The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention hereby notify Program Director(s)/Principal Investigator(s) (PD(s)/PI(s)) holding specific types of research grants (activity codes listed above) that funds are available for administrative supplements to enhance the diversity of the research workforce by recruiting and supporting students, postdoctorates, and eligible investigators from underrepresented backgrounds, including those from groups that have been shown to be nationally underrepresented in health-related research. This supplement opportunity is also available to PD(s)/PI(s) of research grants who are or become disabled and need additional support to accommodate their disability in order to continue to work on the research project. Administrative supplements must support work within the scope of the original project.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is designed specifically for applicants proposing research that does not involve leading an independent clinical trial, a clinical trial feasibility study, or an ancillary clinical trial. Applicants to this FOA are permitted to propose research experience in a clinical trial led by a mentor or co-mentor.

Fostering diversity in the scientific research workforce is a key component of the NIH strategy to identify, develop, support and maintain the quality of our scientific human capital NOT-OD-20-031. Every facet of the United States scientific research enterprise—from basic laboratory research to clinical and translational research to policy formation–requires superior intellect, creativity and a wide range of skill sets and viewpoints. NIH’s ability to help ensure that the nation remains a global leader in scientific discovery and innovation is dependent upon a pool of highly talented scientists including those from underrepresented groups and others who will help to diversify the workforce to help further NIH’s mission.

Research shows that diverse teams working together and capitalizing on innovative ideas and distinct perspectives outperform homogenous teams. Scientists and trainees from diverse backgrounds and life experiences bring different perspectives, creativity, and individual enterprise to address complex scientific problems. There are many benefits that flow from a diverse NIH-supported scientific workforce, including: fostering scientific innovation, enhancing global competitiveness, contributing to robust learning environments, improving the quality of the research, advancing the likelihood that underserved or health disparity populations participate in, and benefit from health research, and enhancing public trust.

In spite of tremendous advancements in scientific research, information, educational and research opportunities are not equally available to all. NIH encourages institutions to diversify their student, postdoctorate and faculty populations to enhance the participation of individuals from groups that are underrepresented in the biomedical, clinical, behavioral and social sciences.

The mission of Biological Technologies Office (BTO) is to foster, demonstrate, and transition breakthrough research, discoveries, and applications that integrate biology, engineering, computer science, mathematics, and the physical sciences. BTO’s research investment portfolio includes combating pandemic disease, innovative physiological interventions, human performance and warfighter readiness, microbes as production platforms, and deep exploration of changing ecologies and environments on U.S. capabilities and resilience. BTO’s programs operate across a wide range of scales, from individual cells to the warfighter to global ecosystems. BTO responds to the urgent and longterm needs of the Department of Defense (DoD) and addresses national security priorities. BTO is interested in submissions related to the following areas:

• Discovering and leveraging novel findings from biotechnology, biochemistry, molecular biology, neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science, and relateddisciplines to advance treatment and resilience in neurological health, transformative neural processing, and optimize human performance.
• Understanding and improving interfaces between the biological and physical world to enable seamless hybrid systems and revolutionary new human-machine interfaces.
• Designing novel materials, sensors, or processes that mimic or are inspired by biological systems.
• Leveraging and translating a biological system’s underlying design rules, functional processes, and/or means of interactivity to provide insight into or control over complex biological systems from biofilms to organs.
• Developing new tools and capabilities for forward engineering of biological systems, such as cells, tissues, organs, organisms, and complex communities, to both develop new products and functional systems, as well as to gain new insights into underlying mechanisms.
• Developing new platform technologies that integrate, automate, and miniaturize the collection, processing, and analysis of biological and chemical samples.
• Developing technologies that leverage ecological diversity and/or help support human operations in extreme environments (ocean, desert, space, arctic, etc.).
• Developing and validating new theories and computational models that identify factors and principles underlying collective and interactive behaviors of biological organisms at all scales from individual cells to global ecosystems.
• Understanding the dynamics of population and ecosystem behavior to preserve equilibrium, provide strategic opportunity, or avoid catastrophe.
• Developing and leveraging new technologies that can be applied to agricultural ecosystems for production stabilization, by improving quality or reducing losses from pathogens or pests.
• Developing and leveraging new insights into non-human biology across and between populations of microbes, insects, plants, marine life, and other non-human biologic entities.
• Developing technologies to leverage biological systems and enhance the ability to acquire and maintain critical and strategic organic and inorganic materials.
• Developing new technologies and approaches that ensure biosafety, biosecurity, digital biosecurity of biological hardware, data and information, and protection of the bioeconomy.
• Understanding emerging threats to global food and water supplies and developing countermeasures that could be implemented on regional or global scales.
• Developing new technologies to treat, prevent, and predict the emergence and spread of infectious diseases that have the potential to cause significant health, economic, and social burden.
• Developing and leveraging technologies to advance continuous or near-continuous monitoring of an organism’s physiology to elucidate mechanisms of human resilience.
• Developing new technologies for the rapid manufacturing, delivery and distribution of large molecule drugs such as biologics.
• Leveraging biology to provide new tactical and strategic maritime operational advantages.
• Developing an understanding of mechanisms that organisms use to assess and interact with their environment.
• Developing new technologies for advanced eukaryotic cellular engineering to support next generation cellular therapeutic applications.
• Developing new platform technologies for targeted, effective, spatio-temporally controlled delivery of large and small molecules and biologics.
• Developing tools to understand the underlying rules defining biomolecular and biomaterial structure/function properties in order to predict desired outcomes for novel materials.
• Leveraging biological systems to produce solutions for antimicrobial resistance.
• Other biological technology topic areas that fit the national security scope of BTO’s mission.

