Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for NIMHD Transdisciplinary Collaborative Centers for Health Disparities Research Focused on Precision Medicine (U54)

Notice Number: NOT-MD-15-005

Key Dates
Release Date: April 8, 2015
Estimated Publication Date of Announcement: May 2015
First Estimated Application Due Date: September 2015
Earliest Estimated Award Date: April 2016
Earliest Estimated Start Date: April 2016

Related Announcements
None

Issued by
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)

Purpose

The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) intends to promote the first of several planned NIMHD Precision Medicine initiatives by publishing a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to solicit applications for new Transdisciplinary Collaborative Centers (TCCs) for health disparities research focused on examining the potential for integrative precision medicine approaches to help improve minority health and reduce or eliminate health disparities.

This Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations and responsive projects. This new TCC FOA is expected to be published in the spring of 2015 with an expected application due date in late summer 2015. The FOA will use the U54 cooperative agreement award activity code. Details of the planned FOA are provided below.

Research Initiative Details

This Notice encourages investigators with expertise and insights into the science of health disparities, particularly the complex interplay between biological, behavioral, social and environmental risk and protective factors experienced across the life course, to begin to consider applying for this new FOA. For the purposes of this FOA, biological predictors can include but are not limited to genomic, epigenetic, proteomic, metabolomic, and microbiomic variations.

The FOA will encourage collaborative investigations combining expertise in population science, the science of translation, implementation and dissemination, and precision medicine, an emerging approach for disease prevention, early detection and treatment that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle. Investigators in these areas should also consider applying.

TCCs established through this initiative will support research projects that use integrative approaches to examine interactions between various mechanisms and pathways that underlie health disparities, particularly interactions between physiological, behavioral, social and environmental predictors of disease vulnerability, resilience and response to therapies, all with a focus toward developing, implementing and/or disseminating effective preventive or therapeutic interventions.

Applicants will be expected to address ethical considerations in the development and analysis of precision medicine variables and measures, their potential application in clinical and public health practice, and communication of research findings to scientific and lay communities.

APPLICATIONS ARE NOT BEING SOLICITED AT THIS TIME.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Nishadi Rajapakse, PhD, MHS
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
Telephone: 301-496-4338
Email: chandima.rajapakse@nih.gov