OSC - NIH Common Fund

The NIH Common Fund was enacted into law by Congress through the 2006 NIH Reform Act to support cross-cutting, trans-NIH programs that require participation by at least two NIH Institutes or Centers (ICs) or would otherwise benefit from strategic planning and coordination. The requirements for the Common Fund encourage collaboration across the ICs while providing the NIH with flexibility to determine priorities for Common Fund support.

To date, the Common Fund has been used to support a series of short term, exceptionally high impact, trans-NIH programs known collectively as the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. As the Common Fund grows, and research opportunities and needs emerge in the scientific community, the portfolio of programs supported by the Common Fund will likely evolve to encompass a diverse set of trans-NIH programs, although the NIH Roadmap is likely to remain a central component.

New! American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) funds in the Common Fund

Through the ARRA, the Common Fund has received $130M to be spent in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. The overarching goals for these funds at the NIH are the same as for the ARRA funds distributed to the NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs), but the ARRA funds in the Common Fund will support scientific areas that span the missions of ICs and have been identified through the Common Fund strategic planning process.

Central Funding Opportunity Announcements are being released for these funds with IC- and Common Fund-specific topics described online. New funding announcements under the Recovery Act include:

NIH Challenge Grants in Health and Science Research (RC1) – support for novel research in areas that address specific knowledge gaps, scientific opportunities, new technologies, data generation, or research methods that would benefit from an influx of funds to quickly advance them in significant ways.
Recovery Act Limited Competition for NIH Grants: Research and Research Infrastructure “Grand Opportunities” (RC2) – support for high impact ideas that lend themselves to short-term funding and may lay the foundation for new fields of investigation.
Administrative Supplements Providing Summer Research Experiences – provides supplementary funds to investigators with active NIH-supported research projects to encourage students to seriously pursue research careers in the health related sciences, as well as provide elementary, middle school, and high school teachers, community college faculty, and faculty from non-research intensive institutions with short term research experiences in NIH-funded laboratories.
Recovery Act Limited Competition for Revision Applications – provides supplementary funds to investigators with active NIH-supported research projects for a significant expansion of a project’s scope or research protocol
Recovery Act Funds for Administrative Supplements – provides supplementary funds to investigators with active NIH-supported grants to accelerate the tempo of science research