Eligibility Criteria for Use of the NIA Aged Rodent Colonies
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) has facilitated aging research funded by many NIH Institutes, Federal Agencies and private Foundations, by allowing grantees of those institutes/agencies/foundations access to the NIA aged rodent colonies. For the past two years, demand on the NIA aged rodent colonies was so high that the NIA could only provide animals for projects funded by the NIH or other government agencies. The NIA increased the entry of animals into the aged rodent colonies and the colonies are now at levels that allow provision of animals for aging-related projects funded by other sources. These changes are effective March 1, 2009, and will continue until further notice. The NIA reserves the right to modify the eligibility criteria at any time to ensure that NIA grantees have sufficient animals for their funded projects. Any questions about the policy or eligibility should be sent to Dr. Nancy Nadon, nadonn@nia.nih.gov
- The NIA aged rodent colonies are only available for projects that are directly related to aging and are funded by grants from the NIH, other U. S. Federal government agencies (ex., VA, CDC) or private, non-profit research foundations (ex. AHA, AFAR). This policy applies to all of the NIA aged rodent colonies, the mutant mouse aging colony and the caloric restricted rodent colony. The NIA aged rodent colonies are not available for projects funded by commercial entities including projects at universities funded by commercial entities.
- Animals will be available for contract-funded research only if that contract research is funded by the National Institute on Aging.
- There is currently a limit of 50 animals per grant per month. If a project requires greater than 50 animals per month, an exception may be requested but the NIA reserves the right give NIA grantees priority over requests for exceptions [requests for exceptions should be sent to Dr. Nancy Nadon, nadonn@nia.nih.gov, and should include the strain/sex/age/quantity needed]. Young animals to be used as controls for old animals will be provided, but all orders will be evaluated for appropriateness of the request for the NIA colonies.
- In order to assist investigators pursuing NIH funding, eligibility will be extended to those investigators currently lacking active support but who have had funding from the NIH within the past three years, have had unfunded applications to the NIH within the past three years, or have been supported within the past three years from an NIH grant on which they were not PI.
- A separate price schedule (non-NIA) applies to all eligible investigators with funding from any source other than the National Institute on Aging, to reduce but not eliminate the NIA subsidy of the real cost of producing the aged rats and mice. There will be no exceptions to this schedule.
- Investigators funded for aging research through the Veteran’s Administration (VA) and eligible to order under the VA-NIA agreement will pay the same price as NIA grantees.
Orders must be placed through the online rodent ordering system (ROS) (http://arc.niapublications.org/acb/stores/1/) and ALL information must be provided in order to allow the NIA to properly evaluate eligibility. Incomplete orders will be cancelled and will have to be resubmitted as there is no way to alter orders after submission. The funding source, title and grant number refers to the funding source for the research project to use the requested animals. Do not provide the institutional accounting or animal protocol number.The funding source should be an NIH grant number and title, or the award number and title for other government funding. Click here for Order Forms
Page last updated Feb 19, 2009
