The High-End Instrumentation (HEI) Grant Program encourages applications from groups of NIH-supported investigators to purchase or upgrade a single item of high-end, specialized, commercially available instruments or integrated systems. The minimum award is $750,001. There is no maximum price limit for the instrument; however, the maximum award is $2,000,000. Instruments supported include, but are not limited to, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers, X-ray diffractometers, mass spectrometers, high throughput robotic screening systems, DNA and protein sequencers, biosensors, electron and light microscopes, flow cytometers, and biomedical imagers.
For this S10 opportunity, there is no limit on the number of applications an institution may submit. However, NIH will not accept duplicate or highly overlapping applications under review at the same time. For this reason, interested applicants can reach out to sohini.sengupta@duke.edu of OCRD as early as possible with the name of their instruments to minimize/prevent duplicate or overlapping applications being submitted.
Deadlines:
- Application Due Date(s): June 2, 2025; June 1, 2026; June 1, 2027
PAR-24-264 Expiration Date June 02, 2027
The PD/PI should document (in the biographical sketch) technical expertise directly related to the type of the requested instrument. The PD/PI does not need to have an NIH research grant or any other research support but is expected to be an expert on the requested instrument. The PD/PI may be a core director, tenured, or non-tenured faculty member of the applicant organization. The PD/PI must be affiliated with the applicant organization and must be registered on eRA Commons.
Multiple PDs/PIs are not allowed under the S10 mechanism.
There is no restriction on the number of applications an institution (as identified by a specific Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)) can submit to the Shared Instrumentation Grant (SIG) and the HEI Programs each year, provided the applications request different types of equipment. However, only one application to the Basic Instrumentation Grant (BIG) Program is allowed per receipt date. Concurrent SIG, HEI, or BIG applications for the same instrument (or the same type of instrument with added special accessories – for example, to meet the HEI budget requirement), are not allowed unless documentation from a high-level institutional official must be provided, clarifying that this is not an unintended duplication, but part of a campus-wide instrumentation plan. Applicants are advised to discuss with the HEI Scientific/Research Contact (see Section VII) about potential duplications before submitting two applications for the same type of instrument.
A single application requesting more than one type of instrument (for example, a mass spectrometer and a confocal microscope) is not responsive to this FOA and will not be reviewed.
Applications will be accepted that request a single, commercially available instrument or an integrated instrumentation system. The minimum award is $750,001. There is no upper limit on the cost of the instrument, but the maximum award is $2,000,000. Since the cost of various instruments will vary, it is anticipated that the amount of the award will also vary. S10 awards do not allow indirect costs.
It is expected that applicants will employ the most economical approaches, including securing academic discounts, to formulate a cost-effective budget while meeting users' scientific needs. See Section IV. 6. Funding Restrictions for additional details.