NIH Research Education Program - Courses, Curriculum Methods (Parent R25 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

The NIH Research Education Program - Courses, Curriculum & Methods (Parent R25 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed), funding opportunity PA-27-034, is a federal research education opportunity administered by the National Institutes of Health within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Numerous NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices participate. The program supports research education activities within NIH mission areas and is intended to complement or enhance the training of the biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research workforce, recruit individuals with relevant specialty or disciplinary backgrounds to research careers, and improve understanding of biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research and its implications. Proposed projects must align with the mission and current programmatic priorities of the NIH Institute, Center, or Office to which the application is directed, and prospective applicants are strongly encouraged to consult the appropriate NIH program staff before preparing an application. The opportunity supports educational activities primarily focused on Courses for Skills Development and Curriculum or Methods Development. Skills development courses should provide innovative, state-of-the-art, evidence-based research education derived from biomedical, behavioral, social, or clinical research methods or findings and may use in-person, online, or hybrid formats. Curriculum or methods development projects should have strong potential to improve research education or develop novel instructional approaches or computer-based educational tools that can be readily adapted by the broader research education community. Programs should provide practical content that enhances participants' research capabilities. Short courses may range from one week or less through a maximum of 12 weeks, while curriculum or methods development may require up to two years for development, testing, and preparation for dissemination. The overall maximum award project period is five years. Activities outside the scope include training already available to participants through existing institutional courses; seminars, workshops, presentations, demonstrations, or similar activities occurring at research conferences, scientific symposia, or other organized formal meetings; informational courses lacking concrete practical research experience; and activities primarily focused on developing or maintaining mentoring networks or programs. Research education experiences must be distinct from federally supported training or education programs at the applicant organization and cannot replace or circumvent NRSA programs. Allowable costs may include justified personnel salaries and fringe benefits, participant registration fees or tuition, reasonable participant travel, applicable short-term housing, consultant costs, equipment, supplies, key-person travel, and other specifically required program expenses. Indirect costs are reimbursed at 8 percent of modified total direct costs, subject to the exclusions stated in the notice. Application budgets are not formally limited but must reflect actual project needs; budgets are typically expected to be no more than 500000 dollars in direct costs. Cost sharing is not required. Eligible applicants include public and private institutions of higher education; nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status; small businesses and other for-profit organizations; state, county, city or township, and special district governments; federally recognized and other Indian or Native American tribal governments; eligible federal agencies and U.S. territories or possessions; independent school districts; public or Indian housing authorities; Native American tribal organizations; faith-based and community-based organizations; and regional organizations. Foreign organizations, non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations, and foreign components are not eligible. Applicant organizations must maintain the required SAM, eRA Commons, and Grants.gov registrations, and PDs or PIs must have eRA Commons accounts and valid ORCID identifiers linked to their profiles. Applicant organizations may submit more than one application when each application is scientifically distinct. Eligible program participants can include undergraduates, post-baccalaureates, graduate and health professional students, postdoctoral scholars, individuals in clinical residency or specialty training, and early-career investigators. Unless exceptionally relevant to NIH, programs should primarily educate U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Applications must follow the Research instructions in the NIH How to Apply - Application Guide together with the program-specific requirements of this notice and must be submitted electronically through an authorized NIH submission route. Applicants may use NIH ASSIST, an institutional system-to-system solution connected to Grants.gov, or Grants.gov Workspace, with eRA Commons used to track the application. The Research Strategy must contain the Research Education Program Plan addressing the Proposed Research Education Program, Program Director or Principal Investigator, Program Faculty, Program Participants when applicable, Institutional Environment and Commitment, instruction in methods to enhance reproducibility, responsible conduct of research, an Evaluation Plan, and a Dissemination Plan. A letter of institutional commitment is required in Letters of Support. An Advisory Committee is optional, but if one is proposed the required committee plan must be supplied as an Other Attachment. A Data Management and Sharing Plan is not applicable to this opportunity. Applications proposing human subjects involvement must provide the applicable PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials information, although this opportunity does not permit applications proposing clinical trials. Peer review considers overall impact and the scored criteria of Significance, Investigators, Innovation, Approach, and Environment. Reviewers assess the need for and potential educational impact of the proposed program, leadership capabilities and faculty qualifications, innovative approaches and current best practices, the educational rationale and likelihood of achieving stated objectives, participant recruitment and retention when applicable, evaluation quality, institutional commitment, and the scientific and educational environment. Funding decisions additionally consider scientific and technical merit, availability of funds, and relevance to program priorities. Applicants should therefore clearly establish the need for the proposed course, curriculum, or methods; demonstrate alignment with a participating NIH Institute or Center; document feasibility and measurable benchmarks; anticipate potential problems and alternative strategies; and provide meaningful evaluation and national dissemination plans. The opportunity opens for submission on August 25, 2026 and follows recurring NIH standard due dates. The next deadline is September 25, 2026, with subsequent listed deadlines on January 25 and May 25, followed by the same September, January, and May pattern through May 25, 2029. Applications are due by 5:00 PM local time of the applicant organization, with deadlines falling on weekends or federal holidays automatically extended to the next business day. For the September 25, 2026 cycle, scientific merit review is anticipated in March 2027, Advisory Council review in May 2027, and the earliest start date is July 2027. The notice expires May 26, 2029. No single scientific contact applies to all applications because participating NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices maintain separate program contacts, and prospective applicants are directed to consult the appropriate participating NIH scientific or research contact to confirm responsiveness before submission.

Align program with NIH institute priorities; demonstrate clear workforce impact; include strong evaluation metrics; ensure program is distinct from existing federally funded training programs