Full-time NIH-funded trainees (appointed on T32, TL1, TU2, or T90 grants) and fellows (on F30, F31, F32 and F33 grants) are eligible to receive reimbursement for childcare costs up to $2,500 per budget period. NOA for the current budget period will confirm if such funding has been provided for your grant. Reimbursement is NOT available for students/postdocs employed on other types of NIH grants (e.g., R01).
The requirements for obtaining these funds through the related grant are slightly different between fellows (on F30, F31, F32, and F33 grants) and for trainees (appointed on T32, TL1, TU2, or T90 grants) but the reimbursement process to receive up to $2,500 to cover eligible childcare costs per budget period is the same. A summary of how this process works, plus links to other resources, are available in the NIH Childcare Summary of Key Provisions.
Reimbursement Process
If you are administering an eligible grant, follow these steps to obtain reimbursement for the fellow/trainee:
- The department grants administrator deploys the Childcare Reimbursement Form to the fellow/trainee.
- The fellow/trainee completes sections 1-5 of this form in order to document their eligibility for this reimbursement and then submits it to the Certified Approver of the related sponsored project.
- The Certified Approver verifies that the fellow/trainee has fully completed section 1-5 of the form, completes the “for department use only” section, and then forwards the form to the department’s EFS Expense Report preparer.
- The EFS Expense Report preparer processes the reimbursement in EFS, including attaching the Childcare Reimbursement Form to the expense report for audit purposes. Note: reimbursements cannot be processed through ChromeRiver at this time.
- Once the expense report has been fully approved within EFS, the fellow/trainee will be notified when the payment will be issued.