Extramural Policy and Review Activities

Receipt, Referral, and Review

NIDA received 1098 applications, including both primary and dual assignments, for which the Office of Extramural Affairs (OEA) managed the programmatic referral process during this Council cycle. Of these, NIDA received the primary assignment on 813 applications.

OEA arranged and managed 26 grant review meetings in which 313 applications were evaluated. OEA's reviews included applications in chartered, standing review committees and Special Emphasis Panels (SEPs). In addition, OEA's Contracts Review Branch (CRB) arranged and managed 14 contract proposal and contract proposal concept reviews.

NIDA's chartered committees consist of NIDA-E (Treatment Review Committee), NIDA-F (Health Services Review Committee), NIDA-L (Medications Development Committee), and NIDA-K (Training Committee). In addition to meetings of each of these committees, OEA staff held 22 Special Emphasis Panels for a variety of reasons:

Conflicts with the chartered committees
Center Grant Applications
Program Project Grant applications
Behavioral Science Track Award for Rapid Transition (B/START)
Imaging Science Track Awards for Research Transition (I/START)
Cutting-Edge Basic Research Awards (CEBRA) (R21)
Conference Grants (R13)
NIH Pathway To Independence (PI) Awards (K99/R00)
Minority Institutions' Drug Abuse Research Development Program (MIDARP)
Mechanism for Time-Sensitive Research Opportunities (R01)
Requests for Applications (RFAs)

OEA managed the following RFA reviews:

• DA08-002: Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies 2 (CJ-DATS 2)
• DA08-005: International Research Collaborations to Study HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse

Completed Concept and Contract Reviews from the Contracts Review Branch since the last Council are as follows:

Concept Review

• N01DA-8-1137: International Research Training and Support

Phase I SBIR Contract Reviews

• N43DA-8-4409: Topic 090 - Real Time fMRI Feedback System
• N43DA-8-2213: Topic 093 - Development of Website Training for Pain Specialists
• N43DA-8-2214: Topic 094 - Development of Website Training for Primary Care
• N43DA-8-5538: Topic 095 - Drug Abuse Screening Assessment
• N43DA-8-7764: Topic 097 - Nanoscience-based Design of Therapies

Phase II SBIR Contract Reviews

• N44DA-8-1131: International Substance Abuse Data Resource Center
• N44DA-8-2210: Development of Substance Abuse Training Methods
• N44DA-8-2212: Serious Game Technology
• N44DA-8-4405: Environment/Curb Teen Smoking
• N44DA-8-5535: A Market Technology Plan for Disseminating Workplace Drug Prevention Programs

R&D and non-R&D Contract Reviews

• N01DA-8-7763: Synthesis & Distribution of Drugs of Abuse and Related Compounds
• N01DA-8-8875: Analytical Services Center for MDP
• N01DA-8-8876: Assessment of Potential Cocaine Pharmacotherapies in Monkeys

Extramural Policy and Review Activities

Transfer of NIDA fellowship review to the CSR
NIDA fellowship applications that had previously been reviewed by NIDA's NIDA-K review committee (NRSA F30, F31, and F32), will now be reviewed at the Center for Scientific Review (CSR). This change became effective on the April 8, 2008 receipt date. CSR fellowship study sections can be viewed on the CSR website at http://cms.csr.nih.gov/PeerReviewMeetings/ Fellowship/. For more information about this transfer, please see http://www.nida.nih.gov/ pdf/researchtraining/FellowshipFAQs.pdf.

Certificates of Confidentiality

Between December 13, 2007 and March 21, 2008 OEA processed 112 Certificate applications, including 23 for extension of expiration dates and 9 for amended protocols.

Staff Training and Development

The OEA Symposium Series, a forum for staff training and sharing of ideas and information, continued through Spring 2008. Activities included open forums for discussions and presentations that included the Privacy Act of 1974 and the E-Government Act of 2002 and utilization of e-applications for extramural program support.