Full Text PAR-96-012
 
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT AWARD
 
NIH GUIDE, Volume 24, Number 42, December 8, 1995
 
PA NUMBER:  PAR-96-012
 
P.T. 14

Keywords: 
  Biomedical Research, Multidiscipl 
  Behavioral/Social Studies/Service 

 
National Center for Research Resources
 
Application Receipt Date:  February 1, 1996
 
PURPOSE
 
The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) encourages the
submission of research grant applications for the Institutional
Development Award (IDeA) program.  The NIH IDeA is a merit-based,
peer reviewed program authorized by section 402(g) of the Public
Health Service Act.  The purpose of the program is to broaden the
geographic distribution of NIH funding for biomedical and behavioral
research by enhancing the competitiveness for research funding of
institutions located in states in which the aggregate success rate
for applications to the NIH has historically been low.  Primary goals
of the IDeA program are to (1) enhance the competitiveness of
research institutions in the IDeA eligible states (see below) for
NIH-funded grants and (2) increase the probability of long-term
growth of NIH-competitive funding to investigators at institutions
from these eligible states.  This Program Announcement (PA) describes
a three-year development program to increase, strengthen, and sustain
the biomedical/behavioral research competitiveness of institutions
within selected states.  It is expected that institutional
development goals will be proposed beyond that period.  The program
will be similar in some aspects to the Experimental Program to
Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) initiated by the National
Science Foundation (NSF).  For example, EPSCoR-like committees are
responsible for selecting the one application that will be submitted
by an institution on behalf of that state.
 
HEALTHY PEOPLE 2000
 
The Public Health Service (PHS) is committed to achieving the health
promotion and disease prevention objectives of "Healthy People 2000,"
a PHS-led national activity for setting priority areas.  This PA,
IDeA, is related to all priority areas.  Potential applicants may
obtain a copy of "Healthy People 2000" (Full Report:  Stock No.
017-001-00474-0 or Summary Report:  Stock No., 017-001-00473-1)
through the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office,
Washington, DC 20402-9325 (telephone 202-512-1800).
 
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
 
Eligibility is limited to institutions in IDeA eligible states.
Eligible institutions in those states include domestic for-profit and
non-profit organizations both public and private, such as
universities, colleges, hospitals, research foundations, and
laboratories.  It is the responsibility of the State-EPSCoR
committees or comparable committees to select institutions in their
states that have limited NIH funding but for which both the states
and the institutions have a mutual agreement and commitment to the
development of the biomedical/behavioral research infrastructure.
Collaborative and cooperative programs between or among institutions
are allowable.  The applicant institution must perform a substantive
role in the conduct of the planned research project activities and
may not serve primarily as a conduit for the transmission of funds to
another party or multiple parties.  Eligible states that were awarded
grants previously may submit new applications from the same or a
different institution under this PA provided the focus and research
goals differ from those of currently active awards.  Only one
application can be submitted per state.  IDeA eligible states are
those with success rates for obtaining NIH funds (funds awarded vs.
funds requested) of less than 20 percent for the period of 1982-1994.
IDeA eligible states under these criteria are:
 
Alaska               Kentucky              North Dakota
Arkansas             Mississippi           Oklahoma
Delaware             Montana               South Dakota
Idaho                Nebraska              West Virginia
Kansas               New Mexico            Wyoming
 
Applications from institutions with significant minority enrollments
are especially encouraged.
 
MECHANISM OF SUPPORT
 
This PA will use the exploratory grants (P20) mechanism.  Applicants
will be responsible for the planning, direction, and content of the
proposed programs.  Except as otherwise stated, awards will be
administered under PHS grants policy as stated in the Public Health
Service Grants Policy Statement.
 
The total project period may not exceed three years; renewal
applications will not be accepted.
 
FUNDS AVAILABLE
 
Approximately $2,000,000 is expected to be available from NCRR in FY
1996 to support this initiative.  Subject to the receipt of a
sufficient number of meritorious applications and appropriated funds,
it is anticipated that approximately ten awards will be made.
 
Total direct costs requested by the applicant institution, including
the direct and indirect costs required for the third party
participants, may not exceed $200,000 for each year.  Indirect costs
will be provided.
 
The anticipated award date is September 30, 1996.
 
