Administrative Supplements

What is an Administrative Supplement?

An administrative supplement (Type 3) is a request for additional funds during a current project period to provide for an increase in costs due to unforeseen circumstances. All additional costs must be within the current scope of the peer reviewed and approved project and the activities must not extend beyond the term of the current award. Administrative supplements do not require peer review.

How are they used?

Administrative supplements may be used to support a variety of unanticipated circumstances, including but not limited to 

• Full or part-time mentored research training experiences for individuals with high potential to reenter, reintegrate into, or retrain in an active research career
• Retention of investigators facing critical life events who are transitioning from mentored career development awards to research independence and to minimize departures from biomedical research workforce
• Salary and training expenses to augment clinical research studies with unexpected necessary expertise
• Replacing broken or antiquated equipment
• Application of a new technology (e.g. changing assays, equipment) for peer reviewed studies
• Third party replication of research findings that are within the parent award
• Tool validation optimization and/or dissemination
• Data preparation and curation to make data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reuseable (FAIR), enhance interoperability, facilitate sharing and re-use
• Augmentation as required by IRB or IACUC to ensure the safety and welfare of study participants
• Increasing study participation by increasing recruitment and enrollment and deploying strategies to target essential but difficult to reach study populations
• Technical and Business Assistance (TABA) funds for NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) to help small businesses identify and address their most pressing product development needs 

Inappropriate Uses

• Fund a change in scope
  • Potential indicators of a change in scope include
    • Change in the specific aims approved at the time of award
    • Change from non-human subject research to research involving human subjects
    • Shift of the research emphasis from one disease area to another
• Supplement predoctoral and postdoctoral stipends/salaries (applies to both NRSA and non-NRSA awards)
• Add, delete, or change the PD/PIs listed on the current award
• Restore awards up to full scientific review group (SRG) recommended level if the SRB level was administratively reduced by the awarding institute or center

Administrative Supplement Parent Announcement

The Administrative Supplement Parent Announcement is used for the submission of all administrative supplement applications.

Timing

• The existing parent award must be active
• The project and budget periods of the supplement must be within the currently approved project period for the existing parent award
• Administrative supplements are not permitted during a no-cost extension and will be considered only in rare situations (e.g., public health emergency declaration, or natural disaster)
• Due dates for administrative supplement applications may vary by awarding institute or center

Application Process

• Prior to submission reach out to the grants management and program officials assigned to the current award.
• Visit the institute and center's (IC) web site page for ICO-specific information (e.g., due dates)
• Administrative Supplements follow a similar application process as competing applications, but are handled a bit differently after submission
  • Submit your application in response to the Administrative Supplement Parent Announcement
  • Access, prepare, and submit application forms using your chosen submission option (ASSIST, institutional system-to-system solution, Grants.gov Workspace)
    • Use the application package linked from the funding opportunity that is appropriate for the current award
    • Special pre-population features are available when initiating Administrative Supplements through ASSIST and eRA Commons. See eRA Information: Use of ASSIST Expanded for Submission of Administrative Supplements for details.
    • Do not use the Cover Letter attachment (applications are sent directly to the awarding institute or center whose staff do not have access to that attachment)
    • An administrative supplement for a multi-project application is submitted as a single-project application since the supplement is for the overall award
  • Administrative supplements are considered prior approval requests (as described in Section 8.1.2.11 of the NIH Grants Policy Statement) and will be routed directly to the Grants Management Officer of the current award.

Review Criteria

• Administratively reviewed by NIH institute and center staff considering the criteria in Section V of the funding opportunity