Short-term Mentored Career Enhancement Awards for Mid-Career Investigators to Integrate Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences (K18) | PAR 17 486

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 17 486

The NIH funding opportunity PAR-17-486, titled "Short-term Mentored Career Enhancement Awards for Mid-Career Investigators to Integrate Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences (K18)," is a discretionary grant program designed to help mid-career researchers quickly gain new skills, perspectives, and collaborations through a short, structured period of mentored career development. The central goal is to strengthen the integration between basic behavioral and social science research and more applied or biomedical areas, with an emphasis on creating stronger scientific "synergies" across disciplines that do not always work closely together. In practical terms, the FOA supports investigators who want to step outside their primary expertise long enough to be meaningfully trained and mentored in a complementary field, so they can bring that knowledge back to their own research programs and produce more integrated, cross-cutting science.

A distinctive feature of this opportunity is its deliberate focus on bridging boundaries that often separate research communities. The FOA highlights integration across basic and applied behavioral-social sciences, across research conducted in human subjects settings and in model animal settings, and across biomedical research and behavioral-social science research. That means the program is not just about professional development in the abstract; it is aimed at helping established investigators build the conceptual and methodological toolkit needed to link mechanisms, behavior, and social context across different systems and research traditions. The underlying rationale is that many high-impact health and biomedical questions require a combined understanding of biological processes and behavioral and social factors, and that mid-career investigators can accelerate progress if they receive targeted mentoring and training to connect these areas more effectively.

The award mechanism is a K18, which NIH uses for short-term, mentored career enhancement. While the source text provided does not spell out the project duration or budget specifics, K18 awards generally emphasize a defined period of supervised learning and professional growth rather than supporting a large standalone research project. Applicants are therefore expected to propose a coherent mentored plan that explains what new domain they will enter, why it is important for their long-term research direction, how the mentor and environment will provide the needed expertise, and how the experience will lead to sustained integration of basic behavioral and social sciences with related biomedical or applied research areas. The spirit of the FOA is that an experienced investigator uses this award as a focused pivot or expansion, not as a first step into independent research.

Eligibility for applicant organizations is broad and includes many common U.S.-based research and public-serving entities. Eligible applicants listed include state governments, county governments, city or township governments, special district governments, and independent school districts. It also includes public and state-controlled institutions of higher education and private institutions of higher education. Tribal eligibility is represented through Native American tribal governments (federally recognized) and Native American tribal organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments). The FOA also allows applications from public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities, nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status (other than institutions of higher education), and nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status (also other than institutions of higher education). For-profit organizations are eligible as well (other than small businesses), and small businesses are also included. In addition, NIH explicitly calls out a range of other eligible applicant types, including Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal government agencies, regional organizations, and U.S. territories or possessions. This breadth signals an intent to reach investigators working in a variety of institutional contexts, including those serving underrepresented communities and those embedded in community-oriented or regionally focused organizations.

There are important limits related to foreign involvement. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities and foreign institutions are not eligible to apply as the primary applicant organization. However, non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are eligible, meaning a U.S. institution with operations or components outside the United States can potentially be involved under the U.S. applicant organization. Additionally, foreign components, as NIH defines them in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed. In effect, the FOA keeps the applicant institution anchored in the U.S. while still permitting certain types of international collaboration or foreign-based project elements when they fit NIH policy definitions.

Administratively, this is an NIH opportunity in the education and health funding activity space, using the grant instrument type. The CFDA numbers associated with the opportunity are 93.121, 93.173, 93.213, 93.279, 93.307, and 93.398, reflecting that multiple NIH institutes or program areas may participate or align with the announcement. The opportunity was created on 2017-09-19, and the original closing date listed is 2019-03-06. The excerpt provided does not include an award ceiling amount or an expected number of awards, which suggests those details would need to be confirmed from the full FOA text or NIH notice documents.

Overall, the K18 described here is best understood as a targeted, mentored career enhancement option for established investigators who want to intentionally integrate basic behavioral and social science approaches with applied, biomedical, human, and/or animal-model research contexts. The program is structured to reward thoughtful training plans and mentorship arrangements that can reshape how a mid-career scientist frames questions and designs studies, with the end goal of producing research that more naturally spans biological, behavioral, and social levels of explanation.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Short-term Mentored Career Enhancement Awards for Mid-Career Investigators to Integrate Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences (K18)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.121, 93.173, 93.213, 93.279, 93.307, 93.398.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-09-19.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2019-03-06. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

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