Matching Requirement
 
To ensure that adequate resources are available, the IDeA program
requires a minimum of a one-to-one non-Federal match of funds from
awardees.  Each dollar of NIH support requested including both direct
and indirect costs, must be matched by at least one dollar from
state, institutional, or private sector sources.  In-kind
contributions of faculty or technical support salaries, facilities
and equipment supporting existing biomedical/behavioral activities
may not be used to satisfy the one-to-one matching funds requirement.
 
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
 
Background
 
The mission of the NIH is to expand fundamental knowledge about the
nature and behavior of living systems, to apply that knowledge to
extend the health of human lives, and to reduce the burdens resulting
from disease and disability.  Through its institutes and centers,
each with its own research mission, the NIH provides funds for
research and research training activities to institutions.  Each
funding unit makes awards on a competitive basis after applications
are assessed for technical and scientific merit and program relevance
through a two-stage process of peer-review.
 
For many years, the NIH has made a special effort to stimulate
research in educational institutions that traditionally have not
received significant levels of funding through the NIH.  For example,
the purpose of the Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA)
program, initiated in 1985, is to enhance the research environment at
such institutions by providing support to individual faculty at
domestic institutions offering baccalaureate or advanced degrees in
the health-related sciences.
 
Research Goals
 
The IDeA program will address objectives similar to those of the AREA
program, but on institutional and state-wide levels.  NCRR
acknowledges that, due to variability among potential applications,
the size and scope of the IDeA program will depend in large part upon
the current size and extent of the biomedical/behavioral research
environment of the applicant institutions.  It is recommended that,
in order to achieve maximum impact of the available funds,
institutions propose innovative research activities that will
stimulate sustainable improvements in the capacities of institutions
in eligible states to compete successfully for NIH funds and to
enhance the research competitiveness of the institutions in future
years.
 
Examples of activities include:
 
o  development of infrastructure necessary for  multidisciplinary
approaches for conducting broad-based research;
 
o  faculty development;
 
o  mentoring of junior faculty as they participate in research
projects.
 
In general, the applicant institution should provide evidence that an
IDeA award is necessary to enhance its capability for health-related
research and that there are state/institutional or other private
resources committed to improve and sustain their programs.
 
The research plan should provide sufficient information to allow the
reviewers to assess the program in terms of the stated Review
Criteria.
 
The narrative portion should provide:
 
(a)  comprehensive information about the institution's current
involvement in biomedical and health-related behavioral research;
 
(b)  a description of the long-range institutional research
development goals to be achieved;
 
(c)  a complete description of the specific activities to achieve the
goals of the program, including an evaluation plan to measure the
progress of the program and the procedures to sustain the
achievements obtained with IDeA funds following the grant award
period;
 
(d) a description of the administrative mechanisms to organize and
oversee implementation of the plan;
 
(e) evidence of the institution's commitment to achievement of the
program goals; and
 
(f)  letters of commitment from those persons whose cooperation is
critical to the success of the program including a statement from the
institution's highest ranking administrative authority explaining how
the IDeA application is consistent with the institution's (and/or the
state's) long-range objectives to enhance the biomedical/behavioral
research infrastructure and to achieve research competitiveness at
the national level.
 
Biographical data for participating scientists and chief
administrative personnel and a detailed budget explaining and
justifying the support requested should be prepared according to the
form PHS 398 (rev. 5/95) format.
 
Requests to develop institutional research infrastructure should be
made in sufficient detail to assess the potential impact on
investigators and/or departments.
 
If support for research projects is requested, up to a maximum of
four research projects may be included and must be described in
sufficient detail to permit evaluation of the scientific merit of
each project.
 
This information is necessary to justify an IDeA award and to provide
evidence that the research that will result from the award will be of
high quality and be likely to compete successfully for future Federal
funding.  A separate detailed budget must be provided for each of
these activities.
 
Budget Considerations
 
Allowable Costs
 
In general, the direct costs listed in the PHS Grants Policy
Statement as allowable for research grants are also allowable for the
IDeA.  Funds requested for the IDeA program may be used to support
the following:
 
o  central shared equipment and other research resources
 
o  recruitment of faculty and other research personnel
 
o  development of research data to be included in research grant
applications submitted to NIH for support through established support
mechanisms
 
o  development of research skills by investigators
 
o  research salary support of key investigators
 
o  consultants
o  establishment of research laboratories
 
o  grant related support personnel
 
o  other direct costs of development of institutional research
capability
 
Direct Costs Not Allowable
 
o  training
o  construction
o  salary for teaching and other non-research activities
o  institutional grants and contract office, central accounting, and
similar activities
o  research project support for funded investigators unless necessary
for temporary start-up costs as in recruitment, or relocation or
initiation of new research directions.
 
Support provided through the IDeA program may not replace existing
state, institutional or Federal research support.  IDeA support may
not be used to maintain current biomedical/behavioral activities, but
must be used to develop innovative ways to enhance the quality and
competitiveness of the state institutional biomedical/behavioral
research base.
 
INCLUSION OF WOMEN AND MINORITIES IN RESEARCH INVOLVING HUMAN
SUBJECTS
 
It is the policy of the NIH that women and members of minority groups
and their subpopulations must be included in all NIH supported
biomedical and behavioral research projects involving human subjects,
unless a clear and compelling rationale and justification is provided
that inclusion is inappropriate with respect to the health of the
subjects or the purpose of the research.  This new policy results
from the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 (Section 492B of Public Law
103-43) and supersedes and strengthens the previous policies
(Concerning the Inclusion of Women in Study Populations, and
Concerning the Inclusion of Minorities in Study Populations), which
have been in effect since 1990. The new policy contains some
provisions that are substantially different from the 1990 policies.
 
All investigators proposing research involving human subjects should
read the "NIH Guidelines For Inclusion of Women and Minorities as
Subjects in Clinical Research," which have been published in the
Federal Register of March 28, 1994 (FR 59 14508-14513) and reprinted
in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts, Volume 23, Number 11,
March 18, 1994.
 
Investigators also may obtain copies of the policy from the program
staff listed under INQUIRIES.  Program staff may also provide
additional relevant information concerning the policy.
 
APPLICATION PROCEDURES
 
The research grant application form PHS 398 (rev. 5/95) is to be used
in applying for these grants.  These forms are available at most
institutional offices of sponsored research and may be obtained from
the Office of Grants Information, Division of Research Grants,
National Institutes of Health, 6701 Rockledge Drive, Room 3032, MSC
7762, Bethesda, MD 20892-7762, telephone 301/710-0267, email
girg@drgpo.drg.nih.gov.
 
Applicants must follow the instructions provided in the PHS 398 and
clarifying instructions, below.  There is a 25-page limitation for
the "Research Plan".  Note that the appendix is not to be used to
circumvent the page limitations in the Research Plan (see page 19 of
form PHS 398 for specific instructions in using an appendix).
 
Applications that do not follow all of the instructions for the form
PHS 398 will be returned.
 
Additional instructions for application face page and budget:
 
The Program Announcement number and title must be typed on line 2 of
the face page form and the "YES" box must be checked.
 
Items 4 and 5 on the face page of the application must be completed.
Where appropriate, Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Institutional
Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) approval must be obtained for
each research project for which NIH support is requested.
 
Item 6 - Dates of Entire Proposed Project Period.  The total proposed
project period should begin on September 30, 1996, and may not exceed
three years in length.
 
Item 7 - Costs Requested for Initial Budget Period.  In 7a. enter the
Total Direct Costs for Initial Budget Period as requested from NIH
(Form Page 4).  In 7b. enter the Total Costs Requested for Initial
Budget Period.  This is the total of the direct costs from (Form Page
4) and the indirect costs for the initial budget period (3a) from the
Checklist.
 
Item 8 - Costs Requested from NIH for Entire Proposed Project Period.
In 8a. enter the Total Direct Costs for Entire Project Period as
requested on (Form Page 5).  In 8b. enter the Total Costs Requested
for Entire Proposed Project Period.  This is the sum of the total
direct costs from (Form Page 5) and the indirect costs for the entire
proposed project period (3b) from the Checklist. (Form Page 4) -
Detailed Budget for Initial Budget Period
 
This budget must detail only the funds being requested from NIH for
the first year.  Matching funds from the institution or third-parties
are to be described separately under budget justification (Form Page
5) or on a continuation page. A separate detailed budget page (Form
Page 4) must be submitted for each consortium institution.
 
If funds are being requested for more than one research project, then
a detailed budget for each project must be submitted.
 
(Form Page 5) - Budget for Entire Proposed Project Period.
 
This page must detail only the funds being requested from NIH for the
three-year project period.
 
The signed, typewritten original of the application, including the
Checklist, and three exact photocopies of the signed application must
be submitted to:
 
DIVISION OF RESEARCH GRANTS
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
6701 ROCKLEDGE DRIVE, ROOM 1040 - MSC 7710
BETHESDA, MD  20892-7710
BETHESDA, MD  20817 (for express/courier service)
 
At the time of submission, two additional copies of the application
must also be sent to:
 
Dr. Jill L. Carrington
Office of Review
National Center for Research Resources
One Rockledge Centre, Room 6018
6705 Rockledge Drive MSC 7965
Bethesda, MD  20892-7965
Email:  jillc@ep.ncrr.nih.gov
 
REVIEW CONSIDERATIONS
 
Upon receipt, applications will be reviewed by NIH staff for
completeness and responsiveness.  Applications that are incomplete or
nonresponsive to this PA will be returned to the applicant.
 
The review of complete and responsive IDeA applications for
scientific and technical merit will be performed by an ad hoc review
committee convened by the Office of Review, NCRR.  Applications will
undergo a second level of review by the National Advisory Research
Resources Council.
 
Criteria for review of the overall application include the following:
 
1.  Merit of the research development goals to be achieved by the
institution and described in sufficient detail within the IDeA
application;
 
2.  Merit of the plan proposed to achieve the research development
goals; and
 
3.  Quality of the research for which support is requested from NIH.
Criteria for review of infrastructure and research projects include:
 
o  Relevance of proposed project to institutional plan for expansion
of biomedical/behavioral research capacity;
 
o  Significance and relevance of the proposed research problem and
potential for publishable results and continued future funding;
 
o  The technical merit and appropriateness of the research plan,
including specific aims, experimental design, methodology,
consideration of alternatives, data analysis, scope and timetable;
 
o  Adequacy of resources, including background and training of the
principal investigator and other personnel and availability and
suitability of specialized facilities and equipment;
 
o  Appropriateness and adequacy of the institution's evaluation plan,
including availability of expertise and time and resource allocation.
 
4.  Research qualifications of existing and proposed personnel
related to the IDeA award;
 
5.  Overall administrative strengths of the program;
 
6.  Evidence of the commitment of the applicant institution and the
state to achieve the research development goals and to sustain those
achievements; and,
 
7.  Probability that the research development goals will be achieved
and sustained, and that high quality health research will result;
 
8.  Appropriateness of the requested budget for the project goals.
 
Special emphasis will be placed on the impact of the proposed program
on the institution(s) and the state and its potential to obtain
additional NIH research support to continue and expand its
activities.
 
AWARD CRITERIA
 
In making funding decisions, NCRR will give consideration to ensure
program balance among the various types of programs and/or geographic
distribution.  Consideration will also be given to focus on reaching
minority, rural, and other underserved and disadvantaged individuals.
 
INQUIRIES
 
Written and telephone inquiries concerning this activity are
encouraged. The opportunity to clarify any issues or questions from
potential applicants is welcome.
 
Direct inquiries regarding programmatic issues to:
 
Dr. Charles L. Coulter
Research Infrastructure Area
National Center for Research Resources
One Rockledge Centre, Room 6030
6705 Rockledge Drive MSC 7965
Bethesda, MD  20892-7965
Telephone:  (301) 435-0766
FAX:  (301) 480-3770
Email:  charlesc@ep.ncrr.nih.gov
 
Direct inquiries regarding fiscal matters to:
 
Ms. Judith D. Musgrave
Office of Grants and Contracts Management
National Center for Research Resources
One Rockledge Centre, Room 6086
6705 Rockledge Drive MSC 7965
Bethesda, MD  20892-7965
Telephone:  (301) 435-0844
Email: judithm@ep.ncrr.nih.gov
 
AUTHORITY AND REGULATIONS
 
This program is described in the Catalog of Federal Domestic
Assistance No. 93.337.  Awards will be made under authorization of
the Public Health Service Act, Titles III and IV (Public Law 78-410,
as amended, 42 USC 241) and administered under PHS grants policies
and Federal Regulations 42 CFR 52 and 45 CFR Part 74.  This program
is not subject to the intergovernmental review requirements of
Executive Order 12372 or Health Systems Agency review.
 
The PHS strongly encourages all grant and contract recipients to
provide a smoke-free workplace and promote the non-use of all tobacco
products. In addition, Public Law 103-227, the Pro-Children Act of
1994, prohibits smoking in certain facilities (or in some cases, any
portion of a facility) in which regular or routine education,
library, day care, health care or early childhood development
services are provided to children.  This is consistent with the PHS
mission to protect and advance the physical and mental health of the
American people.
 
.

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