Notice Number: NOT-RM-16-019

Key Dates
Release Date: May 13, 2016

Estimated Publication Date of Announcement: July 2016
First Estimated Application Due Date: November 2016
Earliest Estimated Award Date: July 1, 2017
Earliest Estimated Start Date: July 1, 2017

NOT-RM-16-016
NOT-RM-16-017
NOT-RM-16-014
NOT-RM-16-015
NOT-RM-16-018
NOT-RM-16-020

Issued by
National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)
Office of Strategic Coordination (Common Fund)

Purpose

The Office of Strategic Coordination, in collaboration with the National Human Genome Research Institute, intends to issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to solicit applications from foreign institutions in African countries to provide support for an Informatics Network for the Human, Heredity, and Health in Africa (H3Africa) program.

This Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations and responsive projects and to complete the required institutional registrations necessary to be able to submit an application to the NIH.

The FOA is expected to be published in Summer 2016 with an expected application due date in Fall 2016.

This FOA will utilize the U24 activity code. Details of the planned FOA are provided below.

Research Initiative Details

This Notice encourages African investigators to begin to consider applying for this FOA; researchers at institutions with significant expertise in establishing bioinformatics capacity in Africa should particularly consider applying.

The scope of applications responsive to this FOA will be to provide an Informatics Network for the H3Africa program that can support the informatics needs of the Consortium across the continent and to develop long term sustainable methods for enhancing the informatics capabilities of African researchers both within and beyond the H3Africa Consortium. The awardee funded under the intended FOA will: 1) develop and implement cutting edge, reliable, and cost-effective approaches to address the informatics needs of the H3Africa Consortium; 2) function as a Data Coordinating Center for the H3Africa Consortium responsible for, but not limited to, establishing secure and reliable transmission and archiving of H3Africa Consortium generated data, as well as implementing standardized data QA/QC pipelines; 3) Foster translational research and informatics across the African continent to enhance interactivity among H3Africa's research groups; 4) provide collaborative analysis support for H3Africa research projects and other Consortium resources including, but not limited to, standard operating procedures for next generation sequencing analysis, Genome Wide Associated Studies, RNA-seq, phenotype harmonization, and biorepository submissions and requests; 5) conduct outreach activities that will make the Informatics Network's resources as widely accessible and highly utilized; and 6) develop new computational tools customized to address the specific issues of genomic research in African populations.

Investigators involved in an H3Africa Informatics Network will be expected to participate in H3Africa Consortium activities and abide by H3Africa guidelines, policies, and procedures (see h3africa.org).

APPLICATIONS ARE NOT BEING SOLICITED AT THIS TIME.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Ken Wiley, Jr., Ph.D.
National Human Genome Research Institute
Telephone: 301-435-5540
Email: [email protected]