SCIENTIFIC TOPIC AREAS FOR NEW SPECIALIZED CENTERS OF CLINICALLY ORIENTED RESEARCH (SCCOR) PROGRAMS IN PULMONARY MEDICINE RELEASE DATE: April 9, 2003 NOTICE: NOT-HL-03-010 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Response Due Date: June 23, 2003 PURPOSE The NHLBI is soliciting input and recommendations for scientific topic areas for new Specialized Centers of Clinically Oriented Research programs in pulmonary medicine. BACKGROUND The NHLBI has recently changed the Specialized Centers of Research (SCOR) program into a new program called the Specialized Centers of Clinically Oriented Research (SCCOR) program. This change was made based primarily on recommendations from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council. The original SCOR program required both basic and clinical research, but the preponderance of research supported was basic. The new SCCOR program still requires both basic and clinical scientists working together on a unified theme, but much more emphasis is placed on clinical research. The changes reflect the desire of the Institute to accelerate translating of basic research advances to clinical application. The guiding principle of the new SCCOR program is the central focus on clinically relevant research and the key change to achieve this goal is the new requirement that at least one-half of funded projects be clinical. The primary objective of the SCCOR program is to foster multidisciplinary research on clinically relevant questions enabling basic science findings to be more rapidly applied to clinical problems. It is expected that results from SCCOR grants will have a positive effect on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of pulmonary disease. Among the requirements of a SCCOR are: 1. The overall concept of a SCCOR program focuses on both clinical and basic scientific issues related to topics relevant to the mission of the NHLBI. It requires that at least 50 percent of the funded projects be clinical, with a minimum of three funded projects. All basic research projects must be related to the overall clinical focus of the SCCOR. 2. For a project to be considered clinical, the research must fit Parts 1 and 2 of the definition of clinical research in the PHS 398 application form. That is, the research must be either patient-oriented research, or an epidemiologic or a behavioral study. Patient oriented research is defined as Aresearch conducted with human subjects (or material) of human origin such as tissues, specimens and cognitive phenomena) for which an investigator (or colleague) directly interacts with human subjects. It is intended that the requirement for investigator interaction with the study participants will eliminate research involving archived tissue. 3. At least 50 percent of the projects and 50 percent of the cores must be located at the applicant institution and at least one of the clinical projects must be at the applicant institution. 4. SCCOR applicants are encouraged to establish links with existing resources including General Clinical Research Centers, the NHLBI Programs in Genomic Applications, and NHLBI clinical research networks, as appropriate. Each NHLBI SCOR/SCCOR program is limited to 10 years of funding. Under this policy a given SCOR grant is awarded for a 5-year period following an open competition. Only one 5-year competing renewal is permitted, for a total of 10 years of support. The Division of Lung Diseases (DLD), NHLBI, currently funds three SCOR programs that are in their second 5-year period of funding: Pathobiology of Fibrotic Lung Disease, Pathobiology of Lung Development, and Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Asthma. These three SCOR programs will sunset at the end of their 10-year cycle and be replaced with new SCCOR programs. There are currently 16 SCOR centers funded in these three programs at an approximate total cost of $27 million dollars/year. Because of the requirement for more clinical research, the direct cost cap on an individual SCCOR application has been increased to $2.5 million in the first year. Therefore, it is anticipated that fewer than 16 centers will be funded in the new competition. In addition, the DLD supports two SCOR programs in Neurobiology of Sleep and Sleep Apnea and Airway Biology and Pathogenesis of Cystic Fibrosis and a SCCOR program in Translational Research in Acute Lung Injury that have all recently undergone an open competition. INFORMATION REQUESTED The NHLBI seeks your help in identifying scientific topics for new SCCOR programs that will accelerate the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of pulmonary diseases. The topics can be disease- or syndrome-specific, approach-specific, e.g., regenerative medicine, or other clinically oriented topic areas that could be effectively addressed using the SCCOR mechanism. The topic must present opportunities for clinically oriented research that will benefit human pulmonary health and prevent or improve treatment of pulmonary disease. Disease areas that will not be considered for new SCCOR programs are sleep related disorders, cystic fibrosis, acute lung injury, and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Respondents are asked to address the following: Specific topics related to pulmonary medicine that present major opportunities for clinically oriented research with the potential to have a positive impact on pulmonary diseases. Within a topic area, list the scientific opportunities that you consider the most important and promising for a SCCOR program and why you think this area would benefit from the SCCOR mechanism. It is important that the topics suggested can focus both the basic and clinical research on important clinical questions. If you propose more than one topic for new SCCOR programs, list them in priority order. RESPONSE AND PROCESS All responses will be compiled and reviewed by an NHLBI convened advisory group composed of extramural scientists. Based on the recommendations of the advisory group and the recommendations of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council, the NHLBI plans to announce new SCCOR programs in fiscal year 2005 for anticipated funding in fiscal year 2007. To respond, please send an email, fax, or letter to the following address: Carol E. Vreim, Ph.D. Two Rockledge Centre 6701 Rockledge Drive Suite 10018, MSC 7952 Bethesda, MD 70892-7952 Tel: (301) 435-0233 Fax: (301) 480-3547 Email: vreimc@nih.gov
Return to NIH Guide Main Index
Office of Extramural Research (OER) |
National Institutes of Health (NIH) 9000 Rockville Pike Bethesda, Maryland 20892 |
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) |
||||||||
Note: For help accessing PDF, RTF, MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Audio or Video files, see Help Downloading Files. |