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More Study Sections Pare Resubmission Time for New PIsNIH's Center for Scientific Review is expanding its year-old pilot process that lets new R01 applicants clip four months off the usual time for a resubmission if their original application is not going to be funded. For the February 2007 review meetings, NIH will add 22 study sections to the pilot and then extend the option to all new investigator R01 applications by October 2007. AIDS and AIDS-Related Research study sections are already following this practice. If you are using the abbreviated time frame, your resubmission will be reviewed by the same study section in the next review cycle. It will be due March 20, July 20, or November 20, depending on the cycle. Always talk to your program officer to determine if this approach is right for you. See our January 4, 2006, article, "Extended Resubmission Dates for Some New Investigators" and the January 8, 2007, Guide notice for details.
Commons Help This Weekend, New Electronic TrainingGot a last-minute problem with your R01 application? On February 3 and 4, eRA Commons Help Desk staff will be working outside normal hours to answer questions from applicants trying to meet the February 5 deadline. Go to Submit Service Request on the IT Help Desk site to post your question, or call for help at 301-402-7469, 1-866-504-9552 (toll free), or 301-451-5939 (TTY). Whether you're mid-application or not, check out the new automated training demos at NIH's Training Resources.
Electronic Application Delayed for Some Grant TypesFor an indefinite period, NIH is postponing the transition to electronic application of the following grant types:
These award types will continue to use the PHS 398 grant application. For more information, read the January 19, 2007, Guide announcement.
Fresh -- and Familiar -- Faces Take Key Posts in NIAIDWe are pleased to introduce the following senior staff members. Director, Division of Extramural Activities -- Marvin Kalt, Ph.D. We welcome Dr. Kalt to the Institute. Along with his duties as DEA director, he will be a senior advisor in NIAID on extramural policy and will represent the Institute on the NIH Extramural Program Management Committee. Dr. Kalt comes to us from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he helped launch the Grand Challenges in Global Health (in conjunction with the Foundation for the NIH) and the Centers for AIDS Vaccine Development, a part of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise. Before his tenure at the Gates Foundation, Dr. Kalt held leadership positions in extramural programs at NIH, serving as a senior advisor to the NIH director and heading up the Division of Extramural Activities at the National Cancer Institute. As we usher in Dr. Kalt, we would like to thank Dr. Paula Strickland for serving as acting DEA director. She will continue her role as director of DEA's Office of International Extramural Activities. Associate Director for Special Projects, Division of Clinical Research -- Edmund Tramont, M.D. Previously director of NIAID's Division of AIDS, Dr. Tramont will help coordinate and evaluate several special projects within DCR and the Vaccine Research Center. While DAIDS director, Dr. Tramont implemented the restructuring of the DAIDS HIV/AIDS Clinical Trial Networks and expanded the HIV/AIDS vaccine research program into a comprehensive collaborative effort. He initiated the Partnership in AIDS Vaccine Evaluation and established the Center for HIV-AIDS Vaccine Immunology as an academically based virtual AIDS vaccine research and development center. Acting Director, Division of AIDS -- Carl Dieffenbach, Ph.D. Appointed acting principal deputy director of DAIDS last July, Dr. Dieffenbach assumes the role of acting director. Dr. Dieffenbach joined DAIDS in 1992 as chief of the Developmental Therapeutics Branch and was promoted to director of the DAIDS Basic Sciences Program in 1996. Outside NIH, Dr. Dieffenbach was adjunct associate professor of pathology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Science and served as chair of the Gordon Research Conference on AIDS Therapeutics. Director, Office of Administrative Services -- Jon Mathis. We also welcome Mr. Mathis to NIAID. In his new role, he will oversee OAS activities, such as developing policies on administrative management and administering the Institute's ethics program. Mr. Mathis was director of the Department of Energy's Office of Resource Management in the Office of Policy and International Affairs. Before that he spent eleven years working for the Navy, coordinating policy guidance for the Navy’s budget and managing the Comptroller's intern programs. Chief, News and Public Information Branch, Office of Communications and Government Relations -- Laurie Doepel. Ms. Doepel will lead her group in its duties, which include serving as main contact for media inquiries and performing community liaison and educational communication activities. With previous experience in the NIH and Clinical Center Office of Communications, Laurie was appointed acting director of NIAID's Office of Communications and Public Liaison in 2002 and led the office during its reorganization into OCGR. Director, Office of Workforce Effectiveness and Resources -- Juli Brown. Juli will direct OWER in its efforts to improve NIAID's organizational performance, effectiveness, and efficiency. Ms. Brown has served as the office’s acting director since 2004. Since joining NIAID in 1984, she has worked closely with intramural and extramural staff, assuming leadership roles in each program's administrative management branch.
