Notice Number: NOT-AG-16-017
Key Dates
Release Date: February 25, 2016
Response Date: April 8, 2016
None
Issued by
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Purpose
This Notice is a time-sensitive Request for Information (RFI) inviting comments and suggestions to be considered during the development of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Alzheimer’s Disease Bypass Budget (ADBB). The NIA is using past research recommendations and milestones, as well as current input from NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICOs), to identify research priorities to be considered during the development of this budget. To help inform this process, the NIA seeks input from the public on the current state of the science, the highest priorities for future research, and potential conceptual or technical barriers to overcome.
Background
Section 230, Division G of the FY 2015 Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, mandates that the NIH submit an annual professional judgment budget for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias, through FY 2025. The exact language of SEC. 230 reads as follows:
“Hereafter, for each fiscal year through fiscal year 2025, the Director of the National Institutes of Health shall prepare and submit directly to the President for review and transmittal to Congress, after reasonable opportunity for comment, but without change, by the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care, and Services, an annual budget estimate (including an estimate of the number and type of personnel needs for the Institutes) for the initiatives of the National Institutes of Health pursuant to the National Alzheimer’s Plan, as required under section 2(d)(2) of Public Law 111 375.”
This request reflected the Nation’s determination to end the scourge of Alzheimer’s, and in response, NIH prepared its first professional judgment budget proposal for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias for FY 2017: https://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/bypass-budget-fy2017 (HTML version); https://www.nia.nih.gov/budget-files/Reaching-for-a-Cure-Alzheimers-Disease-and-Related-Dementias-Research-at-NIH.pdf (PDF).
For the development of the FY 2017 ADBB NIA consulted with the research, advocacy, and other public communities , using input including that gathered at the 2015 Alzheimer’s disease research summit to ensure the identification of relevant and pressing research needs, using this information in combination with the research milestones and priorities noted below, to estimate the additional research funding of Alzheimer’s and related dementias needed to reach the ultimate research goal of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease to effectively treat and prevent Alzheimer’s and related dementias by 2025. As requested by Congress, the ADBB will be updated annually. The FY 2017 budget proposal focused on funding needed for investigator-initiated research grants and NIH initiatives that would spur research beyond NIH’s base budget allocated in the previous year. It was built on a rigorous, extensive planning process that gauged progress in research, assessed emerging and new scientific opportunities to build on that progress, and calculated the additional funds necessary to capitalize on those opportunities and move more quickly in the most promising directions. The FY 2017 proposal also took into account the heavy and growing public health and financial burden of Alzheimer’s and related dementias on individuals, families, caregivers, services, and society.
As part of the FY 2017 Budget development process, the NIA assembled and budgeted for a set of FY 2017 milestones for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias: https://www.nia.nih.gov/budget-files/fy-2017-alzheimers-disease-bypass-budget-milestones.pdf. These milestones took into account high priority areas that were identified through the 2012 and 2015 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Summits (https://www.nia.nih.gov/budget-files/alzheimers-disease-research-implementation-milestones-2013-2025.pdf); the 2013 conference on Alzheimer's Disease-Related Dementias (http://www.ninds.nih.gov/funding/areas/neurodegeneration/workshops/adrd2013/ADRD_2013_Recommendations_NAPA_508comp.pdf), and the 2013 meeting on Advancing Treatment for Alzheimer Disease in Individuals with Down Syndrome (http://downsyndrome.nih.gov/meetings/Pages/DS_executivesummary_041713.aspx). The eight Common Alzheimer’s Disease Research Ontology (CADRO) categories provided the overarching framework for the FY 2017 Alzheimer’s Disease Bypass Budget and narrative: (https://www.nia.nih.gov/research/dn/common-alzheimers-disease-research-ontology-cadro). CADRO also provides the framework for IADRP (the International Alzheimer’s Disease Research Portfolio) and will allow tracking of implementation in the budget areas in future years: (http://iadrp.nia.nih.gov/).
Information Requested
This RFI seeks input from stakeholders throughout the scientific research community and the general public regarding issues to be considered in the development of the FY 2018 Bypass Budget, including the current state of the science, the highest research priorities moving forward, and potential conceptual or technical barriers to overcome.
The FY 2018 Bypass Budget will include Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias, as is consistent with the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease. It will also detail the budgeting for a wide range of critical research areas, including but not limited to basic/translational/clinical topics, as well as caregiver research, etc.
The NIA seeks comments on any or all of, but not limited to, the following topics:
- Suggestions for additional research areas of emphasis that have not been captured in the milestones; and
- Future opportunities or emerging research needs that should be included in the plan.
How to Submit a Response
All comments must be submitted electronically on the submission website.
Responses (no longer than 300 words in MS Word or PDF format) must be received by 11:59:59 pm (ET) on April 8, 2016.
Responses to this RFI are voluntary. Do not include any proprietary, classified, confidential, trade secret, or sensitive information in your response. The responses will be reviewed by NIH staff, and individual feedback will not be provided to any responder. The Government will use the information submitted in response to this RFI at its discretion. The Government reserves the right to use any submitted information on public NIH websites, in reports, in summaries of the state of the science, in any possible resultant solicitation(s), grant(s), or cooperative agreement(s), or in the development of future funding opportunity announcements.
This RFI is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation, grant, or cooperative agreement, or as an obligation on the part of the Federal Government, the NIH, or individual NIH Institutes and Centers to provide support for any ideas identified in response to it. The Government will not pay for the preparation of any information submitted or for the Government’s use of such information. No basis for claims against the U.S. Government shall arise as a result of a response to this request for information or from the Government’s use of such information.
We look forward to your input and hope that you will share this RFI document with your colleagues.
Inquiries
Please direct all inquiries to:
Samir Sauma, Ph.D., M.P.H.
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Telephone: 301-496-3121
Email: niaplanning@nia.nih.gov
and Human Services (HHS)
