Support for Research Excellence First Independent Research (SuRE-First) Award (R16 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Background
The Support for Research Excellence First Independent Research (SuRE-First) Award is issued by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under the Department of Health and Human Services. The SuRE program aims to enhance research capacity at eligible higher education institutions by funding investigator-initiated biomedical research in various scientific fields.

The SuRE-First awards specifically support full-time faculty at resource-limited institutions who have not previously received independent, peer-reviewed, external research grants. This initiative seeks to provide students with high-quality research experiences and foster a robust scientific research culture within these institutions.

Grant Details
The SuRE-First award supports investigator-initiated research projects that fall within the NIH mission areas, including basic, social, clinical, behavioral, and translational sciences. Key objectives include:
1) Supporting meritorious research conducted by eligible faculty who have not been PD/PI of any external research grants;
2) Strengthening the research capacity of institutions with limited NIH funding;
3) Providing students with opportunities to engage in high-quality biomedical research.

Applicants must identify a mentor with relevant expertise and an extramural funding record. The maximum budget request is $125,000 in direct costs per year for a project period of up to four years.

Eligibility Requirements
Eligible applicants include higher education institutions that award undergraduate and/or graduate degrees in biomedical sciences and have received no more than $6 million from NIH Research Project Grants in the past two fiscal years. Institutions must also enroll at least 25% of undergraduate students supported by Pell grants. Non-domestic entities are not eligible to apply. Each application must be submitted by an organization with a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and an NIH eRA Institutional Profile File number.

Period of Performance
The maximum period of support for the SuRE-First award is four years.

Grant Value
The total value of the grant can be up to $125,000 per year in direct costs, excluding consortium facilities and administrative costs.

Place of Performance
The grant will be performed at eligible higher education institutions across the United States.