September 29, 2006
News Articles
Opportunities and Resources
Advice Corner
New Initiatives
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News Articles |
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New Concepts and What They Can Mean for You
We've just posted our new September Council-approved concepts. Savvy investigators often look to the concepts for a clue to future research directions.
Concepts are planning-stage initiatives -- program announcements, requests for applications, or requests for proposals. We post them after each Council meeting on our Concepts: Potential Opportunities page.
Early Info -- Use It Wisely
Why would you want to know what initiatives NIAID may be publishing during the next year or so? Though it may sound obscure, that information can be useful.
By previewing these important topics, you get a glimpse into areas that may give you a better chance of gaining an award. Even in an era of tight budgets, NIAID funds some applications with scores above the payline through programs such as R56-Bridge and selective pay.
The best part is that you don't need to wait for us to publish an initiative to apply in its topic. Even if we never publish a planned initiative, we and our advisory Council agree that these areas are high priority for the Institute.
After each Council meeting when we post our new Council-approved concepts, you can check whether your expertise lends itself to any of these research topics.
A Long and Winding Road
Concept development tracks a lengthy process. After internal presentations and discussions in the Institute, NIAID program staff present an outline of each concept for Council's approval at the subcommittee meetings. NIAID has three Council subcommittees, one for each of its extramural program divisions: Division of AIDS, Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation, and Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
Council members review, comment on, and approve each concept's features, including scientific issues, budget levels, and mechanism (e.g., grant or contract, grant type).
After fine-tuning, Council-approved concepts become published PAs, RFAs, or RFPs depending on their Institute-wide priority and the amount of funds we have to spend for that fiscal year. Read more in Using Concepts to Your Advantage.
Three NIAID Grantees Receive Pioneer Awards
Let's applaud this year's recipients of the NIH Director's Pioneer Award, part of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. Recognized for their potential to meet major challenges with highly innovative approaches, the thirteen NIH awardees will each receive a five-year, $2.5 million grant.
This year, three NIAID grantees received Pioneer Awards, which will support the following projects:
Arup K. Chakraborty, Ph.D., Robert T. Haslam Professor of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, and Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will combine theoretical methods of statistical physics and engineering with experiments to determine why autoimmune diseases emerge.
Karla Kirkegaard, Ph.D., professor and chair of microbiology and immunology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, will identify and validate targets for antiviral drugs to suppress the growth of drug-resistant variants of dengue, West Nile, hepatitis C, and polio viruses.
David A. Relman, M.D., associate professor of microbiology and immunology, and associate professor of medicine at Stanford University, will explore the roles in health and disease of microbial communities indigenous to humans.
Now in its third year, the Pioneer Award supports scientists who think "outside of the box" and whose work has the potential to make significant advances in health by forging novel research paths. For information on all the winners, go to 2006 Pioneer Award Recipients. For general information, see NIH Director's Pioneer Award.
New Places and Faces in Key Science Positions
At the September Council meeting, Dr. Fauci announced the following new senior-level positions at the Institute.
Congratulations to Nancy D. Bridges, M.D., for her promotion from a section chief to Transplantation Immunobiology Branch chief in the Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation. Before coming to NIAID in 2002, Dr. Bridges was a professor of pediatrics and associate division chief at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. She is board-certified in pediatrics and pediatric cardiology and certified for heart transplantation and lung transplantation.
Welcome Gennady E. Platoff, Jr., Ph.D., to a new post, CBRN (chemical biological radiological nuclear) scientific advisor, in the Office of Biodefense Research in NIAID's Office of the Director. Dr. Platoff recently retired from the Army Medical Department where his last position was commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, a research laboratory under the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
We also congratulate Y'Drissa Sow, M.D., M.P.H., in his new job as director of the Institute's Research Support Office in Bamako, Mali. A U.S. citizen and native of Mali, Dr. Sow has been working with NIAID in Bamako since June 2003. Before joining the Institute, he worked for UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he served in many African countries, focusing on immunization.
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Opportunities and Resources |
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E-Applications: R01 Switch, Version 2 Issues, Mac User Help
During October, NIH will decide whether to go ahead with the planned electronic switch for the February R01 receipt date. We'll let you know as soon as we hear the news.
Also in that timeframe, NIH intends to start posting funding opportunity announcements (FOA) that let you apply for an investigator-initiated R01 electronically.
Grasping Version 2
Even as NIH and Grants.gov roll out the Version 2 Grant Application Package forms, a couple of issues are already unnerving users.
First, the Grants.gov listserv sent applicants misleading emails implying that their FOAs had expired, which was not so.
For example, a September 15 message stated that the Small Business Innovation Research FOA closed that same day and then directed people to the old Version 1 forms!
Instead of getting pulled in the wrong direction, you can find accurate information if you know where to look. On the NIH Funding Opportunities Relevant to NIAID, use the Elec. link under the Apply header to reach the download page for your opportunity.
Once there, click the download link for the latest version displayed. Then you'll retrieve data analogous to that shown below for the Parent R21:
Opportunity Number: PA-06-181: NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21)
Competition ID: VERSION-2-FORMS
Opening Date: 07/18/2006
Closing Date: 05/02/2009 |
The open and close dates shown above are for the version of the Grant Application Package forms stated under Competition ID, not the opportunity. Keep in mind that another new version could -- and mostly likely will -- be required before the closing date shown.
After your FOA switches to the Version 2 forms, always choose Version 2 if given a choice.
A second issue is that some mechanisms have partially switched to Version 2, so some of the FOAs are still using Version 1. Find a list of these exceptions in the September 15, 2006, Guide notice.
Good News for Mac Users
Though we don't have an exact arrival date, a platform-agnostic system is on its way. A new contractor is developing an approach based on Adobe Systems software that should be ready by April 1 next year.
Meanwhile, Grants.gov announced that its existing contractor would have a Macintosh viewer for PureEdge ready on November 1, 2006. It's Mac only, not platform-independent.
Grants.gov has awarded the new contract of up to $18.9 million to Anteon International, a part of General Dynamics. Anteon replaces Northrop Grumman, which developed the PureEdge-based forms.
For the next several months, one of NIH's lead development managers will be working with Grants.gov to help make sure the new system meets our business needs.
Other News
- You can now use PDF attachments with editable fields.
- The missing attachments problem from the Senior/Key Person Profile Form is fixed.
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Advice Corner |
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Reader Questions
"Can I apply for human subjects research through a K08?"
Yes. However, if you're interested in patient-oriented research, you may want to consider the Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23).
Find more information on Career Development Awards (K) and contact Dr. Milton Hernandez, director of NIAID's Office of Special Populations and Research Training, at mh35c@nih.gov.
"If I am affiliated with more than one institution, do I need separate PI accounts in the Commons?"
No. As a PI, you need only one account, which stays with you no matter where you go. If you move to another institution, a business official there can affiliate your account with that institution. Since your account is personal, you must keep it up to date.
When you log in to the Commons, the system will retrieve information about all your applications regardless of institution.
You would need two accounts only if your organization asks you to serve as both the signing official and a PI.
See Plan Ahead for Electronic Application and visit Electronic Submission for more information.
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New Initiatives |
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