NEI ARRA implementation

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NEI ARRA implementation

• As of March 30, 2009

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Administrative Supplements

• The NEI is participating in two programs offering
  administrative supplements to existing NEI
  grants. Principal investigators may apply to
  either but not both of these programs.
• NOT-EY-09-002 - Administrative supplements for
  infrastructure support
• Provides equipment, supplies, reagents or other
  infrastructure to support individual laboratories
• Short-term consultants or technical support to
  build or install new infrastructure
• Not intended for salary support for postdoctoral
  fellows or other research collaborators
• Parent grant must be R01 and have two years
  remaining at time of application
• Receipt deadline and earliest decision date is
  July 1, 2009
• Budget limit of 500,000 in direct costs
• Supplement activities and expenditures to be
  included in regular progress report
• Requests for large equipment that would normally
  be shared among laboratories should be directed
  to NCRR
•  Not part of ARRA program

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NOT-OD-09-056 - Administrative supplements for
Recovery Act

• Equipment (limited to 100,000) and other
  research expenses
• Up to two-years salary support for research
  collaborators and technical personnel
• Additional personnel must be new hires in the
  spirit of Economic Stimulus Act
• A biosketch including employment history of new
  personnel must be provided at the time of
  application
• Parent grants must be active and includes those
  in a no-cost extension
• No deadline for submission
• Research must be completed and funds expended in
  the current competitive segment, which cannot be
  extended
• Cannot be used to extend grant or recover
  previous budget cuts
• No limit specified for total award see
  announcement for guidelines
• Additional reporting requirements consistent with
  the Economic Stimulus Act

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How to Apply for Administrative Supplements

• The NEI strongly prefers electronic over paper
  applications for administrative supplements. The
  information requested in the published notices
  should be provided as a single PDF attachment in
  an email sent to the contact listed below. Hard
  copies of the application are not necessary.
• Michael A. Steinmetz, PhDProgram
  DirectorDivision of Extramural ResearchNational
  Eye InstituteSuite 1300 / MSC 93005635 Fishers
  LaneBethesda, MD 20892-9300For FedEx use
  Rockville, MD 20852Voice 301-451-2020Fax
  301-402-0528Email Michael.Steinmetz_at_nih.gov

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NEI Challenge Grants

• For NEI, the Challenge Topics are
• (01) Behavior, Behavioral Change, and
  PreventionFor this RFA, there is no NEI-specific
  Challenge Topic in this Challenge Area.
• (02) Bioethics02-OD(OSP)-104 Ethical Issues in
  the Translation of Genetic Knowledge to Clinical
  Practice. Genetics and genomics have great
  promise for the development of personalized
  medicine, yet the ethical, legal and social
  implications of both the research and application
  of genetic and genomic knowledge and technology
  are far reaching. Studies are needed to better
  understand the factors that influence the
  translation of genetic information to improved
  human health and the associated ethical issues.
  Examples of studies include those to address
  ethical issues related to broad sharing and use
  of new genetic information and technologies for
  research to improve human health, human subjects
  protection in genetic and genomic research, the
  identifiability of genetic/genomic information
  and how our understanding of identifiability is
  evolving, return of research results and
  incidental findings to subjects, alternative
  models of informed consent for broad data sharing
  for research, and the impact of intellectual
  property (IP) issues on development of new
  technologies. OD(OSP) Contact Abigail Rives,
  301-594-1976, rivesa_at_od.nih.gov NEI Contact Dr.
  Grace Shen, 301-451-2020, sheng_at_mail.nih.gov
• (03) Biomarker Discovery and Validation
  03-EY-101 Role of immunity in identifying
  relevant markers in ocular diseases. Oxidative
  stress/injury and host immune response are
  postulated to be involved in many degenerative
  eye diseases such as age-related macular
  degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, uveitis,
  glaucoma, and keratoconus. Other disorders such
  as Sjogren's syndrome remain difficult to
  diagnose and treat. Characterizing the molecular
  events and the host immune response during
  disease progression, and the understanding of how
  genes and their products interplay between
  systemic inflammation, vascular disease and
  photoreceptor cell death will allow us to
  identify biomarkers for the diagnosis and
  treatment of these blinding diseases. Contact
  Dr. Grace Shen, 301-451-2020, sheng_at_mail.nih.gov
• (04) Clinical Research For this RFA, there is no
  NEI-specific Challenge Topic in this Challenge
  Area.
• (05) Comparative Effectiveness Research
  05-EY-101 Treatment of Age Related Macular
  Degeneration and Diabetic Eye Diseases and
  Disorders. Age Related Macular Degeneration and
  Diabetic Eye Disease are leading causes of
  blindness among American adults. Commonly used
  treatment strategies include various combinations
  of drug and/or laser treatments but it is not
  clear how these agents or their combinations
  compare with each other for preventing visual
  loss, improving quality of life, and reducing
  health care costs. Projects that answer this
  challenge include studies that will compare
  agents to prevent the development and progression
  of age related macular degeneration or diabetic
  eye diseases and conditions. Contact Dr. Don
  Everett, 301-451-2020, deverett_at_nei.nih.gov

