Full Application Information

Full Application (by invitation)

Invited applicants receive templates, page limits, and the review rubric with their invitation. See Key dates.

Expect to provide:

Specific aims with milestones and measures of success
Research strategy: significance, innovation, approach, and known limitations
Ethical considerations, including privacy, consent, and algorithmic fairness
Data management and sharing plan consistent with NIH policy
Detailed budget and budget justification
Key personnel and NIH biosketches
Human subjects information and project performance sites
AITC resources the project will use
For clinical trials: protocol synopsis, data and safety monitoring plan, recruitment and retention plan, and study timeline
Optional letters of collaboration

Review criteria

All five AITCs review full applications using the same criteria, adapted from the NIH Simplified Peer Review Framework. Reviewers give an overall impact score based on the three factors below. The detailed rubric is released with invitations.

Factor 1. Importance of research

Significance: importance of the problem for older adults, people with AD/ADRD, or caregivers
Innovation: novel AI or technology approaches, or new uses of existing ones
Translation: credible path to commercialization, adoption, or follow-on funding

Factor 2. Rigor and feasibility

Rigor of design, analysis, and sample size
Feasibility within the budget and project period, including plans to manage risk
Plans for ethics, privacy, and algorithmic fairness
For human subjects research: an appropriate sample and a feasible recruitment and retention plan
For clinical trials: feasible study timeline and milestones

Factor 3. Expertise and resources

Investigators: team expertise across AI or technology and aging or AD/ADRD
Environment: resources and partners to carry out the work

Reviewers also assess human subjects protections, including data and safety monitoring for clinical trials, and whether the budget is justified.

In selecting finalists, AITCs also consider fit with their priorities and whether a project:

Uses AITC resources or produces datasets, software, or tools useful to the wider research community
Improves access to and delivery of care in rural areas
Engages older adults, caregivers, or clinicians in design and testing

Award terms and expectations

Funding is contingent on:

NIA approval of the project
An executed subaward agreement with your AITC’s institution

Awards are paid on a reimbursement basis on a schedule set by your AITC. Do not incur costs you expect to be reimbursed until the subaward is executed.

Awardees are expected to:

Work with their AITC for mentoring and oversight throughout the award.
Obtain single IRB (sIRB) approval before beginning any non-exempt human subjects research.
Report progress, milestones, and, for human subjects research, enrollment and safety events on the schedule set by the AITC and AITCC.
Follow their approved data management and sharing plan.
Attend and present at the annual AITC Symposium in person. Budget travel for one PI to one symposium.
Take part in stakeholder engagement activities led by the AITCC.
Report research and commercial outcomes during and after the award, such as publications, follow-on funding, patents, licenses, new companies, and collaborations.
Acknowledge NIA and AITC support in publications and presentations.