In response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, ARPA-E has modified the SCALEUP FOA. The Preliminary Application submission phase has been reopened to allow all prospective Applicants the opportunity to apply. Preliminary Applications previously received may be revised under the modified SCALEUP requirements described herein.

Accordingly, ARPA-E has:

• Increased the Total Amount to be Awarded to approximately $60 million
• Revised the deadline for the submission of Preliminary Applications to May 7, 2020 at 9:30 am ET.
• Revised the deadlines for the submission of replies to Preliminary Application Reviewer comments, Semi-Finalist and Grant notifications, and submission of Full Applications and Full Application reviewer comments.
• Revised Section III.B.1-3 and Section VI.B.4 to amend Prime Recipient cost share amounts and payment requirements respectively.
• Revised Section IV.A.2 and Section VII.F.2, to address withdrawal and revision of Preliminary Applications and optional Small Business Grant Applications respectively, that were previously submitted to ARPA-E.
• Inserted Section IV.D to set forth formatting requirements for revised and resubmitted Preliminary Applications and Small Business Grant Applications.
• Revised Section V.A and Section VII.H, to address Merit Review of Preliminary Applications and optional Small Business Grant Applications respectively, that are amended solely to change the Prime Recipient cost shares amount or are unchanged from prior timely submissions.
• Revised Section V.C to revise the anticipated dates for award negotiation selections and award effective dates.
• Canceled the in-person SCALEUP Workshop.
• Provided information on participating in the Semi-Finalists Launch Pad website, the Semi-Finalist Bootcamp Webinar, and the SCALEUP virtual Workshop Series. See Cover Page and Section IV.A of the FOA.

To obtain a copy of the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) please go to the ARPA-E website at https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov. ARPA-E will not review or consider submissions submitted through means other than ARPA-E eXCHANGE. For detailed guidance on using ARPA-E eXCHANGE, please refer to the ARPA-E eXCHANGE User Guider at https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Manuals.aspx.

The Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential (SCALEUP) solicitation provides a vital mechanism for the support of innovative energy R&D that complements ARPA-E’s primary R&D focus on early-stage transformational energy technologies that still require proof-of-concept.

ARPA-E’s mission is to develop transformational energy technologies in support of U.S. national security and economic competitiveness. ARPA-E funds the R&D of technologies to build and maintain U.S. technological leadership in highly competitive global energy markets, thus supporting American jobs and economic growth. ARPA-E’s authorizing statute directs the Agency to develop linkages between its sponsored applied research and the marketplace.^[ These linkages are central to realizing the public’s return on technology investments.

An enduring challenge to ARPA-E’s mission is that even technologies that achieve substantial technical advancement under ARPA-E support are at risk of being stranded in their development path once ARPA-E funding ends (averaging $2.5M over three years). ARPA-E-funded technologies typically face significant remaining technical risks upon completion of an award’s funding period. Experience across ARPA-E’s diverse energy portfolios, and with a wide range of investors, indicates that pre-commercial “scaling” projects are critical to establishing that performance and cost parameters can be met in practice for these very early stage technologies. These pre-commercial scaling projects aim to translate the performance achieved at bench scale to commercially scalable versions of the technology, integrate the technology with broader systems, provide extended performance data, and validate the manufacturability and reliability of new energy technologies. (These projects are often termed “pre-pilot” development in different industries) Success in these scaling projects would enable industry, investors, and partners to justify substantial commitments of financial resources, personnel, production facilities, and materials to develop promising ARPA-E technologies into early commercial products.

