Medical Writing, Editing & Grantsmanship

NIAID has released its own ARRA funding opportunity with some unique twists (e.g., 5 years of funding, with only the first year covered by ARRA): Protection of Human Health by Immunology and Vaccines (U01, U19).

LOI due: Sept 15
Application due: Oct 15 (full-length applications – not the 12-p jobs sought by most ARRA FOAs)

For U01 applications, requested annual total costs may not exceed $1.5M in year 1 and $1.3M in years 2-5. For U19 applications, requested annual total costs may not exceed $4.5M in year 1 and $4.0M in years 2-5. NIAID anticipates that 6-10 awards will be made for fiscal year 2010.

NOTE: Recovery Act funds will only support the first budget year of the award, and MUST be completely spent by the end of the first budget year, including spending all Infrastructure and Opportunities Funds allocated to support projects and pilot projects. Award recipients must be prepared to initiate their proposed studies upon issuance of the award. Carryover of unobligated funds from the first to subsequent budget years of the award will NOT be allowed. Any unspent first year funds will be returned. Applicants are encouraged to include in their first year budgets any large, one-time costs to support activities that will be carried out during the project period of the award. Examples of such costs include equipment, large peptide or antibody microarrays, microarray analyses, and small molecule libraries.

All applications are required to use bioinformatic, multiplex, and/or systems biology approaches to establish human immune system profiles using samples from well-characterized cohorts obtained (1) after infection, (2) prior to and following challenge with specific vaccines, or (3) prior to and following treatment with an immune adjuvant that targets a known innate immune receptor(s). It is the goal of this initiative to determine how immune profiles are perturbed and eventually return to a new homeostatic state after antigenic challenge. Each Awardee will establish a research infrastructure to collect, characterize and store human samples, and support the complex statistical analysis and informatics needs of the proposed research. All applications are required to include experimental approaches to measure some aspect(s) of the human transcriptome and/or proteome.

Scientific/Research Contacts:

Dr. Matthew J. Fenton
Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation
Telephone: (301) 496-8973
Email: fentonm@niaid.nih.gov

Dr. Helen R. Quill
Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation
Telephone: (301) 435-4416
Email: hquill@niaid.nih.gov

Hmm. Two new business-oriented ARRA funding opps. Hopefully not bridges to nowhere … woo-woo.

Biomedical Research, Development, and Growth to Spur the Acceleration of New Technologies (BRDG-SPAN) Pilot Program (RC3)

LOI due: August 3, 2009
Application Due: September 1, 2009

U.S.-owned, for-profit enterprise/commercial organization doing a majority of its business in the United States may apply for RC3 funding. The requested budget is limited to $1 million total costs per year for a maximum of 3 years (up to 10 awards are anticipated).

The RC3 application Research Plan component is limited to a total of 13 pages, including 1 page for the Specific Aims and 12 pages for Research Design and Methods.

The BRDG-SPAN pilot program encourages projects representing, for example, the following:

• a novel, “first in class” therapy
• a material improvement over existing technologies
• a potential substantial reduction in cost over existing technologies/products
• U.S. alternative to foreign suppliers
• a product for unmet, under-addressed medical needs (e.g., technologies to produce solid medication dosage forms for children, and therapeutic devices appropriate for children in terms of size and functionality)
• a significant and demonstrable potential U.S. and/or global markets

Participating ICs list their own program officer and grant administrator contacts.

Small Business Catalyst Awards for Accelerating Innovative Research (R43)

LOI due: August 3, 2009
Application Due: September 1, 2009

Only United States small business concerns are eligible to submit SBIR applications. Budget requests are limited to $200,000 total costs for a maximum project period of 1 year (20-25 awards are anticipated).

The Research Plan is limited to a total of 7 pages, including 1 page for the Specific Aims and 6 pages for Research Design and Methods.

In accord with the funding priority of this initiative to attract applicants without a history of SBIR/STTR support from NIH, the focus of the projects solicited by this FOA is on early stage technology development. High-risk, high reward R&D that is unlikely to be undertaken by ongoing academic efforts or within industrial firms is strongly encouraged.

Again, participating ICs have designated their own program officer and grant administrator contacts.

I’ve said this before, and not that I expected any of you to try to sneak a recycled RC1 as an R01 or R21 in June, but the NIH has released an official stern reminder to the scientific community not to resubmit RC1s until the October cycle.

Special Information for Pending Challenge Grant (RC1) Applications

It is important to note that NIH anticipates a large number of unsuccessful applications after the review of RFA OD-09-003, NIH Challenge Grants in Health and Science Research (RC1). In accordance with the policies described above, the earliest a new application from that unfunded pool could be submitted is during the Cycle III due dates for new applications. In addition the following conditions must be met:

• The initial peer review process is complete and the review outcome and summary statement are available on eRA Commons. This is expected to occur in August, 2009.
• The application is submitted as a new application on the appropriate date for new applications and makes no reference to the previous review (does not include an Introduction or identify the changes made). Note that applications that are incorrectly submitted on the dates for resubmission applications will not be allowed to be corrected and will have to wait until January, 2010 to submit as a new application.
  There is an appropriate match of science topic and Institutes/Centers sponsoring the FOA.
• The new application follows all the requirements for the FOA and activity code; these may be different than those in the original Challenge Grant RFA. There is not a Parent Announcement for the RC1 activity code and thus applications will have to use other appropriate research activity codes – R01, R03, R15, R21, etc.

Any reconfigured RC1 applications submitted that are found to be not in compliance with these policies will be withdrawn without further consideration. In particular, any application submitted for Cycle II due dates before the initial review process is complete will be returned.

In his March 26th testimony to the House Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations, Ray Kington (Acting NIH Director) expressed his gratitude for the $10.4B in stimulus funding and the whooping 3.2% increase in the FY09 appropriation. He shares a heart-warming story of stimulus funds already saving the economy (excerpt from an e-mail to an IC director):

“Forgot to say that we gave a termination letter last Friday to my longtime (5 years) postdoc. His job has been saved. He is going to be thrilled to hear about his change in fortune! I also would like to hire a technician with the new funds, since at present I do not have one.”

An NIH-funded researcher with a post-doc but no lab tech? Never mind.

First, I’ll jump ahead to as-yet un-announced opportunities: Read the rest of this entry »