Short-term Mentored Career Enhancement Award in Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research for Mid-Career and Senior Investigators (K18 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | PAR 19 238

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 19 238

The Short-term Mentored Career Enhancement Award in Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research for Mid-Career and Senior Investigators (K18 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed), funding opportunity number PAR-19-238, is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) discretionary grant program (CFDA 93.121) designed to help experienced investigators quickly add new, complementary expertise to an existing research career. The core idea is straightforward: support a short, mentored period of structured career enhancement so an established scientist can gain practical training in a different scientific area, then bring those newly learned theories, tools, methods, or analytic approaches back to strengthen and expand their ongoing research program in dental, oral, and craniofacial health.

The FOA specifically highlights two scientific emphasis areas within dental, oral, and craniofacial research: (1) behavioral and social sciences and (2) genetic and genomic research. In practice, this means the program is interested in helping investigators bridge disciplines, for example by learning advanced behavioral intervention design, implementation science methods, social determinants frameworks, or cutting-edge genomic approaches and bioinformatics, when those skill sets will meaningfully enhance dental, oral, and craniofacial research questions. The award is structured as a mentored experience rather than a typical project grant, so the primary focus is on the candidate gaining new capabilities through a training plan and mentorship arrangement, not simply funding another round of routine research activity.

The program targets two main categories of applicants. First, it welcomes established dental, oral, and craniofacial investigators who want to train with mentors from another field to enrich their current program. A common scenario would be a dental researcher who has a strong clinical or epidemiologic background but needs deeper expertise in behavioral science, genomics, advanced statistics, data science, or other relevant domains to take their research in a new direction. Second, it encourages established investigators from outside dental, oral, and craniofacial research who want to train with dental, oral, and craniofacial experts in order to introduce oral health dimensions into their existing research trajectory. This pathway supports cross-pollination, such as a behavioral scientist, geneticist, or public health researcher integrating oral health outcomes, oral-systemic connections, or craniofacial development into their broader work.

A key restriction is captured in the title: Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed. This signals that the award is not intended to support an applicant leading an independent clinical trial as part of the K18 activity. The emphasis is on mentored career enhancement and skills development rather than serving as the mechanism for running a trial under the award. Applicants generally need to align their proposed activities with NIH guidance on what is considered a clinical trial and ensure their plan remains within the non-independent clinical trial boundaries specified by the FOA.

Eligibility is broad across organization types, reflecting NIH norms for institutional applicants. Eligible applicants include various levels of government (state, county, city/township, and special district governments), independent school districts, and both public and private institutions of higher education. The FOA also allows applications from federally recognized Native American tribal governments and from other tribal organizations (including tribal governments that are not federally recognized, as described in the eligible applicant lists), as well as public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities. Nonprofit organizations are eligible whether or not they have 501(c)(3) status (as long as they meet the stated conditions), and for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) and small businesses are also listed as eligible in the complete source data. In addition, the announcement explicitly calls out several categories of organizations as other eligible applicants, including Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and U.S. territories or possessions.

At the same time, the FOA draws clear boundaries around foreign involvement. Non-domestic (non-U.S.) entities (foreign organizations and foreign institutions) are not eligible to apply as the applicant organization, and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply. However, foreign components, as defined by the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed. In other words, while the applicant institution must be domestic, certain well-justified foreign components may be permissible within NIH policy, typically when they add unique expertise, populations, or resources that strengthen the proposed mentored career enhancement activities.

Administratively, this opportunity is an NIH grant mechanism under the K18 framework, created on 2019-04-04, with an original closing date listed as 2022-05-07 in the provided source data. The listing does not specify an award ceiling or the expected number of awards in the extracted fields, so those details would typically need to be confirmed in the full FOA or NIH notices. Overall, the program is best understood as a targeted, short-duration career enhancement vehicle for already established investigators who want to deliberately re-tool in a new discipline and then apply that new skill set to accelerate or broaden impactful dental, oral, and craniofacial research, particularly in behavioral/social science and genetics/genomics.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Short-term Mentored Career Enhancement Award in Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research for Mid-Career and Senior Investigators (K18 Independent 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): 93.121.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2019-04-04.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-05-07. (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.

Apply for PAR 19 238

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: