Approach to Grant-Making Work Group

1
Approach to Grant-Making Work Group

• Preliminary Recommendations
• National Institute on Drug Abuse
• National Advisory Council
• February 8, 2006

2
Workgroup Members

• Rudy Arredondo
• Kathleen Carroll
• Mark Greenberg
• Tom Kosten
• Scott Lukas
• Linda Porrino
• Claire Sterk
• David Vlahow
• Constance Weisner
• Denise Pintello NIDA Staff

3
Workgroup Charge

• Recommendations to protect young
  investigators in an age of restricted budgets.
• Guidelines about PIs with multiple grants
  NIDA or other Institute or Center (IC)
• Balance between large versus small
  science at NIDA.
• Recommendations on the duration of grants
  (RO1s, Centers, program projects) and
• Other issues as deemed appropriate.

4

• Across NIH and NIDA, there is commitment to
  the development of careers of new investigators
  and to encouraging innovation through the grant
  process. Our recommendations are designed to
  stimulate the development of new/young
  investigators and facilitate innovative and
  interdisciplinary work.

5
Recommendations to protect new investigators

• Set aside a proportion of NIDA's budget to be
  used at the discretion of the NIDA Director to
  fund promising new investigators whose scores may
  place them in the non-competitive range track
  these investigators to see if they subsequently
  compete as successfully for support as other new
  investigators.
• The KAward process has been productive and should
  continue and expanded.

6
Guidelines about PIs with large and/or multiple
grants

• The expectation is that such investigators/labs/Ce
  nters should facilitate training and innovation.
• Recommend examining all large/long duration
  grants and multiple grants from a single
  principal investigator to assess the
  opportunities that have been provided for the
  training/mentoring of new investigators, as well
  as their dissemination efforts. Carefully
  monitor the training opportunities provided by
  these grants and multiply-funded applicants and
  laboratories.
• Program should consider their record in
  training opportunities and dissemination in
  funding decisions.

7
Recommendations on balance between large versus
small science at NIDA

• Continue regular meetings within NIDA staff for
  joint planning on how to best align their
  programs with Roadmap and other trans-NIH funding
  opportunities. Continue proactive work of NIDA
  staff to inform the NIDA community of Roadmap and
  other trans-NIH funding opportunities and to
  assist them in preparing competitive
  applications. Focus on innovative ways of
  targeting new and junior investigators. Monitor
  the success of this effort and provide the
  results to Council.