Author Archives: emily

Diversity Program Consortium Dissemination and Translation Awards (DPC DaTA) (U01)

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The Diversity Program Consortium (DPC) Dissemination and Translation Awards (DaTA) initiative is designed to broaden the consortium’s national impact. The DPC DaTA initiative provides an opportunity for institutions not currently part of the DPC to apply for funding to take a rigorous scientific approach to understanding the effectiveness of a biomedical research training, mentoring, or research capacity building intervention by employing DPC experimental methods (see DPC data elements/survey instruments and hallmarks of success).

Funded programs must:

  • Conduct hypothesis-driven research;
  • use rigorous DPC methods for evaluation (e.g., the use of matched controls and/or comparison groups); and,
  • disseminate the results to inform the biomedical community on what factors enhance diversity in the biomedical research workforce and why those factors have an influence.

Research results are expected to move beyond participation satisfaction, self-reporting of perceived skills gained, or self-reporting of effectiveness. Accordingly, the interventions are to be centered not only on psychosocial factors but also on outcomes.

The interventions should:

  • Inform the field about the effectiveness of the duration, frequency, and intensity of the intervention and whether those effects can be enhanced by reinforcement sessions;
  • provide the scientific community with sound evidence of short-, medium-, and long-term effects of the efficacy of the interventions; and,
  • be cost-effective, practical, realistic, scalable, and sustainable at a broad range of institutions.

NIH intends to fund primarily undergraduate institutions with a commitment to providing educational opportunities to research-oriented students from diverse backgrounds (see NIH’s Interest in Diversity). Eligible institutions are expected to be:

  • Domestic associate’s degree-granting and/or baccalaureate degree-granting colleges/universities that received an average of NIH research project grant funding of less than $7.5 million total costs per year over the past 3 fiscal years; and,
  • have at least 25 percent of undergraduate students supported by Pell grants.

These awards will be cooperative agreements, which means that there will be substantial federal scientific or programmatic involvement. NIH scientific and/or program staff will assist, guide, coordinate, or participate in the project activities.

The scope of the proposed project should determine the project period. The maximum project period is 3 years. The DPC DaTA program is not intended for professional schools or Phase I awardees of the DPC. Application budgets are limited to $250K with no funds allowable for alterations and renovations, large equipment, and student financial support.

For more information about the DPC DaTA program, see the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts, RFA-RM-19-003, or contact Dr. Anissa J. Brown at anissa.brown@nih.gov.

Additional information can be found in the RFA available at RFA-RM-19-003.

On July 17, NIGMS staff will offer a webinar to provide an overview of the program and explain application expectations and requirements for the upcoming Oct. 8, 2019 receipt date.

Defense Health Program Department of Defense Chronic Pain Management Research Program Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19)

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The FY19 Defense Appropriation provides $10 million (M) to the Department of Defense Chronic Pain Management Research Program (CPMRP) to support research of exceptional scientific merit with the potential to make a significant impact on improving the health and quality of life of Service members, Veterans, and all Americans living with chronic pain. As directed by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, the Defense Health Agency J9, Research and Development Directorate manages the Defense Health Program (DHP) Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) appropriation. The managing agent for the anticipated Program Announcements/Funding Opportunities is the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC).The CPMRP is providing the information in this pre-announcement to allow investigators time to plan and develop applications. FY19 CPMRP Program Announcements and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanisms are anticipated to be posted on the Grants.gov website in July 2019. Pre-application and application deadlines will be available when the Program Announcements are released. This pre-announcement should not be construed as an obligation by the government.

Per the FY19 CPMRP Congressional appropriation, chronic pain is defined as a pain that occurs on at least half the days for six months or more, and which can be caused by issues including, but not limited to: combat- and training-related physical or mental stress and trauma, migraines and chronic headaches, traumatic brain injury, arthritis, muscular-skeletal conditions, neurological disease, tick and vector-borne disease, other insect-transmitted or tropical disease, and cancer. The CPMRP seeks to support and promote innovative, high-impact research to prevent the development and improve the management of chronic pain, with specific emphasis on the utilization and implementation of non-opioid therapies or non-addictive complementary methods. Applications from investigators within the military Services and applications involving multidisciplinary collaborations among academia, industry, the military Services, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and other Federal Government agencies are highly encouraged.

