NOT-MD-21-021: Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Administrative Supplements to Enhance Data Science Capacity at NIMHD-Funded Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI)

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Administrative Supplements to Enhance Data Science Capacity at NIMHD-Funded Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI)

Notice Number:

NOT-MD-21-021

Key Dates

Release Date:

May 11, 2021

First Available Due Date:

July 15, 2021

Expiration Date:

July 16, 2021

Related Announcements

PA-20-272 - Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional)

Issued by

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)

Office of The Director, National Institutes of Health (OD)

All applications to this funding opportunity announcement should fall within the mission of the Institutes/Centers. The following NIH Offices may co-fund applications assigned to those Institutes/Centers.

Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH)

Purpose

This Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) invites applications for administrative supplements to eligible NIMHD Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) U54 and U24 awards to enhance data science capacity at recipient institutions and foster collaborations between RCMI-funded researchers and data scientists.

RFA-MD-20-006, or RFA-MD-20-007.

Background

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 from diverse backgrounds who will help to further NIH's mission (see Notice of NIH's Interest in Diversity, NOT-OD-20-031).

Data science skills, ranging from basic best practices in data collection, labeling and analysis to complex computational techniques like machine learning, are critical for advancing the science of minority health and health disparities. NIMHD's Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) program supports specialized research centers in institutions that offer doctoral degrees in the health professions or health-related sciences and have an historical and current commitment to educating underrepresented students. Given their long-standing commitments to enhancing research capacity at minority-serving institutions, RCMI award recipients are well positioned to contribute to NIH-wide efforts to strengthen and enhance the diversity of the NIH-funded data science workforce.

Efforts to enhance the data science skills of investigators at RCMI centers align with four primary programmatic goals: (1) enhance institutional research capacity within the areas of basic biomedical, behavioral, and/or clinical research; (2) enable all levels of investigators to become more successful in obtaining competitive extramural support, especially from NIH, particularly on diseases that disproportionately impact minority and other health disparity populations; (3) foster environments conducive to career enhancement with a special emphasis on development of new and early career investigators; and (4) enhance the quality of all scientific inquiry and promote research on minority health and health disparities.

Through the STRIDES Initiative (https://datascience.nih.gov/strides), the NIH Office of Data Science Strategy (ODSS) provides opportunities for NIH-funded institutions and investigators to create a robust, interconnected ecosystem that breaks down silos related to generating, analyzing, and sharing research data. Researchers with an active NIH award may take advantage of the STRIDES Initiative for their NIH-funded research projects. The STRIDES Initiative supports partnerships with industry-leading commercial providers who offer favorable pricing on advanced cloud-based technology, training, and professional services. NIMHD awardees are encouraged to leverage the data science resources available through STRIDES and the NIH ODSS, including access to computational resources such as Jupyter Hub; access to Coursera, Data Camp, or NVIDIA licenses to offer training courses; and provisioning of accounts for investigators to start working in the cloud.

Programmatic Objectives

For the purposes of this NOSI, data science skill-building activities of interest include the collaborative development of new data science training modules focused on data analysis with health disparities datasets, integration of datasets representing multiple levels and domains of influence in the NIMHD Research Framework, and codeathons using existing health disparities datasets and/or population health outcomes datasets. Such activities may include but are not limited to:

Train-the-trainer bootcamps for staff in bioinformatics/computer science departments, including sessions on how to apply cutting-edge data science techniques to different data types, how to use Galaxy and computational resources like Jupyter Hub, and coding with R and Python
Targeted trainings in partnership with RStudio, Galaxy, or Carpentries
Codeathons focused on specific themes or topics using various types of datasets

Administrative supplements proposed through PA-20-272 must be within the scope of the peer reviewed and approved parent RCMI award, including competitive revisions. For the purposes of this NOSI, proposed activities should complement ongoing activities within RCMI U54 Research Infrastructure Cores, which provide expertise and resources for research methodology, specialized laboratory techniques, statistics, bioinformatics and/or health informatics, computational approaches, and other research resources.

Applications not responsive to this NOSI:

Projects supplementing awards that are not eligible under this NOSI.
Projects not enhancing data science capacity at recipient institutions and fostering collaborations between RCMI-funded researchers and data scientists.
Projects conducting activities outside of the U.S. or its territories and possessions, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, or requesting foreign components.
Applications that propose new research projects involving primary data collection.

Applications nonresponsive to these terms will be withdrawn for this NOSI initiative.

Application and Submission Information

Applications for this initiative must be submitted using the following opportunity or its subsequent reissued equivalent.

PA-20-272 - Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional)

To be eligible for an Administrative Supplement under this NOSI, the parent RCMI award must:

be awarded under either RFA-MD-17-003, RFA-MD-17-006, RFA-MD-18-012, RFA-MD-20-006, or RFA-MD-20-007.
be an active NIH award at the time of application (i.e., within five years of the start date of the originally reviewed and approved project period of the existing parent award’s competitive segment; or if applicable, within the originally reviewed and approved project period of a competitive revision), and
have sufficient time left to complete the studies proposed within theparent award's currentproject period.

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and PA-20-272 must be followed, with the following additions:

Budget: Supplement requests cannot exceed $250,000 in direct costs.
Project Period: The proposed supplement project period must be within the currently approved project period for the parent U54 or U24 award.
Application Due Date: July 15, 2021, by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization.
All applications to PA-20-272 must be submitted electronically using a single-project application form packagewith the Competition ID of “FORMS-F-ADMINSUPP-RESEARCH". The process for Streamlined Submissions using the eRA Commons cannot be used for PA-20-272.
For funding consideration, applicants must include “NOT-MD-21-021” (without quotation marks) in the Agency Routing Identifier field (box 4B) of the SF424 R&R form. Applications without this information in box 4B will not be considered for this initiative.
The Research Strategy section of the application is limited to 6 pages.
Only eligible active awardees of RCMI U54 and U24 programs may apply.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to notify the program contact at the Institute supporting the parent award under which a request has been submitted in response to this NOSI in order to facilitate efficient processing of the request.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Scientific/Research Contact

Michael Sayre, PhD
National Institute on Minority Health and Health and Health Disparities
Telephone: 301-435-0962
Email: sayrem@mail.nih.gov

Financial/Grants Management Contact

Priscilla Grant, JD
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
Email: pg38h@nih.gov