NIH Career Development Awards (K Awards)

Level of Effort

In addition to the full-time appointment requirement described above, mentored and non-mentored CDA candidates are required to devote and maintain a minimum level of effort (see below) to the award. During a no-cost extension, the recipient is required to maintain any effort minimum and can only reduce his/her effort with prior approval of the awarding Institute & Center (IC).

Candidates who hold additional appointments with an independent clinical practice plan, the VA or other organizations may not use these additional appointments to meet the minimum effort requirement. Responsibilities outside of the applicant organization appointment are not restricted; however, they also cannot be used to meet any minimum effort requirement. If a candidate has a dual appointment, they must also have a full-time appointment at the applicant institution and be able to meet the minimum effort requirement as part of that full-time appointment in order to qualify for a CDA. Candidates should contact the scientific/research and/or grants management contact in the relevant IC prior to preparing an application to discuss their eligibility.

Mentored CDAs and Level of Effort

Mentored CDA candidates are required to devote a minimum commitment equivalent of 9 calendar person months (75% or their full-time appointment at the applicant institution) to the career development and research objectives of the program specified in each FOA. The remaining 3 person months (25% effort), if applicable, can be divided among other research, clinical, and teaching activities only if these activities are consistent with the goals of the mentored CDA, i.e., the candidate’s development into an independent investigator.

Mentored awardees are allowed to devote complementary effort without salary support on other research grants that include related research between the CDA and the research grant. In such cases where there is scientific overlap, the percent effort on the research grant is subsumed within the required effort of the CDA. However, there should not be significant duplication of the scope of the research supported by the CDA. Further, the related research must be consistent with the goals and objectives of the CDA.

Concurrent Support and Level of Effort

In certain circumstances, the recipient may be working on another grant while the K Award supports the employee's salary. In this case, it is expected that the goals of the second grant support the goals of the K Award. In cases where there is scientific overlap, the effort on the second grant is included in the K Award effort.

Provided they remain in a mentored status, mentored CDA recipients in the final two years of their support period are permitted to reduce the level of effort required for the CDA when they have competed successfully for peer-reviewed research awards from NIH or any Federal agency, if programmatic policy of the other Federal agency allows such an arrangement. Recipients are encouraged to obtain funding from NIH or other Federal sources either as a PD/PI on a competing research grant award or cooperative agreement or as a project leader on a competing multi-project award.

At the time the research grant is awarded the effort required on the CDA may be reduced to no less than 6 person months (50% full-time professional effort at the grantee organization) and replaced by effort and corresponding salary from the research award so that the total level of research commitment remains at 9 person months (75% full-time professional effort) or more for the duration of the mentored CDA. This policy applies to the following mentored CDA activity codes: K01, K07 (developmental), K08, K22, K23, and K25, as well as individuals mentored through institutional K12 or KL2 awards.

When a mentored CDA recipient obtains independent support, the NIH awarding IC supporting the CDA will adjust the level of effort committed to the CDA to no less than (50% effort) consistent with maintaining total research effort at 75% or more of the full-time appointment. NIH may adjust the total salary and fringe benefits amounts awarded to the CDA if consistent with the adjusted level of effort. If necessary, the K award may also be adjusted to avoid any additional budget overlap.

Non-mentored CDAs

Established investigators on independent (non-mentored) CDAs are generally required to devote a minimum of 25-50% effort conducting research and research career development related activities during the period of the award. Some independent CDAs allow and may require more than 50% effort. For example, K02 recipients are required to devote 75% effort to research.

Generally, an independent or leadership awardee may receive additional salary support from other NIH/PHS grants for effort above the CDA and there are no limitations to receiving other salary support. However, K02 recipients may not receive salary from other NIH/PHS grants. Where applicable, specific NIH Grants policies are noted in the FOA. The candidate must be able to demonstrate that the requested period of salary support and protected time will foster his/her career and capacity to contribute to the specified field.

