Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity for a National Training Program for Child Neurologists (K12)

Notice Number: NOT-NS-15-033

Key Dates
Release Date: July 17, 2015
Estimated Publication Date of Announcement: Fall 2015
First Estimated Application Due Date: Winter 2015
Earliest Estimated Award Date: July 2016
Earliest Estimated Start Date: July 2016

Related Announcements
None

Issued by
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

Purpose

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) intends to publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to solicit applications for a National Training Program to support the development of Child Neurologists as research scientists. Currently, 10 small institutional awards that comprise the Neurological Sciences Academic Development Award (NSADA K12) are used to provide child neurologists at the awardee institutions with 3 years of support in order to facilitate their success in obtaining an individual NIH mentored career development award (K08 or K23), an independent scientist award (K02) or research grant (R01 or equivalent). NINDS intends to phase out the NSADA K12 program and terminate the current FOA (PAR-13-362), and replace it with a single national program, funded by a K12 mechanism that will support ~30 child neurologists over a 5 year period, throughout the nation.

This Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to have constructive conversations with colleagues, develop ideas, and consider plans for responsive applications. 

The FOA is expected to be published in early Fall 2015 with an expected application due date in early Winter 2015.

This FOA will utilize the K12 activity code. Preliminary details of the planned FOA are provided below.

Research Initiative Details

This Notice encourages investigators with a strong history of scientific research, a strong track record of training child neurologists, and the administrative experience to organize and implement a large, national training program, to begin to consider applying for this new FOA. This national program will be run by a PD/PI (or multiple PDs/PIs). The PD(s)/PI(s) will recruit, prior to application submission, a national advisory committee composed of a diverse group of individuals (~12-15) with strong research and training records. This advisory committee will include neurologists (including child neurologists) who have a proven record of successful training and mentoring, have the appropriate expertise to review applications in a wide variety of research areas, the expertise to select appropriate scholars for support from a pool of applicants, and the expertise and experience to implement, together with the PD(s)/PI(s), a national training program for child neurologists. In combination, the PD(s)/PI(s) and national advisory committee should contain appropriate gender-balance, include scientific leaders in the field of child neurology, and contain diverse representation with regard to racial/ethnic background, geographic location of their home institutions, residency/fellowship training institutions and area of research expertise. Committee members should each have the stature in the community necessary to perform effective site visits at the scholars' institutions. Members of the advisory committee should be committed to participating in the program, and accomplishing goals of the program, for multiple years. This FOA will also support an annual meeting that will include a gathering of scholar-applicants, previous K12 scholars, similarly situated child neurologists, and advisory committee members, for the purpose of both selecting the scholars to be supported and providing instruction and guidance that will facilitate scholar success as clinician-scientists. The PD(s)/PI(s) will be responsible for organizing and implementing this annual meeting.

This program will be similar in structure to the NINDS Neurosurgeon Research Career Development Program (NRCDP; funded by RFA-NS-12-008) and the NICHD Pediatric Critical Care and Trauma Scientist Development Program (PCCTSDP; funded by RFA-HD-14-019).

Individuals who may be interested in submitting applications in response to this FOA are encouraged to contact the Director, NINDS Office of Training, Career Development and Workforce Diversity with questions.

APPLICATIONS ARE NOT BEING SOLICITED AT THIS TIME.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Stephen Korn, Ph.D.
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Telephone: 301-496-4188
Email: korns@ninds.nih.gov