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NEI Challenge Grants

• 05-EY-102 Treatment of Pediatric Eye Diseases
  and Disorders. There are a variety of eye
  diseases and disorders that lead to visual
  impairments and blindness among children. Eye
  Care Professionals can treat these disorders with
  certain medications, surgery, or optical
  instruments or devices. However, it is unclear
  how the strategies compare with each other for
  improving and maintaining vision, quality of
  life, and reducing health care costs. Projects
  that answer this challenge could include the
  planning and conducting of trials or analyses of
  existing data. Contact Dr. Don Everett,
  301-451-2020, deverett_at_nei.nih.gov
• 05-EY-103 Eye and Vision Systematic Reviews.
  There are a variety of eye diseases and disorders
  that lead to visual impairments and blindness.
  Eye Care Professionals are treating these
  disorders with certain medications, surgery, or
  optical instruments or devices. However, in many
  instances it is unclear how the strategies
  compare with each other for improving and
  maintaining vision, quality of life, and reducing
  health care costs. Projects that answer this
  challenge would help health care providers and
  patients make well-informed decisions about
  healthcare. Contact Dr. Don Everett,
  301-451-2020, deverett_at_nei.nih.gov
• (06) Enabling Technologies For this RFA, there
  is no NEI-specific Challenge Topic in this
  Challenge Area.

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NEI Challenge Grants

• (07) Enhancing Clinical Trials 07-EY-101 Cost
  Effectiveness/Quality of Life Tools to assess
  the impact of interventions on quality-of-life
  and cost effectiveness of ophthalmic treatments.
  Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration with
  specialties such as health outcomes, economics,
  genetics, statistics, and clinical and bench
  science is needed to develop and improve
  instruments that measure the effect of ophthalmic
  treatments on the patient's quality-of-life and
  cost-effectiveness. Such teams could be used
  develop tools to evaluate and influence patient
  adherence with effective treatments in order to
  improve outcomes. Contact Dr. Natalie Kurinij,
  301-451-2020,
• (08) Genomics 08-EY-101 Genomics of complex eye
  diseases. Opportunities exist to make scientific
  inroads into complex, but common eye diseases
  such as cataract, diabetic retinopathy, macular
  degeneration and primary open angle glaucoma. One
  approach would be to use comprehensive genomic
  profiling of ocular cell types in normal and
  disease states by using high throughput
  expression analysis methods (e.g., sequencing and
  exon arrays, methylation sequencing) Contact Dr.
  Hemin Chin, 301-451-2020, chinh_at_mail.nih.gov
• (09) Health Disparities For this RFA, there is
  no NEI-specific Challenge Topic in this Challenge
  Area.
• (10) Information Technology for Processing Health
  Care Data for Research For this RFA, there is no
  NEI-specific Challenge Topic in this Challenge
  Area.
• (11) Regenerative Medicine For this RFA, there
  is no NEI-specific Challenge Topic in this
  Challenge Area.