Recording K Award Salary Commitment During Award Verification

When a K award recipient has been approved to supplement K Award effort with another sponsored project, the department should follow the process for cost sharing of the effort. They should set up the supplemented effort funding distribution lines using cost sharing fund 4900 and the sponsored project chart string. Monthly, CGA will post a financial journal to transfer these costs to the supplemented funding source.

During each award verification, confirmation that cost share expenses have been posted and then subsequently swept to the appropriate unrestricted funding sources should be completed.

• A Comment should be entered in the Award Verification Tool in each verification cycle that identifies the two awards and the level of commitment that is covered.
• All Comments that confirm a cost share or K award salary commitment should be flagged to be included in the History PDF file.

For more information on salary supplementation to K awards, see NIH K Awards: Clarification of Level of Effort and NIH Policy on Compensation and Salary Supplementation (opens in new window) on the Office of Sponsored Research website.

Effort Reporting and K Awards

Under K awards, mentored and non-mentored CDA candidates are required to devote and maintain a minimum level of effort to the award. Since K awards require that a minimal amount of effort is expected and not necessarily quantifiable in terms of a percentage of the total award amount, no cost sharing needs to be reported or tracked. Effort only needs to be reported if it falls below the minimum required threshold which has to be approved by the sponsoring agency. If the effort falls below the minimum threshold, supplementation may be reported. There is no requirement that the department file cost sharing paperwork with CGA, no need for CGA to set up a cost sharing program code, and no need to specifically charge part of the salary to a designated cost sharing program code.

FAQs

1. Can I commit to cost sharing on a NIH-K-Series-Career proposal? Answer: No. There is no need to commit cost sharing on K awards as the effort of sponsors, or mentors, or advisors are not paid on Federal K awards, therefore, they are listed as other significant contributors with no measurable effort ("effort as needed"). Their effort is not considered cost sharing and is not trackable. In some cases, costs detailed in the "Research Development Support" section may be cost shared, though cost sharing is not a recommended practice of the University.
2. Can effort be used to support another grant application? Answer: Yes. This is assuming the award is "mentored", the K award with 100% effort, can meet a cost sharing requirement as long as the cost shared resources are "concurrent" with the aims of the K award. Approval to cost share should be obtained in all cases from the "K" award Grants Management Specialist, who will work with the Program Officer. A K award is the only exception whereby a federal award may be used to meet a cost sharing requirement. When using a K award to meet the cost sharing requirement, there is no need to include this information on the OSR approval form.
3. Is the effort by a faculty mentor or faculty sponsor on a Federal K award considered cost sharing? Answer: No. The effort of sponsors, co-sponsors, or mentors on Federal K awards is not considered cost sharing. The PHS 398 instructions (11/07) provide clarification that sponsors, co-sponsors and mentors can be listed as “Other Significant Contributors” rather than as Key Personnel, and states that these individuals can be listed either as “as needed” or “zero percent effort.” This is the recommended practice at UCSF so that quantified amounts are not recorded on the budget or budget justification pages for these activities on Federal K awards.
4. If a faculty member must commit 75% effort to a Federal K award, but the Federal K award instructions only allow payment up to $85,000 (which only covers part of the faculty member’s salary), is the amount paid over $85,000 committed cost sharing? For example, the award will only pay $85,000 for 75% effort but the faculty member has a University salary of $150,000 (75% of which would equate to $112,500). Answer: No, it is not a form of cost sharing. The amount of $27,500 not covered by the Federal K award ($112,500-$85,000 = $27,500) would be considered “unallowable cost” similar to the NIH salary cap. The department must cover this cost out of departmental discretionary funds or other resources. It cannot be charged to other federal funds.
5. Is it necessary once NIH approves concurrent effort for the department to mark YES on the OSR Approval Form for non-federal cost sharing? Answer: No.

References

For additional information:

• NIH Grants Policy Statement (subsection 12) (opens in new window)
• Concurrent Support (opens in new window)
• Overlap (opens in new window)
• NIH K Awards: Clarification of Level of Effort and NIH Policy on Compensation and Salary Supplementation (opens in new window)