NIDDK Partnerships with Professional Societies to Enhance Scientific Workforce Diversity and Promote Scientific Leadership (R25 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA DK 22 004

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA DK 22 004

The NIH National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) funding opportunity titled "NIDDK Partnerships with Professional Societies to Enhance Scientific Workforce Diversity and Promote Scientific Leadership (R25 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" (RFA-DK-22-004) is a discretionary grant mechanism that supports the creation or expansion of educational programs run by professional societies aligned with NIDDK mission areas. At its core, the opportunity is meant to strengthen the biomedical and health-related research pipeline by helping professional societies intentionally recruit, support, and elevate talented fellows and junior faculty from diverse backgrounds, with particular attention to groups that have been historically marginalized and underrepresented in biomedical, behavioral, clinical, and social sciences research. The emphasis is not only on participation in training activities, but also on building pathways toward scientific leadership within the society and, by extension, within the broader research enterprise connected to NIDDK priorities.

This announcement uses the NIH R25 mechanism, which is designed for education projects rather than hypothesis-driven research. Applicants are expected to propose a structured educational program that the professional society will deliver, typically leveraging the society's existing infrastructure such as annual meetings, committees, mentoring networks, educational platforms, and member communications. The intended participants are described as fellows and junior faculty, which signals a focus on early career stages where targeted mentorship, networking, skills development, and sponsorship can have an outsized impact on retention and advancement. The program should be designed to help participants strengthen research trajectories, build professional networks, access high-quality mentoring, and gain exposure to opportunities that improve competitiveness for research funding and leadership roles.

A central requirement of the proposal is a diversity management plan. This is more than a general statement of commitment; it is expected to be an organized approach describing how the society will enhance diversity within its scientific workforce and expand the pool of individuals from historically marginalized and underrepresented groups who engage in the society's programs and move into society leadership. In practice, this kind of plan often includes strategies for recruitment and outreach, transparent selection processes, mentorship structures, career development programming, leadership development components, and mechanisms for monitoring outcomes. Because the goal includes promoting scientific leadership, competitive applications would typically show how the program will not just train participants, but also connect them to leadership pipelines such as committee appointments, speaking roles, abstract review panels, workshop leadership, editorial activities, or other society roles that build visibility and influence.

The opportunity is explicitly labeled "Clinical Trial Not Allowed," meaning the supported activities cannot include a clinical trial as defined by NIH. The program is therefore intended for education and career development activities rather than interventional human subjects research. While participants may be researchers who conduct clinical studies in their careers, the R25-funded project itself should not be structured as a clinical trial or include trial-related aims.

In terms of administrative details provided in the source data, the funding instrument is a grant, the activity category is listed under food and nutrition and health, and the CFDA number associated is 93.847 (an NIH/NIDDK assistance listing). The original closing date for the opportunity was June 21, 2022, and the opportunity was created March 16, 2022. The source data indicates an award ceiling of $135,000. The number of expected awards is not clearly stated in the provided excerpt (it appears blank), so the exact volume of awards cannot be confirmed from the text provided.

Eligibility is restricted with clear limitations on foreign involvement. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities (foreign institutions) are not eligible to apply. In addition, non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible, and foreign components as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement are not allowed. In other words, this is meant to be a domestically executed effort without foreign components. The excerpt also lists "Small businesses" under eligible applicants, although the narrative description is centered on professional societies; applicants would need to rely on the full announcement for the complete and controlling eligibility language, including which organization types NIH considers appropriate for this particular R25 partnership model.

Overall, this funding opportunity is best understood as a capacity-building partnership between NIDDK and U.S.-based professional societies to create intentional, measurable, and sustainable educational programming that improves diversity in the scientific workforce and strengthens leadership pathways for early-career researchers from underrepresented and historically marginalized backgrounds in fields relevant to diabetes, digestive diseases, kidney diseases, nutrition, and related NIDDK mission areas.

• The National Institutes of Health in the food and nutrition, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NIDDK Partnerships with Professional Societies to Enhance Scientific Workforce Diversity and Promote Scientific Leadership (R25 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.847.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2022-03-16.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-06-21. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $135,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Small businesses.

Apply for RFA DK 22 004

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