Application Delays: A Break in the IceFollowing normal practice, NIH is letting you send your application a few days late because of last month's ice storms. Just explain the delay in a cover letter, no need to ask permission. Make sure the delay doesn't last longer than the time your institution is closed. This policy holds whether you are applying in response to a request for applications or program announcement or sending in an investigator-initiated application. See the January 16, 2007, Guide notice.
Supplemental Funding for U.S.-India Collaborations to Prevent HIV/AIDSWatch for a February funding opportunity for administrative supplements to NIH-funded grants. We are seeking one-year supplement applications for collaborations between grantees and Indian researchers on HIV/AIDS prevention research and research training. Eight institutes and centers anticipate spending as much as $2 million for this initiative. If you are interested in applying, please email Dr. Janet Young, jyoung@niaid.nih.gov, program officer in the Division of AIDS. This effort stems from the “Joint Statement for Collaboration on Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV/AIDS,” signed in June 2006 by Indian Minister of Health and Family Welfare and the U.S. Secretary of HHS. See the January 12, 2007, Guide notice.
New AIDS Grants and Fellowships From amfARThe Foundation for AIDS Research will fund biomedical, preclinical, clinical, epidemiological, social, behavioral, ethical, or policy research to optimize HIV treatment. Faculty-level researchers affiliated with a nonprofit institution can qualify for a one-year grant of up to $120,000. Two-year fellowships provide $125,000 in total funding to postdoctoral or equivalent investigators who have limited experience and are sponsored by an experienced investigator. Letters of intent are due by March 1, 2007. For details on areas of interest and other application requirements, go to the Optimizing the Treatment of HIV Infection RFP.
Can Your Electronic Application Be Too Big?Though there is no size limit, NIH expects R01 applications to average 6 to 10 MB, and 99 percent to be under 40 MB. If your application is larger, read NIH's tips at Application File Size.
Reader QuestionsMark Slifka, associate scientist and associate professor, Oregon Health and Sciences University, asks: "SBIR grant paylines dropped from an overall impact/priority score of 187 to 180 whereas STTR grants dropped from a 206 down to 159. Why did STTR drop so rapidly compared to SBIR?" Paylines are an estimate of the overall impact/priority score levels NIAID can pay to with the funds we have, which are based on the small-business set-asides. It is impossible to know at the beginning of the year how many applications we will receive at each overall impact/priority score. So, our initial estimate is very conservative, and more conservative for STTR than SBIR because the SBIR set-aside is larger. Paylines usually increase as we approach the end of the fiscal year. Jim Machado, senior research administrator, New England Medical Center Hospitals, Inc., asks: "One of my PIs will be submitting a K23 and was told the Other Research Cost budget could be $50,000 per year, but I read on your Web site that NIAID provides only $25,000 a year. Please clarify. " That is correct. While other Institutes may give more money, NIAID provides only $25,000 for K23s. Timothy Gondré-Lewis, an NIAID program officer, thought the following points need clarification: For a P01, is there a page limit on the cores? Items A-D of the Research Plan for a Core cannot exceed 25 pages. Each component project and core of a multiproject application is a complete application that follows the PHS 398 plus any additional instructions in the announcement with one exception: there is one PI for the entire entity. For a revised P01, does each section get three pages as an introduction? Following the PHS 398 guidelines for revised applications, you can have three pages for each project or core as well as the overall application. We received yet another question on qualifying as a new principal investigator: "Do recipients of R56-bridge awards qualify as new investigators when they resubmit their R01 applications?" Yes. Investigators who receive an R56-bridge award are considered new investigators as long as they have never previously received an R01. Also see "Qualifying as a new PI" in our previous issue.
See these and older announcements on our NIH Funding Opportunities Relevant to NIAID.
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