For FY19, the CPMRP Focus Areas will be required. Each award mechanism (listed below) will require at least one of the FY19 CPMRP Focus Areas as indicated below:

  • Investigator-Initiated Research Award – FY19 Focus Area: “Chronification” of Pain (i.e., the acute-to-chronic pain transitition)
  • Translational Research Award – FY19 Focus Area: Comparative Effectiveness
  • Translational Research Award – FY19 Focus Area: Implementation Science (Evidence-based, efficacious interventions to manage chronic pain)
https://cdmrp.army.mil/pubs/press/2019/19cpmrppreann

Investigator-Initiated Research Award – Investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent)

  • Emphasis on innovative and impactful research
  • Applications must include preliminary and/or published data or clinical observations that originated from the research team that support the rationale for the proposed study.
  • Applications must include preliminary and/or published data or clinical observations that originated from the research team that support the rationale for the proposed study.
  • Should be relevant to active duty Service members, Veterans, military beneficiaries, and/or the American public.
  • Multidisciplinary collaborations are encouraged.
  • Clinical Trials Not Allowed
  • Maximum funding of $900,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 4 years

Translational Research Award – Investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent)

  • Supports acceleration of evidence-based ideas and research into clinical applications (e.g., healthcare products, technologies, practice guidelines).
  • Applications must include preliminary and/or published data collected by the research team that support the rationale for the proposed study.
  • Effectiveness-implementation hybrid type 2 and type 3 studies are encouraged.
  • Projects may include studies using prospective human subject enrollment or retrospective data analysis; limited clinical studies are allowed. • Animal studies are not allowed.
  • Maximum funding of $1,400,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
  • Maximum period of performance is 4 years

A pre-application is required and must be submitted through the electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal (eBRAP) at https://eBRAP.org prior to the pre-application deadline. All applications must conform to the final Program Announcements and General Application Instructions that will be available for electronic downloading from the Grants.gov website. The application package containing the required forms for each award mechanism will also be found on Grants.gov. A listing of all CDMRP and other USAMRDC extramural funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using CFDA Number 12.420.

Submission deadlines are not available until the Program Announcements are released. For email notification when Program Announcements are released, subscribe to program-specific news and updates under “Email Subscriptions” on the eBRAP homepage at https://eBRAP.org. For more information about the CPMRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (https://cdmrp.army.mil).

Additional information can be found at: https://cdmrp.army.mil/pubs/press/2019/19cpmrppreann

NSF Research.gov Support for Collaborative Proposals with Subawards

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NSF is pleased to announce that as of June 24, 2019, the research community can prepare and submit full, research collaborative proposals with subawards in Research.gov. This is in addition to the existing capability (since April 2018) to prepare and submit full, research non-collaborative proposals in Research.gov. Since that initial release just over a year ago, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has implemented several enhancements to the site, including additional flexibilities for PDF uploads, support for PDFs generated from LaTeX source documents, and compliance checks for fonts and font sizes. Future enhancements to the Research.gov proposal system will allow the preparation and submission of separately submitted collaborative proposals from multiple organizations.

Compared to FastLane, our grants management system launched in 1994, the Research.gov proposal system is much easier to use and provides proposers with faster document uploads and the ability to quickly create and update documents. We encourage you to try the new system, and we are confident that you will agree that this next generation grants management system is more efficient and less burdensome than FastLane.

Also, as of June 24, 2019, a new email notification functionality was implemented to generate Sponsored Project Office (SPO)/Authorized Organizational Representative (AOR) email notifications when Principal Investigators (PIs) enable proposal access to SPOs/AORs. A similar email notification is available in FastLane, and we are excited to add the capability in Research.gov.

Modernizing Proposal Preparation and Submission

NSF’s modernization of its FastLane system continues with the goal of improving the user experience to prepare and submit NSF proposals, while also reducing administrative burden for both proposers and NSF staff. As capabilities are migrated from FastLane to Research.gov, the system features will expand until it eventually replaces FastLane for proposal preparation and submission.

While proposers can still prepare and submit collaborative proposals with subawards as well as full, research non-collaborative proposals in FastLane, NSF encourages the research community to use the new Research.gov proposal system because as NSF continues to enhance the new system incrementally, your vital feedback is being incorporated during the development process.

Preparing and Submitting Proposals in Research.gov

Here’s some of the current Research.gov features that proposers are enjoying:

  • Integrated compliance checks for fonts, margins, and line spacing;
  • Real-time compliance feedback and alerts, so proposers know a proposal section is compliant before moving on to another section;
  • Specific checks on the budget screens and for Collaborators and Other Affiliations (COA) uploads;
  • A few seconds to upload documents versus 30-90 seconds for each document upload in FastLane; and
  • Embedded relevant sections of the Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) and video job aids, so proposers don’t have to go to multiple sites to access guidance and tools.

Initiating a Proposal in Research.gov

By answering a few questions in the five-step proposal wizard, Research.gov customizes the set-up process and compliance rules for the proposal being created. In addition, the proposal wizard dynamically drives the proposal sections that are required on subsequent screens.

