December 5, 2007

News Articles

• Continuing the Continuing Resolution
• A Special Thanks to NIAID Committee Members
• New Law Affects ClinicalTrials.gov
• Help NIH Categorize Research Spending
  • How It Works
  • What You Can Do
• New NIAID Representative to NIH Council of Councils

Opportunities and Resources

• Just Arriving: New FOAs on Radiation Injury, Exposure
  • Get Ready to Submit Soon
  • Plan for Future Opportunities
  • Get More Information
• Return of the NIH Director's New Innovator Award
• Collaboration Opportunities with PEPFAR

Advice Corner

• Reader Question on Time Limit for Resubmitting an R01

New Funding Opportunities

• See the list.

	News Articles

Continuing the Continuing Resolution

Another continuing resolution extends NIH's funding until December 14, 2007. As we've stated in our October 17, 2007, issue, NIAID has set a provisional R01 payline at the 10 percentile so we can fund a limited number of awards.

We'll continue to update Paylines and Budget as information comes in. If you'd like to be notified when we get NIAID's final paylines, choose that interest category when you Subscribe to Email Alerts.

A Special Thanks to NIAID Committee Members

We'd like to thank the people who donate their time by serving on an NIAID review or advisory committee. Their invaluable generosity and contribution enables us to fund the best science and accomplish our public health mission.

In recognition, we're thanking each committee member in our updated Thank You Members of NIAID Peer Review and Advisory Committees, which lists everyone who has served on an initial peer review committee, Council, or other NIAID advisory committee during the past fiscal year.

We'd also like to thank the people who review NIAID applications as part of CSR's review committees, though they are not listed individually on the Thank You page.

Is your name missing or information not correct? Email deaweb@niaid.nih.gov, and please accept our apologies.

Interested in volunteering as a peer reviewer? Read How to Volunteer. It's a great learning experience. And many people find it rewarding to be able to "pay back" their community.

New Law Affects ClinicalTrials.gov

Are you conducting a clinical trial? Public Law 110-85 expands the scope of clinical trials that must be registered in ClinicalTrials.gov. The new law requires investigators to provide more registration information and sets penalties for noncompliance.

For more information, read the November 16, 2007, Guide notice and PRS and U.S. Public Law 110-85.

Help NIH Categorize Research Spending

NIH has a new approach for categorizing medical research and its funding and would like your help. In February 2009, NIH launches Research, Condition, and Disease Categorization (RCDC), which will report annually on NIH spending in about 300 congressionally-mandated categories.

How It Works

NIH scientists created "fingerprints," unique sets of terms to define research areas, conditions, and diseases. RCDC searches for keywords in a grant's title, abstract, and specific aims and matches them to category fingerprints.

While RCDC will change the way some of NIAID's budget numbers are reported, it is anticipated to have no effect on funding allocations.

The accuracy of this new process relies heavily on investigators to include the most relevant terminology in key parts of the application. Coding will not affect your score in peer review.

What You Can Do

RCDC will report FY 2008 data, so if possible, try to do the following while writing your applications:

• Clearly state all research areas relevant to your project in your project title, project summary/abstract, and specific aims.
• In the title, include the primary research area, conditions, or diseases.

For more suggestions on what to include and not include in your grant application, see Reporting Considerations When Writing Your Grant.

New NIAID Representative to NIH Council of Councils

Congratulations to Martin Rosenberg, the new NIAID representative to the Council of Councils. A member of NIAID's Advisory Council, Dr. Rosenberg is chief scientific officer of Promega Corporation in Madison, Wisconsin.

The NIH Council of Councils reviews the initiatives launched under the NIH Roadmap. It also makes recommendations to the Director of NIH about scientific opportunities and public health challenges that would benefit from collaboration among multiple NIH institutes and centers.

The group includes representatives from each Institute's Advisory Council, and the Advisory Committees of the Office of the Director, program offices, and the NIH Director's Council of Public Representatives.

