IC Directors' Meeting Highlights |
December 10, 2004
Discussion Item I. System for Enterprise Records and Correspondence Handling (SERCH) After thanking Dr. Kington and Dr. Zerhouni for their support of this
cutting-edge document and records management project, Star Kline, NIH
SERCH project officer, cited its support of Goal 4 of the President’s
Management Agenda (Expanded Electronic Government) and Goal 6 of the “One
HHS” Management Objectives (Administrative Efficiencies). The system will
Ms. Kline has briefed numerous trans-NIH groups ranging from ES Correspondence Contacts and IC and OD Records Management Officers to OD Senior Staff and NIH Executive Officers as well as various budget and IT fora. She has worked and is available to work further with OD and IC staff on user needs and training opportunities. Again stressing that SERCH will transmit ES documents to and receive them back from IC and OD Office correspondence contacts without any costs to users, she noted that the system has been carefully planned to allow ICs, OD Offices, and sub-entities of HHS OP Divs and Staff Divs to expand it internally for their own specific document creation, records system, document search, and other administrative needs. She closed saying she would be pleased to meet with IC and OD staff to discuss how SERCH might be efficacious to their specific internal needs.* Ms. Kline can be reached at klines@mail.nih.gov. * As of November 22, Ms. Kline has met with representatives of 14 ICs and 7 OD Offices. II. Revision of Peer Review Criteria Dr. Robert Star, Senior Advisor for Clinical Research, OSPP, noted that a January 2003 Roadmap Clinical Research Summit recommendation called for improved review of clinical research applications. The Trans-NIH Clinical Research Workforce Committee, chaired by Dr. Alexander, produced an initial draft of proposed revisions to the Guide for Reviewers’ Preliminary Comments on Research Applications for any Investigator-Initiated Grant in spring 2004 that was refined and improved by the EPMC and RPC and in consultation with the 30 study section chairs. The EPMC approved the final proposed revisions in June 2004. Dr. Star explained that the revised changes were developed so as to:
If the revisions are approved by the IC Directors, they are scheduled to be implemented January 1, 2005, for the October 2005 Council Round. The RPC will coordinate the implementation and ensure communication with the reviewers and applicants by way of the following:
Training will also be provided to CSR and IC SRAs and reviewers and follow-up evaluation ensured by surveys of reviewers, NIH staff, and possibly PIs. After a motion to accept, the group unanimously approved the proposed revisions and plan for implementation. III. Translational Research Core Services Dr. Briggs, co-chair with Dr. Straus of the implementation group of the
NIH Roadmap’s Reengineering the Clinical Research Enterprise, proposed
plans for an initiative that would give applicants access to centralized
contract resources and expertise. The Translational Research Core Services
effort would not be a grant program but rather would give researchers
access to such NIH resources. It will likely be modeled on or may evolve
through expansion of the National Cancer Institute's Rapid Access to Innovation
Development program, which currently provides such resources to the cancer
research community. The current proposal is for a limited pilot in FY
2005 for development of therapeutic agents, using existing NCI/DTP infrastructure
and expertise. Dr. Zerhouni said that he wants to learn as much as possible about all aspects of the issue and will be holding meetings with outside groups to discuss.
Dale Johnson |
This page was last reviewed on December 16, 2004 . |
National Institutes of Health (NIH) |