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NEI Challenge Grants

• (12) Science, Technology, Engineering and
  Mathematics (STEM) Education For this RFA, there
  is no NEI-specific Challenge Topic in this
  Challenge Area.
• (13) Smart Biomaterials - Theranostics For this
  RFA, there is no NEI-specific Challenge Topic in
  this Challenge Area.
• (14) Stem Cells 14-EY-101 Development of stem
  cell treatment for degenerative diseases of the
  eye. The restorative properties of stem cells
  hold the promise in the treatment of degenerative
  eye diseases such as macular degeneration,
  diabetic retinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa and
  glaucoma, and diseases of the ocular surfaces.
  There is a need for the identification of
  biomarkers that can define stem cells and the
  end-stage cells, as well as reproducible
  protocols for the generation and purification of
  viable terminally differentiated cells. Contact
  Dr. Grace Shen, 301-451-2020, sheng_at_mail.nih.gov
• (15) Translational Science 15-EY-101 Protein
  misfolding in degenerative diseases of the eye. A
  number of ocular genetic diseases occur due to
  misfolding/aggregation of proteins, for example
  the visual pigment protein, rhodopsin in
  retinitis pigmentosa, crystallins in age-related
  cataracts, and myocillin in glaucoma. Identifying
  therapeutic pharmacological agents/drugs, that
  prevent the misfolding/aggregation of proteins
  could provide new tools for treating these
  diseases. Contact Dr. Neeraj Agarwal,
  301-451-2020, agarwalnee_at_mail.nih.gov
• 15-EY-102 Determining the structure of membrane
  proteins involved in phototransduction and the
  visual cycle to develop therapeutic agents and to
  understand the mechanisms of action. The paucity
  of knowledge of the small conformation changes of
  proteins involved in phototransduction and
  retinoid cycle during their activation cycles and
  formation of transient complexes is a limiting
  factor in the development of new therapeutic
  agents. Pharmacologically, the most important
  membrane proteins are those involved in signal
  transduction including G protein coupled
  receptors (GPCRs) of which rhodopsin is the
  prototypical type. As many as 40 of currently
  marketed drugs interact with GPCRs yet these
  target only about 50 GPCRs out of more than 800
  encoded in the human genome and are not
  sufficiently selective for one particular
  receptor subtype resulting in possible adverse
  effects, drug interactions, and less than optimal
  dosing. Contact Dr. Andrew Mariani,
  301-451-2020, mariania_at_mail.nih.gov

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Questions?

• For general information on NEI's implementation
  of NIH Challenge Grants, contact
• Dr. Grace L. ShenGroup Leader, Corneal Diseases
  andOcular Immunology, Inflammation,
  InfectionSuite 13005635 Fishers Lane, MSC
  9300Bethesda, MD 20892-9300(Courier services
  use Rockville, MD 20852)301-451-2020sheng_at_mail.
  nih.gov
• For Financial or Grants Management questions,
  contactMr. William W. DarbyChief, Grants
  Management BranchSuite 13005635 Fishers Lane,
  MSC 9300Bethesda, MD 20892-9300(Courier
  services use Rockville, MD 20852)301-451-2020da
  rbyw_at_mail.nih.gov

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Its all in flux

• In addition to the Challenge Grants, the National
  Center for Research Resources (NCRR) offers three
  programs to assist vision researchers in
  obtaining support for construction, renovation
  and repairs, and high-end instrumentation,
  http//grants.nih.gov/recovery/.
• Many details of the ARRA distribution continue to
  be unknown at this time, including the date at
  which funds will be made available to the
  individual NIH Institutes and Centers.
• NEI will receive 175 million to support vision
  research for FY2009 and FY2010. In addition to
  these NEI funds, the NIH will have other broad
  stimulus programs in addition to those described
  above. Vision researchers are encouraged to
  review all new possibilities as they are
  released. To assist our community in identifying
  appropriate funding opportunities, NEI staff has
  prepared an ARRA site that will be updated
  frequently. Staff will continue to use the ARVO
  alert system to highlight significant
  information.