	Opportunities and Resources

Just Arriving: New FOAs on Radiation Injury, Exposure

Open dates are just around the corner for initiatives that are part of NIAID's Medical Countermeasures Against Radiological and Nuclear Threats program, which were announced in the fall.

If your research focuses on identifying, mitigating, or treating radiation-induced injury but does not match the funding opportunity announcements below, keep your eyes peeled for additional FOAs. NIAID is planning to issue several others for the medical countermeasures program.

Get Ready to Submit Soon

Prepare your applications for the following FOAs that have December open dates:

• Medical Countermeasures to Enhance Platelet Regeneration and Increase Survival Following Radiation Exposure
  • Open date: December 9, 2007
  • Receipt date: January 9, 2008
• Mechanisms, Diagnosis and Treatment of Radiation Injury from a Nuclear Accident or Terrorist Attack
  • Open date: December 15, 2007
  • Receipt date: January 15, 2008
• Radiation Combined Injury:  Radiation Exposure in Combination with Burn, Wound, Trauma or Infection (Phased Innovation Award)
  • Open date: December 21, 2007
  • Receipt date: January 24, 2008   

Plan for Future Opportunities

As we mentioned, NIAID will seek more radiation-related applications in FY 2008. Planned topics include the following:

• Medical countermeasures to mitigate or treat radiation-induced cutaneous injury
• Medical countermeasures to mitigate or treat radiation-induced pulmonary injury
• Radionuclide/radiation animal testing facilities and renovation

To hear about these opportunities when they come out, Subscribe to Email Alerts. You can also check Funding Opportunities and Announcements.

Get More Information

To learn more about the Medical Countermeasures Against Radiological and Nuclear Threats program, contact Richard Hatchett, M.D., associate director for radiation countermeasures research and emergency preparedness, at hatchettr@niaid.nih.gov or 301-496-1886.

Return of the NIH Director's New Innovator Award

Back again for 2008: the NIH Director's New Innovator Award, which supports highly innovative research projects with the potential for a great impact on biomedical or behavioral science. Awards will average $300,000 in direct costs each year.

To qualify, you must meet the following criteria:

• Be considered a new investigator. This funding opportunity defines "new investigators" differently so check the Guide notice.
• Hold an independent research position at a domestic institution.
• Have received your last degree or completed medical internship and residency within the past 10 years.

Electronic applications are due by March 31, 2008. Read more in the November 9, 2007, Guide notice and the Frequently Asked Questions. Send questions to newinnovator@nih.gov.

Collaboration Opportunities with PEPFAR

Are you conducting international HIV or AIDS research? Consider a collaboration with the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). During its five-year intiative (2003 to 2008), PEPFAR will provide over $15 billion in funding for the treatment, care, and prevention of HIV/AIDS in low-resource countries. The initiative includes 114 Countries and 15 Focus Countries.

Collaborating with PEPFAR allows you to add treatment components to complement your HIV/AIDS research activities. This combination of resources may offer some advantages to investigators and research participants, but keep in mind that NIH funding supports only research, and PEPFAR funding supports purposes agreed to by PEPFAR officials.

For more information, contact the U.S. Government PEPFAR team through the U.S. Embassy in the country where you are conducting research.

If you have questions about the program, contact Joan Romaine at jromaine@niaid.nih.gov.

	Advice Corner

Reader Question on Time Limit for Resubmitting an R01

Lisa Bond, Philadelphia Health Management Corporation, asks:

"Is there a time limit for resubmitting an R01?"

No. There is not a time limit for the first and second resubmissions. For more information, see the November 13, 2006, Guide notice.

	New Funding Opportunities

• PAR-08-026, Support of Competitive Research (SCORE) Research Advancement Award
• PAR-08-027, Support of Competitive Research (SCORE) Pilot Project Award

See these and older announcements on our NIH Funding Opportunities Relevant to NIAID.