News & Events

Announcements for 2007

December 11, 2007 (historical)

NIAMS Calls for Interdisciplinary Research Proposals

The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) has recently established the Building Interdisciplinary Research Team (BIRT) Revision Awards. To promote interdisciplinary research, the NIAMS plans to provide up to one year of research revision support (formerly referred to as a competitive "supplement") to active NIAMS R01s to establish collaborations in the following areas relevant to the NIAMS mission:

  • Autoimmunity — Gender factors
  • Autoimmunity or Developmental biology — Systems biology
  • Soft tissue biology — Imaging technologies
  • Tissue engineering — Immunology or Developmental biology

The scale and complexity of today's biomedical research problems demand that scientists move beyond the confines of their individual disciplines and explore new organizational models for team science. Integrating different disciplines holds the promise of opening up scientific avenues of inquiry and, in the process, may form new disciplines with which to address increasingly complex questions.

NIAMS intends to supplement interdisciplinary collaborations that are highly innovative and potentially will have high impact in the specific NIAMS mission-relevant areas solicited in this announcement. Teams developed under this award are expected to make significant advances beyond the progress expected from the individual researchers alone.

The NIAMS plans to commit approximately $1 million in direct costs in FY 2008 to fund up to 10 BIRT awards. The issuing of awards under this announcement is contingent upon the availability of funds and the submission of meritorious applications. Only current NIAMS R01 grantees are eligible to submit applications. Independent investigators with other awards are encouraged to apply in concert with NIAMS R01 grantees.

For more information, go to http://grants2.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AR-08-001.html.