A public meeting was held on April 23, 2003, at the Natcher Conference Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD. Below are are questions and answers from that meeting.

Questions from the Participants

Q. Who is the target audience for MIDAS research?
A. MIDAS is focused on developing computational products that are useful to three communities – policymakers, public health officials, and researchers. 

Q. What organisms or diseases can an application deal with? Do applicants have to study human pathogens?
A. Applicants can propose working with any infectious disease system, either in humans or model organisms.  Agricultural diseases, such as foot and mouth disease, may be good systems for developing modeling tools.  Plant infectious disease systems are also suitable.  The issue is finding a model system that has an appropriate structure and for which there is adequate information to develop broadly useful computational tools.
 
Q. Can economic theory be considered?  Are you interested in cost-effectiveness?
A. Cost-effectiveness, as one component of a model, can be considered.  It would not be appropriate as the sole focus of an application.

Q. Can an application be wholly theoretical?
A. Development of theory may be an important component of an application;  however, it is not likely to be the sole focus of successful applications.

Q. Where do you put preliminary results?
A. If you have done background work, include it in the Background and Significance section.

Q. Should an application discuss specific problems like SARS?
A. Research Groups should propose to work on specific problems within the scope of the three thematic areas described in the announcement.  You should explain the resources, including data, available to your group.  If your group has breadth beyond the proposed research, discuss that as well.

Q. Can an application come in to be just a part of the Informatics Group?
A. No, applications must be either for an entire Research Group or an entire Informatics Group.

Q. Can applications have subcontracts?
A. Yes, interinstitutional and interdepartmental collaborations are welcome.  Each subcontract should be submitted with its own budget page, and the subcontract should be well-justified.

Q. Are there any restrictions on the PI’s citizenship or security status?
A. The applicant institution must be in the United States;  however the Principal Investigator need not be a citizen.  There are no requirements with respect to security clearances.

Q. Can there be co-PIs?
A. NIH does not recognize co-PI status.  An application must identify one individual responsible for the grant.  There may, of course, be many key personnel who play vital roles.

Q. Will there be any form of security of the data or products? 
A. Possibly.  Our intent is to keep as much information as possible available to the research and public health communities.  The network may need to address the issue of  restricted information in the future.

Q. If an applicant is using data that is subject to restrictive policies at his/her institution, will that pose a problem?
A. Data used by a MIDAS project must be available to the entire network and will likely be made publicly available.  Applicants should work with their institutions and their Institutional Review Boards to ensure that data are appropriately handled and meet MIDAS criteria.

Q. Do human subject requirements apply to the Informatics Group?
A. If you are proposing to use data from human subjects, you should discuss your research with your Institutional Review Board to identify the policies that apply.  This is true for both Research Group and Informatics Group applications.

Q. The announcement mentions that data and products will be made available.  Will these be free, or can there be a charge?
A. Researchers within the network need to share data with each other for free.  It is allowable to sell products for income outside the network, provided the charges are not excessive.

Q. Should the Rapid Response team be part of the application?
A. No, it need not be addressed in the application.  The possibility of redirecting research to address an emerging threat will be covered in the Terms and Conditions in the Notice of Grant Award.

Q. When will the Steering Committee form?
A. NIGMS will organize the Steering Committee as soon as the awards are made.

Q. Is it correct that the Research Groups and Informatics Group will receive separate funding?
A. Yes, Each group will receive a separate Notice of Grant Award and a separate budget.

Q. Can Federally-funded Research Development Centers apply?
A. NIH will accept applications from non-Federal, Federal, and Federally-funded Centers (such as National Laboratories).

Q. Can Federal agencies submit grants?
A. Yes.  However, NIH will not pay salaries or fringe benefits for Federal employees, nor will it provide indirect costs.  This is true whether the Federal agency is the grantee institution or a subcontractor. See the NIH Grants Policy Statement for more information (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/nihgps_2001/part_iib_7.htm#_Toc504812197).

Q. Will applications be reviewed by a standing review group?
A. No, NIGMS will convene a special review group for the MIDAS applications.

Q. Will the Informatics and Research Group applications be reviewed by the same review group?
A. Yes.

Q. Who will be on the review group?
A. It depends on the content of the applications.  In general, reviewers are much like applicants with about the same breadth and expertise.

Q. Will scores be percentiled?
A. No, each application will be evaluated on its own merits and assigned a priority score, a numerical rating between 100 (best) and 500 (worst) reflecting its scientific merit.

Q. Will the institute consider cost in making final funding decisions?
A. Cost is one of several factors that go into final decisions.  Scientific merit, relevance to program goals, and the ability of selected groups to work together are also important.

Q. Can a group get more money in the first year and less in future years?
A. Applications are limited to annual direct costs of $500,000 for a Research Group and $3,000,000 for the Informatics Group. These costs include the costs of subcontracts.

Q. Will this be a one-time announcement?
A. NIGMS has not decided whether or not to reissue the announcement.  That is a decision for the future.

Agenda

9:00 a.m.	Welcome	Judith Greenberg Acting Director, NIGMS
9:10 a.m.	Introduction to MIDAS Goals and Organization	Irene Anne Eckstrand Program Director, NIGMS
9:30 a.m.	Management and Policies	Joe Ellis Chief Grants Management Officer, NIGMS
10:00 a.m.	Preparation of an Application	Irene Anne Eckstrand
10:30 a.m.	Review Considerations	Kent Peters, Office of Scientific Review, NIGMS
11:00 a.m.	Questions