Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s office of diversity enhancement assists in identifying and applying for grants to recruit and retain diverse education and research teams.

Diversity Supplement Grants

Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s office of grant support provides assistance with applying for diversity supplements that support efforts to recruit and retain diverse candidates to fill crucial roles on research teams. These supplements encourage the participation of members of underrepresented minority groups and disability candidates. We also facilitate with matching principal investigators to eligible grants and interested applicants.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsors programs that support research experiences for underrepresented candidates from the high school to the faculty level at grantee institutions. The NIH’s Administrative Supplements to Enhance Diversity are some of the most popular mechanisms, but there are many other diversity supplement grant options available from both federal and non-federal sponsors. 

If you are interested in applying for a diversity supplement grant, please contact Morgan “Caitlin” McKenna, director of grant support, at morgan.mckenna@einsteinmed.edu, or Indranil Basu, Ph.D., M.B.A., assistant director of grant support, at indranil.basu@einsteinmed.edu.

Frequently Asked Questions 

Diversity supplements grants offer additional funding to recruit and retain diverse candidates for existing NIH grants with two or more award years left. The proposed research experience must be an integral part of the approved, ongoing research of the parent award; it must also be an additional project that has the potential to contribute significantly to the candidate’s research-career development.

Eligible candidates may be high school or college students; graduate research assistants; post-baccalaureate, post–master’s degree, or postdoctoral candidates; or faculty members. Candidates must be from groups underrepresented in medicine, an individual with a disability, or from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds (high school and undergraduate candidates only). 

Individuals from racial and ethnic groups that have been shown to be underrepresented in health-related sciences on a national basis include blacks, Latinos, American Indian and Alaska natives, native Hawaiians, and other pacific islanders.

A disability is defined as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limit one or more major life activities. Socioeconomic disadvantage is defined as an individual or family with an annual income below established low-income thresholds. Individuals who come from educational environments including certain rural or inner-city areas that have demonstrably and directly inhibited them from obtaining the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to develop and participate in research careers are also considered disadvantaged. 

Awards for diversity supplement grants are limited to U.S. citizens, noncitizen nationals, and those who have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States (i.e., those in possession of Permanent Resident Cards, Form I-551).

Diversity supplement grant application budgets are limited to no more than the amount of the current parent award and must reflect the needs of the proposed project. Direct costs for individual diversity supplements vary from fewer than $5,000 to more than $100,000, depending on the organization and the career level of the candidate.

Diversity supplement grant funds can be used to cover cost increases associated with achieving certain new research objectives that are within the original scope of a peer reviewed and approved project. Funds can also be used to address cost increases for unanticipated expenses within the original scope of the project. Cost increases must result from making modifications to the project that increase or preserve the overall research impact in a way that is consistent with originally approved objectives and purposes. The success rate for diversity supplement grants is high and can support the salary and fringe costs of grant recipients as well as provide modest funding for travel and supplies.