KUH Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award (F99/K00) | RFA DK 19 032

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA DK 19 032

The KUH Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award (F99/K00), offered by the National Institutes of Health through the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), is designed to bring outstanding PhD-level graduate students into Kidney, Urology, or Hematology (K, U, or H) research by supporting a structured transition from late-stage predoctoral training to a mentored postdoctoral position. The central goal is recruitment: it specifically targets talented students who are not currently training in KUH-focused research and encourages them to redirect their expertise toward these biomedical areas during their postdoctoral phase. In practical terms, it is meant to widen and strengthen the KUH research workforce by attracting people with strong quantitative, technological, or basic science backgrounds who can contribute fresh approaches to KUH problems.

A defining feature of this opportunity is its emphasis on applicants from diverse research fields. The FOA explicitly invites graduate students from areas such as engineering, statistics, data science, imaging, biochemistry, and genetics (among others). This is a signal that the program values cross-disciplinary skill sets, like computational modeling, advanced measurement methods, novel imaging pipelines, or high-dimensional omics analysis, and wants those methods applied to kidney disease, urologic biology and disorders, and blood-related conditions. It is essentially a bridge for someone whose doctoral work may be outside KUH, but who has a clear plan to pivot into KUH research at the postdoctoral level with the right mentoring and training environment.

Eligibility is also defined in a way that reinforces the recruitment purpose. Graduate students who are already involved in kidney, urology, or hematology research are not eligible for this F99/K00 and are instead directed toward a more traditional NIH predoctoral fellowship mechanism, the Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (Parent F31, PA-19-195). That distinction matters because it clarifies that the F99/K00 is not meant to further fund trainees already on a KUH track; it is meant to incentivize a change in trajectory into KUH. The announcement also strongly encourages prospective applicants to contact the NIDDK Program Official before preparing an application, which is typical of NIH transition-style mechanisms where fit, eligibility nuances, and alignment with institute priorities can be important for a competitive submission.

From a clinical trial standpoint, the FOA sets a clear boundary: applicants cannot propose to lead an independent clinical trial under this award. However, the program does allow applicants to propose gaining research experience within a clinical trial if that trial is led by a sponsor or co-sponsor. This means a trainee could, for example, develop skills in clinical research operations, data analysis, biomarker work, or trial-related translational studies, but they would not be positioned as the person responsible for directing the trial as the independent lead.

Institutional and organizational eligibility is broad on the U.S. side and includes public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3) categories), for-profit organizations other than small businesses, small businesses, and certain other entities. The FOA also highlights categories of institutions often emphasized in federal workforce-development efforts, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), as well as eligible agencies of the federal government. At the same time, it draws a firm line on foreign involvement: non-U.S. (foreign) institutions cannot apply as applicant organizations, and non-U.S. components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply. That said, foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed, which can permit certain international collaborations or project elements when appropriately justified and compliant with NIH policy.

Administrative details in the source information identify this as a discretionary grant mechanism with Funding Opportunity Number RFA-DK-19-032, associated with CFDA number 93.847, and categorized under health-related funding activity. The original closing date listed is March 2, 2021, and the opportunity record shows a creation date of January 16, 2020. The excerpted listing does not provide an award ceiling or expected number of awards in the provided fields, so applicants would typically need to consult the full FOA text for budget structure, duration, and any institute-specific limits or expectations tied to the F99 (predoctoral) and K00 (postdoctoral) phases.

Overall, the program is best understood as a targeted NIH training pathway for exceptional late-stage graduate students who can bring methods and perspectives from other disciplines into kidney, urology, or hematology research, with an explicit intent to broaden the KUH trainee pipeline and create a smoother, better-supported transition into mentored postdoctoral KUH work.

• The National Institutes of Health in the food and nutrition, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "KUH Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award (F99/K00)" 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 2020-01-16.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-03-02. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, 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.

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