If you have not done so already, we invite you to initiate a proposal in Research.gov by following the steps outlined below:

  • Open Research.gov and click “Sign In” located at the top right of the screen;
  • Enter your NSF ID and password and click “Sign In;”
  • From the Research.gov “My Desktop” page, click “New! Prepare Proposals (Limited proposal types)” in the “Prepare & Submit Proposals tile” or go to this option from the top navigation bar by selecting the “Prepare & Submit Proposals” tab and clicking on “New! Prepare Proposals (Limited proposal types);”
  • Select the “Prepare Proposal” option in the “Prepare New Proposal” tile on the left side of the Proposal Preparation page; and
  • Follow the five-step proposal wizard to set up the proposal.

After completing the initiation steps, you are ready to complete all required and optional sections of your proposal and then submit it to NSF.

Submitting Feedback

NSF wants to hear from you! To submit feedback about the new Research.gov Proposal Preparation and Submission Site:

  • Go to the Research.gov Feedback page;
  • Choose “Other” under the Site Area dropdown menu;
  • Include your feedback in the Comments or Suggestions field; and
  • Click Submit when you are ready to send your feedback to NSF.

Training Resources and Additional Information

We encourage you to share this information with your colleagues. If you have IT system-related questions, please contact the NSF Help Desk at 1-800-381-1532 or rgov@nsf.gov. Policy-related questions should be directed to policy@nsf.gov.

Limited Submission Opportunity: National Endowment for the Arts, ART WORKS grant program

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NEA Art Works

Internal Limited Submission Deadline to the Office of Research Administration: Friday, June 21, 2019 at 5pm.

NEA Deadline: July 11, 2019

Synopsis of the Program:

Art Works is the National Endowment for the Arts’ principal grants program. Through project-based funding, we support public engagement with, and access to, various forms of excellent art across the nation, the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, learning in the arts at all stages of life, and the integration of the arts into the fabric of community life. Projects may be large or small, existing or new, and may take place in any part of the nation’s 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.

We encourage applications for artistically excellent projects that address any of the following activities below:

  • Honor the 2020 centennial of women’s voting rights in the United States (aka the Women’s Suffrage Centennial).
  • Engage with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); Hispanic or Latino organizations; or the Native American, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian arts.
  • Celebrate America’s creativity and cultural heritage.
  • Invite a dialogue that fosters a mutual respect for the diverse beliefs and values of all persons and groups.
  • Enrich our humanity by broadening our understanding of ourselves as individuals and as a society.

Matching grants generally will range from $10,000 to $100,000. No grants will be made below $10,000. Grants of $100,000 or more will be made only in rare instances, and only for projects that we determine demonstrate exceptional national or regional significance and impact. In the past few years, well over half of the agency’s grants have been for amounts less than $25,000.

Limit on Number of Proposals per Organization: Institutions are restricted to submitting only one proposal for this solicitation.

For full program details visit NEA’s ART WORKS webpage.

For details regarding The University of Akron’s limited submission process, visit the ORA Limited Submission webpage.

NSF-Approved Biographical Sketch Format

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Please be advised that the National Science Foundation (NSF) has designated the National Institutes of Health’s SciENcv (Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae) as an NSF-approved format for submission of biographical sketch(es) and is encouraging its use to prepare a biographical sketch for inclusion in proposals to NSF.

In accordance with the current Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 19-1), a biographical sketch (limited to two pages) is required for each individual identified as senior personnel on a proposal, and a separate biographical sketch PDF file, or other NSF-approved format, must be uploaded in FastLane for each designated individual (see PAPPG Chapter II.C.2.f.). The biographical sketch and file format requirements also apply to NSF proposals submitted through Research.gov and Grants.gov.

Use of an NSF-approved format aims to reduce administrative burden and improve efficiencies by providing proposers with a compliant and reusable way to maintain this information for subsequent proposal submissions to NSF, while also ensuring that the information is submitted in a searchable composition.

Beginning with the next iteration of the PAPPG (anticipated effective date, January 2020), NSF will only accept PDFs for biographical sketches that are generated through use of an NSF-approved format. A description of NSF-approved format(s) will be posted on the NSF website when the PAPPG is issued. A draft version of the PAPPG was published in the Federal Register for public comment. The deadline for submission of comments is COB July 29, 2019.

Multiple training resources are available on the SciENcv website. The following website resources may be of assistance to proposers preparing a biographical sketch using the SciENcv format:

We encourage you to share this information with your colleagues. If you have IT system-related questions, please contact the NSF Help Desk at 1-800-381-1532 or rgov@nsf.gov. Policy-related questions should be directed to policy@nsf.gov.