NIH 101: Part 1 [.ppt]
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Transcript NIH 101: Part 1 [.ppt]
NIH 101
Laurie Tompkins, PhD
Acting Director, Division of Genetics
and Developmental Biology
NIGMS, NIH
Swarthmore College
May 14, 2012
Structure of NIH (one view)
Intramural (research labs at NIH) 10%
Extramural (administrators who deal with
the biomedical research community outside
of NIH) 90%
Structure of NIH (another view)
28 Institutes, Centers, and Offices
Most but not all support biomedical
research
Examples:
NCI (cancer)
NHLBI (heart, lung, and blood)
NIMH (mental health)
NIGMS (basic research)
http://www.nih.gov/icd/
Most important point in talk!
Every grant-funding institute, center and
office is different
Mission (topics of interest)
Types of awards
Grants, cooperative agreements, contracts
Special initiatives vs. investigator-initiated projects
Research grants vs. centers
Emphasis on training and workforce development
Types of awards (“mechanism”): R03, R21s not
accepted by all institutes
Take-home message:
New to NIH?
Changing fields?
Figure out what institute(s) might be
interested in funding what you want to do
before you start working on the grant
application
Is NIH interested?
If an institute is interested, what does it offer
(special initiatives, types of awards)?
How?
http://www.nih.gov/icd/
rePORTER
http://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm
Discuss idea with program director
Email preferable to phone, to start discussion
Send description of what you want to do
Think about budget, term, scope of project
before you contact program
Provide information (independent
investigator, trainee, institution, contact info)
Inquiry may be referred to another person at
NIH
Special initiatives (ask!)
RFA (institute interest, money set aside)
PA (institute interest, but no money set aside)
If there’s an RFA or PA for what you want to
do, apply in response to the RFA or PA, even if
it’s a little more work, you have to delay
submitting an application, or the institute isn’t
the one that has funded your projects in the
past
Get in touch with scientific/program contact
named in funding opportunity announcement
(FOA) if you’re not sure
Applying for funding
All applications—special initiatives and
“standard”—submitted in response to FOA
FOAs published in NIH Guide
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/index.html
FOAs for “unsolicited” applications
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/parent_a
nnouncements.htm
R01, R03, R15, R21, T32, F, common K
Funding to award cycle (6-9
months)
Most applications submitted electronically
Applications submitted to CSR (Center for
Scientific Review)
Division of Receipt and Referral in CSR: two
assignments, review and institute
Review: usually CSR study section
Institute advisory Council
Funding decision
Review
NIH administrator: Scientific Review Officer
(SRO)
CSR review: study section or special emphasis
panel (SEP)
Ca. 25% of applications reviewed by institute
review staff: SROs
Research grant applications: ca. half discussed
Summary statement
If discussed, score, percentile (for some types of
applications), summary of discussion, reviewers’
critiques, IRG notes (budget cuts, concerns)
If not discussed, reviewers’ critiques
Council
“Second level of review”
Deals with appeals and grievances (concerns
about review or the outcome), special
situations (applications from investigators with
lots of other funding, foreign applications, etc.)
Provides advice about special initiatives and
applications submitted in response to special
initiatives
En bloc approval to consider applications for
funding
Lots of variability among institutes
Post-Council
Institute (program) decides which
applications to fund
Lots of differences among institutes in how
funding decisions are made
New investigators typically get special
consideration
Budget and/or term of award may be cut
Start date may be later than requested
Grants management specialist makes
award
Why does receipt-to-award cycle
take so long?
SROs need time to read applications, figure
out what expertise is required to evaluate
them, recruit/assign appropriate reviewers
Reviewers need time to read and evaluate
applications
After review, SROs need time to write
summary statements
Advisory Councils need time to complete
assignments (read documents and make
decisions)
Question or concern? Program director,
SRO, or grants management?
Before submitting application: program (or if
question is about a study section, SRO)
After submission, before review: SRO
After review, program (scientific issues) or
grants management (budget or policy issues).
General rule: institutional administrators talk
to grants management, investigators talk to
program. Just-in-time: grants management.
PLEASE SUBMIT ASAP IF REQUESTED.
After award: program (scientific), grants
management (budget or policy)