The SCALEUP FOA builds upon ARPA-E-funded technologies by scaling the most promising. Stranding promising ARPA-E-funded technologies in their development pathways leaves substantial intellectual property developed with American taxpayer dollars vulnerable to adoption by foreign competitors, who can and do capture it for continued development – and economic benefit – overseas. This harms national competitiveness, as U.S. industries often lose the lead on the development, scaling, and manufacturing of technologies necessary to compete in rapidly evolving global energy markets. These scaling energy technology projects will meet ARPA-E’s statutory direction to achieve the above goals by “accelerating transformational technological advances in areas that industry by itself is not likely to undertake because of technical and financial uncertainty”.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced new grant guidelines designed to rapidly distribute Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding to cultural nonprofits affected by the coronavirus pandemic. This new funding opportunity, NEH CARES: Cultural Organizations, will provide grants of up to $300,000 to sustain humanities organizations and preserve jobs in the cultural sector.

“We know that, across the country, so many cultural organizations and the staff they employ are suffering severe hardship due to the pandemic,” said NEH Chairman Jon Parrish Peede. “NEH is working quickly to distribute emergency funds to strengthen the nation’s museums, archives, libraries, historic sites, universities, and other educational institutions, and to support the communities and economies that rely on them.”

Anchoring an $878 billion domestic creative economy, museums and historic sites are reporting losses of $1 billion a month as education programs, exhibitions, and other events have been canceled.

NEH CARES: Cultural Organizations emergency relief grants provide up to $300,000 to cultural nonprofits to support a range of humanities activities across the fields of education, preservation and access, public programming, digital humanities, and scholarly research through December 31, 2020. Funding may be used for short-term activities that emphasize retaining or hiring humanities staff at cultural organizations across the country to maintain or adapt critical programs during the pandemic. The deadline to apply is May 11, 2020.

NEH CARES: Cultural Organizations application guidelines are available on the NEH website. Applicants will be informed of funding decisions by June 2020.

NEH has already distributed nearly $30 million of CARES Act funding to 55 states and US territories through state and jurisdictional humanities councils to support local cultural groups and educational programming. The remaining $45 million of the NEH supplemental appropriation will be distributed in direct grants to cultural organizations and humanists to mitigate the financial impact of the pandemic.

New NIH Resource to Analyze COVID-19 Literature: The COVID-19 Portfolio Tool

In the past few months, the scientific community has ramped up research in response to the SARS‑CoV‑2 pandemic; dozens of peer-reviewed articles and preprints on this topic are being added to the literature every day (Figure 1). This rapidly expanding effort has created challenges for scientists and the medical community who need to analyze thousands of scholarly articles for insights on the virus. Continue reading →

Cyber Safety & COVID-19

The current outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has introduced new cybersecurity risks both at NIH and across the globe. As targeted phishing attacks prey on our desire to access trustworthy information and many of us make a shift toward remote work, we all need to be vigilant and take accountability for cyber safety. Here are some key tips to stay safe and avoid scams. Continue reading →

Security of Our Virtual Peer Review Meetings

CSR will conduct all summer peer review meetings using one of three platforms – 1) video; 2) telephone; 3) web-based discussion. A majority will take place using the Zoom video platform. We want to provide information about how we are maintaining the security and confidentiality of our review meetings. Continue reading →

Roundup of New COVID-19 Resources for NIH Applicants and Recipients: Part 2

We continue to add new resources to our COVID-19: Information for NIH Applicants and Recipients of NIH Funding webpage. We hope they are helpful in helping you navigate this unprecedented situation. Here is a summary of what’s new since the last Nexus. Continue reading →

Can recipients change the originally proposed format of a T35 program by devising an electronic curriculum rather than in-person experiences?

Yes, if the alternative methods would provide a meaningful experience related to the goals of the program. Continue reading →

What happens if an institution has already submitted an application, and due to effects of COVID-19, some of the information needs to be revised?

Institutions affected by COVID-19 will be allowed to submit post-submission grant application materials to revise information that was submitted in an application as long as the materials are received at least fourteen days before the start of the review meeting. The post-submission grant application materials policy remains in effect. Only the types of materials allowed under the policy can be accepted. A letter of explanation (one page max.) is required. Continue reading →

Calendar

• April 17-20 – eRA modules unavailable due to cloud migration  
• May 1 – Grant application deadline for due dates between 3/9/20 and 5/1/20, including continuous submission (NOT-OD-20-091)