This page is intended to provide guidance to individuals who are recipients of NIH Career Development Awards (K-awards). The terms of K-awards vary from program to program, from agency to agency, and even from award to award. Therefore, the terms of the individual Kawards should govern the administration of these awards. This is only meant to provide guidance to frequently asked questions and to describe how UMB accounts for common K-award issues. 

An NIH K-Award is a Career Development Award. It differs from other NIH funding arrangements in that it is meant to provide support and “protected time” for individuals to develop as research scientists at various points in his/her research career. Instead of funding a particular research objective, the award provides support for the individual(s) to focus on a research scope. These awards generally require the commitment of a high percentage of total professional effort (50%-75%) to career development within the scope of research described in the proposal. More information can be found at: http://grants2.nih.gov/training/careerdevelopmentawards.htm

K-awards generally do not limit what the individual does with the effort that is not required by the K-award. A K-award recipient may receive external funding for this effort or may undertake nonsponsored activities (clinical, instruction, administration, etc.) These duties should not interfere with the individuals ability to perform the effort required by the K-award.

As an NIH award, these awards are subject to the NIH salary cap. However, these awards often have award terms that limit the reimbursement of salary to an even lower value. The difference between the Institutional Base Salary X Effort Commitment % and the salary reimbursement limit must be charged to a companion cost share chartstring. 

Some, not all, K-awards (K01, K07, K08, K12, K22, K23. K25) allow the recipient to also be supported by related competing research grants as part of their effort commitment on their Kaward. In order for a competing research grant to be considered part of the K-award commitment, the individual must be recognized as a Principal Investigator or subproject Director and the award must be consistent with the research scope of the K-award. In most cases, the salary support will continue to come from the K-award and not the competing research grant. We will still need to document the total effort devoted to the K-award activities and the effort on the individual competing research grants. At UMB, we will accomplish this through the cost sharing column on the effort form. See the comprehensive example at the end of this document. NIH’s guidance on related competing research grants can be found at: http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-04-007.html

The effort commitment on K-Awards is generally stated as a percentage of “total professional effort”. The NIH has developed a clarification of “total professional effort” with regards to Kawards. This clarification can be found at: http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-04-056.html

In summary as long as the recipient has a full-time UMB appointment and can dedicate the required % of University effort to the K-award activities, they meet the NIH requirements. In other words, VA research efforts cannot be used to meet the 75% effort commitment on the KAward. 

Individuals holding K-Awards may perform clinical activities “required by the research-related activities” of the K-Award as clinical research effort supported by the K-Award. Other patient care effort, not required to perform the research under the K-Award, must be reported as clinical (University nonsponsored) activities or sponsored activities if funded by another research award. 

Dr. Smith has an Institutional Base Salary of $150,000 for a full-time appointment in the School of Medicine. She additionally earns $25,000 through a separate VA paycheck for a 2/8ths VA appointment. She is in the last year of her K08. The K08 requires 75% total professional effort. The K08 will only provide $75,000 in salary support. Dr. Smith is also the PI on a related R01 that does not provide salary support until the K08 has ended. She has committed 20% effort to this R01. Dr. Smith also works on Dr. Jones’ award from the American Cancer Society for 5% of her University effort and receives 5% salary support from this award. Dr. Smith’s remaining 2 effort is spent on administrative and clinical activities and is funded from the department’s state budget.

Because Dr. Smith has a full-time appointment with the School of Medicine and can devote 75% of her University effort to the K-award activities, she is within the K-award requirements of the NIH.

On an annual basis, Dr. Smith’s Employee Funding Profile should be established as:

Total Compensation: 150,000

When Dr. Smith’s quarterly (6 pay period) effort form is created it will look like this: 

The PreReviewer will need to add Dr. Smith’s R01 from which she is not receiving salary support to the form through the “Add Account” button. Then, in the cost sharing column on the effort form, the PreReviewer will need to transfer 20% effort from the K-Award to the R01. This will have no effect in eUMB, but will serve to document the effort to the correct awards and to link the K-Award with its related competitive research grant.

After PreReview the form will look like this:

And the form that Dr. Smith will need to certify will look like this: