johnson, NIAID’s scientific/research contact, at AItraininghelpdesk@niaid.nih.gov or 240-669-2924. Find contacts for other NIH institutes and centers, peer review, and grants management in Section VII. Agency Contacts.