Notice of Special Interest: Administrative Supplements for Existing NIH Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats (CounterACT) Program Research Grants and Cooperative Agreement Awards NOT-NS-20-029

Key Dates

Related Announcements

PA-18-591

NOT-NS-20-030

Issued by

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

National Eye Institute (NEI)

National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

Purpose

The NIH is inviting administrative supplement applications to provide additional funds to active CounterACT research grants or cooperative agreement projects to support activities such as new collaborations and pilot studies that were unanticipated at the time that the new or competing continuation application was submitted. All proposed activities must be within the original research scope of the parent award. Supplemental funding includes all direct costs as well as associated facilities and administrative costs. The supplement project can start at any time during the budget period but must end on the last day of the budget period. The parent award may not be in terminal no-cost extension or going into a no-cost extension in FY2020.

Application budgets are limited to $75,000 total costs and must reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.

Only parent CounterACT research grant and cooperative agreement awards funded through the following FOAs (and any reissues of these announcements) are eligible to request supplemental funding under this NOSI:

• PAR-13-208: Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats (CounterACT) Cooperative Research Projects (U01)
• PAR-15-146; PAR-16-329; PAR-18-657: Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats (CounterACT) Research Centers of Excellence (U54 Clinical Trial Optional)
• PAR-16-330: Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats (CounterACT): Identification of Therapeutic Lead Compounds (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PAR-16-331: Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats (CounterACT): Optimization of Therapeutic Lead Compounds (U01 Clinical Trial Optional)
• PAR-18-721: Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats (CounterACT) Exploratory/Developmental Projects in Translational Research (R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Scope of Interest

The overall goal of the NIH Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats (CounterACT) program is to support research and development of therapeutics that can reduce mortality and morbidity in the event of the release of chemical threat agents. Chemical threat agents are toxic compounds that could be released by a deliberate terrorist attack against civilians, or by accidental or natural disaster causing mass casualties. These include chemical warfare agents (e.g., sarin, chlorine, sulfur mustard), toxic industrial chemicals (e.g., cyanide, hydrogen sulfide, phosgene), pesticides (e.g., parathion, brodifacoum), pharmaceutical-based agents (e.g., opioids) and other chemicals. Applications proposing research on chemical threats that are not of interest to the program will not be considered for funding. If research related to opioid threats is being proposed, see NOT-NS-18-019 for a description of research supported by the NIH CounterACT program.

Examples of topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Facilitating collaborations with fellow awardees within the CounterACT community
• Identify and/or recruit new resources such as investigators with additional expertise, an industry partner, research tools, systems, and assays to enhance the outcomes of the parent award
• Limited, pilot studies to establish proof-of-principle approaches

Investigators planning to submit an application in response to this NOSI are strongly advised to contact and discuss their proposed research/aims with the Program Officer of their parent CounterACT award well in advance of the receipt deadline to better determine appropriateness and relevance of the supplement project

Application and Submission Information

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

• PA-18-591 - Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional)

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and PA-18-591 must be followed, with the following additions

Research Strategy As part of the application, summarize the scope of the parent and supplemental projects and describe the proposed aims and research strategy for the new study. Clearly state how the supplemental efforts fit into the scope of the parent award. The research strategy should clearly demonstrate how the new collaboration(s), resource(s), and/or studies will benefit the parent award and why those would otherwise not be feasible either within the currently funded efforts or by rebudgeting funds.

Applicants to the program are urged to consider and directly address elements of rigor and reproducibility as described in NOT-OD-15-103 in their experimental design.

Administrative Evaluation Criteria

• Is the proposed supplemental project and outcomes relevant to the NIH CounterACT program mission and goals?
• Is the work proposed within scope of the active parent award?
• Does the proposed research/scientific team possess the expertise to conduct and achieve the goals of the supplemental study?
• Does the supplemental proposal include a well-described, rigorous scientific approach?
• Will the project yield significant preliminary data in support of more advanced drug discovery and development efforts?
• Is the scope and budget reasonable for the proposed studies?

Letters of Support

Applicants must include a letter from appropriate institutional biosafety officials indicating that studies are deemed safe for research personnel and the environment. A formal letter of support must be provided for all newly proposed collaborative, consultative, and/or contract arrangements.

• Application Due Date(s) – August 3,2020, by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization.
• For funding consideration, applicants must include “NOT-NS-20-029” (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.
• Requests may be for one year of support only.
• The Research Strategy section of the application is limited to 6 pages.
• Only existing awardees of CounterACT program are eligible to apply.
• The process for Streamlined Submissions using the eRA Commons cannot be used for this initiative.
• Applicants are strongly encouraged to notify the CounterACT Program Officer of the parent award that a request has been submitted in response to this FOA in order to facilitate efficient processing of the request.
• The application budget cannot exceed $75,000 in total costs and must reflect the actual needs of the project.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries related to the overall NIH CounterACT Program and/or parent awards managed by the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) to:

David A. Jett, PhD
Telephone: 301-496-6035
Email: jettd@nih.gov

Shardell M. Spriggs, PhD
Telephone: 301-443-8189
Email: shardell.spriggs@nih.gov

For parent awards managed by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS):

Hung Tseng, Ph.D.
Telephone: 301-594-5032
Email: tsengh@mail.nih.gov

For parent awards managed by the National Eye Institute (NEI):

Houmam Araj, Ph.D.
Telephone: 301-451-2020
Email: arajh@nei.nih.gov

For parent awards managed by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS):

Srikanth S. Nadadur, Ph.D.
Telephone: 984-287-3296
Email: nadadurs@niehs.nih.gov

For parent awards managed by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA):

Kristopher Bough, Ph.D.
Telephone: 301-443-9800
Email: boughk@nih.gov