K Awards

Overview

NIH Career Development Awards, or K-awards, are intended to provide support and protected time for new faculty to develop research skills. 
  • They are primarily for researchers at the beginning of their careers and provide a transition to full independent research awards.
  • Other K-awards, however, are designed to provide protected research time for mid career or even senior faculty and others are institutional awards.  
  • The specific terms of a K-award vary among Institutes and careful attention should be given to the requirements of each award (K Kiosk).
 
K-awards require a high level of commitment, normally 75% of the researcher’s total effort. Salary support funding is limited to $75,000 but may be funded at a higher level depending on the NIH Institute. This level of funding should be confirmed with the Institute.
  • Because salary funding is limited, cost share may be necessary to complete the 75% effort requirement.
  • The effort commitment on a K-award may not be reduced by any amount without sponsor approval.
  • A K-award candidate's remaining effort (typically 25%) may be devoted to other University activities. NIH often requires that those activities be consistent with the objectives of the K-award (Determining full time professional effort).

 

The PI, administrator and chair must discuss and agree to the level of committed effort required by the K-award. Once an award is accepted, a commitment has been made to the sponsor and the faculty member must be able to follow through on that commitment.

 
Most K-awards are granted for three, four or five years. There may be no cost time extensions, however unless negotiated with the sponsor at the time of the request, all other terms and conditions of the original award apply – i.e. 75% effort is required.
 
Most K-award programs require that all supplemental pursuits [clinical (see VA below), teaching or other research pursuits beyond the required percentage of effort] be consistent with the K-award objectives.
 
For mentored awards salary supplementation cannot be from federal funds unless specifically authorized by the awarding Institute.

Appointment

The faculty member must have a fulltime appointment at the University. In addition,
  • The minimum percentage of the applicant’s commitment required for the proposed K-award experience must be covered by the appointment.
  • Responsibilities outside of the UW appointment are unrestricted, however, cannot be used to meet any minimum effort requirement.

The Proposal

The proposal must include specific reference to any closely related research and clinical activity to be used to satisfy a portion of the K-award effort. All research and clinical activity must be consistent with the objectives of the K-award.
  • Clinical effort to be used to satisfy a part of the K-award required effort should be identified in the grant proposal.
  • Non-federal awards may be used to satisfy effort requirements on the K-award if both the NIH and the non-federal sponsor approve.
  • In order for another grant to satisfy the effort, when appropriate or known, this should be included in both the K-award proposal and the non-federal award proposal, (or approved in writing by both.) In addition, the award objectives must be consistent with the K-award objectives.
  • When a faculty member has an appointment at the VA and is included on a UW proposal, he/she must disclose the VA appointment and salary in the narrative of the proposal's budget justification.

Reporting K Effort

For faculty members with K-awards, a "K-award Addendum" will be attached to the faculty effort certification (FEC) report by Management Accounting and Analysis (MAA) if their paid effort from the K-Award budget is less than the required effort commitment, normally 75%.
  • The addendum will indicate both the normal required percentage of salary (effort) charged to the K-Award for that award and the percentage of paid effort .
  • The faculty will indicate on the addendum the additional sources of funding that supports the unmet effort requirement. This can either be concurrent effort on a Research Project Grant during the last two years of the K-award or cost sharing from non-federal sources such as clinical, departmental or state budgets.
  • The cost share should be transferred from the addendum to the face of the FEC in the cost share section.
  • If the faculty member has permission to use a non-federal grant to support the goals of the K-award, that should be noted on the addendum, however this is not considered cost sharing.
 
In certain circumstances the faculty member 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. To document this effort, place a note on the K-award Addendum indicating the overlap of effort.

Salary Cap

When the faculty member’s paid salary exceeds the mandated NIH salary cap, "cap" cost sharing is required. Cap cost sharing is documented separately from any  K-award cost sharing required and clearly marked as (C), cap cost sharing, on the FEC. This salary cap cost share is, however,  included in the 75% effort required by the K-award.

Clinical Effort

If clinical activity is related to the goals of the K-award, the faculty member may include that portion of his effort toward the fulfillment of the required 75% effort. The intention to use clinical activity as part of the K-award effort should be noted in the proposal.

Reduction of Effort

Mentored K-awards encourage faculty members to apply for other grants and allow the PI to reduce effort on the K-award during the last two years of the grant if named Principal Investigator on a competing NIH research project grant (R01, R03, R15, R21, R34, etc.), or if the recipient will become the sub-project director on a competing multi-component research or center grant, or a cooperative agreement.  In some cases the salary support will continue to come from the K-award. If this is the case, use the cost share addendum to indicate the effort coming from other grants.
 

Written approval is required for reduction of effort. Do not

  • Include the reduction in the progress report only
  • Reduce effort independently
  • Contact NIH directly.

The request must include a concurrence signature by the UW Office of Sponsored Programs

Proposal Writing

Limited charging of bid and proposal preparation, as a direct charge to the K-award, is allowable since it is the goal of these awards to train young investigators in all phases of research.

Concurrent effort

Because K-awards are intended to assist a faculty member in establishing a base in research and research techniques, some concurrent effort with non-federal grants may be allowed. If known, the concurrent effort should be written directly into the proposal. In other circumstances, the faculty member should work with OSP to receive permission from both sponsors for the concurrent effort.

VA

The minimum percentage of the K-award (typically 75%) must be covered by the appointment at the University. This appointment is assumed to be, at a minimum, no less than 35 hours. In addition,
  • Faculty may not use any of their VA time to satisfy the requirements of the K-award, even with VA approval.
  • The VA appointment should be no more, or be reduced to, no more than 2/8ths upon receipt of the K-award.
  • Up to 5/8ths may be permitted with Chair and Dean’s Office approval.
 

 

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