The NIH Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research program — commonly called a “diversity supplement” — is an administrative supplement that adds an individual from a group underrepresented in health-related research to the project team of an already-funded, active NIH grant. It is not a standalone grant, a fellowship, or a training slot: it is a budget and scope amendment to an existing award, requested by that award’s principal investigator on behalf of a specific candidate. The current governing parent announcement is PA-23-189, issued 2023; because NIH parent announcements are typically reissued every few years, institutions should confirm the live announcement number at grants.nih.gov before submitting a request, and check whether their awarding Institute or Center (IC) has published its own supplementary guide notice with IC-specific deadlines or priorities.
What the program is for
NIH’s stated rationale is workforce diversity: supporting the research development of students, postdoctorates, and early-career or established investigators from groups shown to be underrepresented in biomedical, behavioral, clinical, and social-science research, by giving them a structured, mentored research experience embedded in an ongoing, peer-reviewed NIH project. Because the supplement rides on a grant that has already been through competitive review, the diversity-supplement mechanism itself is not separately peer-reviewed by a study section in the way a new R01 or an individual F-series fellowship application is — it is reviewed administratively by the awarding IC’s program staff against the parent grant’s remaining scope, budget, and project period.
Who is eligible
Two eligibility questions apply at once: the candidate’s background, and the candidate’s career stage.
- Background. NIH’s diversity policy (most recently restated in NOT-OD-20-031) identifies individuals from racial and ethnic groups shown nationally to be underrepresented in health-related research, individuals with disabilities, and individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds (as defined by NIH’s disadvantaged-background criteria) as eligible candidate populations.
- Career stage. Eligible candidates span a wide range: high school students, undergraduates, post-baccalaureates, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and, at some ICs, investigators at the faculty level who are new to research or returning to a research career after a gap. The specific career-stage categories an IC will fund, and the budget conventions for each, vary by Institute — this is one of the details a program officer conversation should confirm before a supplement request is drafted.
The candidate is never the applicant. The parent award’s principal investigator submits the request and becomes the candidate’s research mentor for the supplement period.
The parent-award requirement
A diversity supplement cannot exist on its own — it must attach to an active NIH award with adequate time and scope remaining. In practice this means:
- The parent grant must be currently funded (not expired, not in a no-cost extension with no remaining budget authority) at the time of the request.
- Eligible parent mechanisms commonly include research project grants (R01, R21, R03), program project and center grants (P01), cooperative agreements (U01, U54), and other research or research-training mechanisms an IC designates in its own supplement guidance — but not every activity code qualifies at every IC, so this should be confirmed with the assigned program officer rather than assumed.
- The proposed research experience for the candidate must be an integral, scientifically justified extension of the parent grant’s already-approved aims, not a new, unrelated line of research.
- Supplement funding and the candidate’s appointment period cannot extend past the parent award’s current project period end date; if the parent’s remaining time is short, the supplement’s usefulness is correspondingly limited.
How institutions apply
Unlike a competitive grant application submitted through Grants.gov or NIH ASSIST on a standard due date, a diversity supplement request is typically submitted directly to the parent award’s assigned program officer at the funding IC, following that IC’s own instructions and (where published) receipt dates — many ICs accept requests on a rolling basis rather than fixed deadlines, though some set specific windows tied to their budget cycle. The request package generally includes a description of the candidate’s proposed research experience and its relationship to the parent grant’s aims, a training or mentoring plan, a budget and budget justification following the parent award’s existing budget structure, and documentation of the candidate’s eligibility. Because the request is an amendment to an existing award rather than a new application, it is typically submitted through the institution’s sponsored programs office using the same institutional routing and authorized-organizational-representative sign-off as any other post-award action on that grant, not as a fresh proposal package.
Diversity supplements vs. T32 and individual NRSA fellowships
Research administrators frequently need to distinguish a diversity supplement from NIH’s other career-stage-based support mechanisms, since all three fund people rather than standalone research projects, but structure the funding relationship differently:
- A T32 institutional training grant is awarded to a department or program, which then appoints trainees into funded training slots within an approved curriculum; the trainee is never the PD/PI of the award that supports them.
- An F31 or F32 individual NRSA fellowship is applied for and held personally by the candidate; the award is theirs, competitively reviewed on its own merits.
- A diversity supplement is neither institutional nor individually held. It is an amendment to an existing investigator’s active research grant: the supported individual joins that PI’s project as a mentored member of the research team, funded through the parent grant’s own award mechanism, for as long as the parent award’s remaining project period allows.
Stipend and compensation levels for supplement candidates who are trainees commonly track NIH’s published NRSA stipend levels, even though the supplement itself is not an NRSA award, because many ICs use those tables as a reference point for setting supplement compensation at comparable career stages.
Frequently asked questions
Does the candidate apply for a diversity supplement themselves?
No. The principal investigator of the active parent grant submits the request to the awarding IC on the candidate’s behalf and serves as the candidate’s mentor for the supplement period.
Is a diversity supplement competitively peer-reviewed?
Generally not through a study section in the way a new grant application is. Requests are reviewed administratively by the awarding IC’s program staff against the parent award’s approved scope, budget, and remaining project period.
Can a diversity supplement outlast its parent grant?
No. Funding and the candidate’s appointment period must fit within the parent award’s current project period; the supplement cannot extend research support beyond the parent grant’s end date.
Are diversity supplements only for graduate students and postdocs?
No. Eligible career stages span from high school students through postdoctoral researchers and, at some ICs, faculty-level investigators; the specific categories funded vary by Institute or Center.
Where is the current program announcement published?
At the time of writing, the governing parent announcement is PA-23-189, published on grants.nih.gov. NIH periodically reissues parent announcements, so institutions should verify the current, non-expired announcement number before submitting a request.
