Program Officers

Purpose

To administer NIAID's scientific programs, oversee grant portfolios, set priorities for committing federal funds, and act as an advocate for a scientific area.

Procedure

Program officers, also called program officials and program administrators, are staff scientists who administer grant portfolios in the Institute's extramural program divisions: Division of AIDS, Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, and Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation.

Each program officer is associated with one or more program class codes, scientific areas with assigned grants. See the Program Officers Listed by Program Class Code spreadsheet for a list.

(For contracts, see the Project Officer SOP.)

Applicants and PIs

• Contact a program officer to do the following:
  • Discuss whether your proposed topic would fit into his or her program, or whether another institute has initiatives suited for your research.
  • Find out about the funding status of your application.
  • Learn more about the initial peer review of your application, after receiving your summary statement.
  • Get information on scientific and programmatic matters concerning your grant.

For more, see When to Contact an NIAID Program Officer and our Finding Help and NIAID Staff Roles questions and answers.

Program Officers

• Interact with the extramural grantee community to assess research needs and opportunities.
• Provide scientific expertise to NIAID and other NIH components and federal agencies.
• Develop research concepts and requests for applications and program announcements.
• Facilitate investigator-initiated research by advising investigators on funding opportunities and how to apply for support.
• Administer scientific portfolios of grants and cooperative agreements from application receipt through assignment and peer review to selection for award and subsequent monitoring of performance.
• Attend peer review meetings. See Conflict of Interest in Peer Review SOP.
• Protect the confidentiality of reviewer comments during meetings. Do not take notes that would identify reviewers, and do not discuss individual reviewer comments with investigators.
• Work with scientific review officers and grants management and contracts staff as appropriate.
• Uphold government regulations on the appropriate use of federal grant funds.
• Take required in-house and NIH training. See our Training Overview and NIAID Extramural Staff Training for more information.
• For an in-depth look at the program officer role, see Program Officer Responsibilities.

Contacts

To find an NIAID program officer, go to Contact Staff for Help in the NIH Grant Cycle: Application to Renewal.

If you have knowledge to share or want more information on this topic, email deaweb@niaid.nih.gov with the title of this page or its URL and your question or comment. Thanks for helping us clarify and expand our knowledge base.

Links

ESA Training

IMPAC and RePORTER SOP

NIAID Projects by Division, Obligated Dollars, SAISB Query Tool

NIAID Projects by Program Class Code, Obligated Dollars, SAISB Query Tool

NIH Manual Chapters

Program Leadership Committee