Medical Writing, Editing & Grantsmanship

Both of today’s RFAs target specialized applicants.

The Academic Research Enhancement Award (R15) seeks to help institutions that are “otherwise unlikely to participate extensively in NIH programs” (i.e., have not received more than $6 million per year in total costs from the NIH in 4 or more of the past 7 years). These 12-p ditties are due Sept 24 (no LOI) and are worth up to $300,000 in total costs over a project period lasting up to 3 years. Each participating IC has a designated contact person. The NIH maintains a nice AREA Resource page to help applicants.

At the other end of the scale, NCRR’s Enabling National Networking of Scientists and Resource Discovery (U24) targets an even more exclusive and elite club: institutions who hold current NCRR Center and Center-like Programs (e.g., CTSA, RTRN, BIRN, BRTC, ABMR, NPRC) as well as the AREA-like center mechanisms (e.g., COBRE, INBRE, RCMI). NCRR will fund 2 awards of $15,000,000 total costs over a 2-year project period. Now, each application must involve a minimum of 6 institutions with one of the eligible NCRR center/center-like awards. Research plan goes for 40 pages and is due June 15; optional though recommended LOI is due May 18 (just the usual info – no mini pre-proposal in the LOI as suggested for RC2s). They’re looking for Web-based tools & infrastructure to make researchers everywhere aware of available resources and to make these resources accessible. NCRR’s preference is for “distributed or federated approaches to both research networking and resource discovery with local control of information sources.” Can’t wait to see how all these egos cram into one proposal and come to consensus on the lead applicant.

No rest for the weary. Grand Opportunity letters of intent are due Monday, April 27 to the appropriate GO PO.

Please note the request for a lot more detail than is typical in an LOI. In fact, they essentially want most of the proposal, including its budget.

Prospective applicants are asked to submit a LOI that includes the following information:

• Descriptive title of proposed research.
• Name, address, and telephone number of the PD(s)/PI(s).
• Names of other key personnel.
• Participating institutions.
• Number and title of this funding opportunity.

Sounds familiar so far. But prospective applicants are also asked to consider including [translation: damn well better include] the following in the LOI:

• Description of the research areas, including any subprojects
• Significance of the proposed research
• Rationale why the application is not suitable for the Challenge Grant program
• Evidence that the project is ready for immediate implementation
• Key personnel
• Direct, contract F&A, and total costs for each year
• Description of how the goal and outcomes of the project match the goals of the ”GO” grants program and Recovery Act
• Preliminary list of the expected 2-year outcomes and deliverables.

This last bit is really important. NIH needs to have a lot to show Congress at the end of 2 years for its $10B stimulus funding, particularly this grand opportunity to support “large-scale research projects that have a high likelihood of enabling growth and investment in biomedical research and development, public health and health care delivery.” Is that all?

Remember that not all ICs are participating (i.e., FIC, NCRR, NEI, NIAID, NIDCD, NIDDK, NLM), and most of those who are have explicit lists of funding priorites – although some simply ask applicants to address the IC’s published priorities (e.g., NINDS). I suspect these LOIs will be especially critical for ICs in this latter category.