NIH Grant Application Process

1
NIH Grant Application Process

• Trish Lowney
• Plowney_at_syr.edu osp.syr.edu
• December 2004

2
About NIH

• Mission to uncover new knowledge that will lead
  to better health for everyone
• Intramural extramural activities
• 27 separate Institutes and Centers
• 2004 Budget 28 Billion
• 30-45,000 applications/yr

3
New Director New Strategies

• Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D.
• Spearheaded the NIH Roadmap initiative

4
NIH Roadmap

• an integrated vision to
• deepen our understanding of biology,
• stimulate interdisciplinary research teams, and
• reshape clinical research
• to accelerate medical discovery and improve
  people's health.

5
NIH Roadmap

• Three core program areas
• New pathways to discovery,
• Research teams of the future, and
• Re-engineering the clinical research enterprise
• Roadmap http//nihroadmap.nih.gov/

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What Type of Research??

• Web pages
• NIH www.nih.gov (and C/I)
• Office of Extramural Research http//grants1.nih.
  gov/grants/
• New Investigator Info http//grants1.nih.gov/gran
  ts/new_investigators/index.htm
• NIH Guide
• http//grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/listserv.htm
• Call scientific/technical contacts listed

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Funding Mechanisms

• R01 NIH Research Project Grant Program
• R03 NIH Small Grant Program
• R13 U13 NIH Support for Conferences and
  Scientific Meetings 
• R15 NIH Academic Research Enhancement Award
  (AREA) Grants
• R21 NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant
  Award
• R56 NIH High Priority, Short-Term Project Award
• http//grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/funding_progr
  am.htm

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Applying to NIH

• PHS 398 (ver 9/04)
• Annotated application (old application)
• http//www.niaid.nih.gov/ncn/grants/app/app.pdf
• Deadlines Feb 1, June 1, Oct1
• http//grants1.nih.gov/grants/dates.htm
• Transmittal Letter Request Study Section IC
  assignment (sample available from OSP).

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Changes

• PHS 398 ? 3 parts
• Instructions, Human Subjects, Policy
• Failure to follow 398 ? return unreviewed
• Font Arial or Helvetica 11 point.
• Title 81 characters spaces (old 56)
• eRA commons user name

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Changes contd

• Abstract ? Project Summary and Relevance
• Public Hlth Relevance lay language, 2-3
  sentences
• Key Personnel ? effort other significant
  contributors (0 effort)
• Budget issues (Modular and Full)
• Thresholds based on direct costs only of lead and
  sub recipients
• Modular threshold still 250,000 DC

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The Research Plan

• Specific Aims
• Background Significance
• Preliminary Studies/Progress Report
• Research Design Methods
• Human Subjects
• Vertebrate Animals..

12
Peer Review Center for Scientific Review

• Two-step process
• Study sections (CSR) Primary, secondary
  reviewer
• Council (Center or Institute)
• Review Criteria Roadmap emphasis
• 1. Significance. 2. Approach
• 3. Innovation 4. Investigators
• 5. Environment.
• http//www.csr.nih.gov/

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Scoring

• 1 5 (1 excellent)
• Priority score - Rating of intrinsic scientific
  merit of the proposed research (100 500)
• Percentile - the relative rank of each priority
  score (along a 100.0 percentile band) among the
  scores assigned by a particular study section
• Streamlining Up to half of proposals unscored
  (remaining should be 100 300)

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Feedback

• Pink sheets
• Summary
• Reviewers feedback
• Contact Scientific Review Administrator (SRA) and
  Program Manager for additional feedback
• Reapply
• Respond to comments in Introduction

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Other Info..

• Success rates by C/I
• http//grants2.nih.gov/grants/award/success.htm
• Other resources
• http//grants1.nih.gov/grants/resources.htm