NIA Academic Leadership Career Award

The overall purpose of the NIH Research Career Development program is to help ensure that a pool of highly trained scientists is available in appropriate scientific disciplines to address the Nation’s biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research needs. NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) support a variety of mentored and non-mentored career development award programs designed to foster the transition of new investigators to research independence and to support established investigators in achieving specific objectives. Candidates should review the different career development (K) award programs to determine the best program to support their goals. More information about Career programs may be found at the NIH Research Training and Career Development website.

The goal of the NIH Academic Leadership Career Award (K07) is to increase the pool of individuals with academic and research expertise in a specific area of biomedical, behavioral, or clinical research and to enhance the educational or research capacity at the grantee institution.

Purpose

The NIA K07 Academic Leadership Award provides support for established investigators who are interested in improving the curricula and enhancing the aging and/or AD/ADRD research capacity within their academic institution. Candidates for the NIA K07 Academic Leadership Award must have (1) demonstrated scientific expertise and leadership skills and (2) sufficient research or clinical training or teaching experience in aging and/or AD/ADRD research to implement a program to advance the field of aging and/or AD/ADRD research within the sponsoring institution.

Scope

The immediate and long-term goals of the proposed program must meet the needs for expansion or enhancement of the aging and/or AD/ADRD academic or research capacity at the sponsoring institution. Proposed curricula and research development activities may be broad as related to aging, the aging process, and diseases and conditions associated with growing older, such as AD/ADRD, including frontotemporal, Lewy body, and vascular dementia. Applications are encouraged that reflect NIA’s programmatic interests in behavioral, biological, clinical, economic, epidemiological, genetic, neuroscience, and social research on aging, both basic and translational, as they relate to the health and well-being of older people. The NIA is committed to reducing health disparities among older adults through supporting projects that reflect the life-course perspective. Proposed curricula and research development activities that promote broad participation  are strongly encouraged, and may include but are not limited to strategies to recruit research participants representative of the population being studied, implications of demographic shifts in aging for healthcare and social services, factors contributing to health disparities and strategies for addressing health disparities in aging and AD/ADRD research.

Activities of the Project

The Academic Leadership Career Award provides support for the development of research and educational infrastructure, mentorship, and career development activities in support of new or emerging areas of aging and/or AD/ADRD research. Research development activities may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Courses, seminars, workshops, or tutorials;
• Curriculum development or research coordinator support;
• Statistical services including personnel and computer time;
• Pilot funds for research by early career investigators;
• Travel funds for early career investigators;
• A visiting scholar program;
• A network of investigators or institutions;
• Other formal or informal mentorship for early career investigators; and
• Any other activities that directly advance the goals of the award.

Research development activities must be justified with evidence of their effectiveness and based on sound research concepts and educational principles that meet the scientific and educational requirements of the corresponding aging and/or AD/ADRD research field(s). The elements of the proposed program (e.g., courses, curricula, research support, pilot funding, travel awards, visiting scholars, networks) must be well-integrated to achieve a path of progression for early-career investigators to advance in the field. It is expected that support provided by this award will increase the academic capacity, rigor, and research support for aging-related research within the academic medical/health and research community. The proposed program may complement other ongoing research training and career development programs at the applicant institution, but the proposed experiences must be distinct from current programs currently receiving Federal support.