NOT-RM-18-006: Notice of Intent to Publish Limited Competition: NIH Coordination and Evaluation Center for Enhancing the Diversity of the NIH-Funded Workforce Program (U54 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Notice of Intent to Publish Limited Competition: NIH Coordination and Evaluation Center for Enhancing the Diversity of the NIH-Funded Workforce Program (U54 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Notice Number: NOT-RM-18-006

Key Dates

Release Date: December 7, 2017
Estimated Publication Date of Funding Opportunity Announcement: 04/08/2018
First Estimated Application Due Date: 06/08/2018
Earliest Estimated Award Date: 07/01/2019
Earliest Estimated Start Date: 07/01/2019

Related Announcements
NOT-RM-18-002
NOT-RM-18-003
NOT-RM-18-004
NOT-RM-18-005
NOT-RM-18-007

Issued by
Office of Strategic Coordination (Common Fund)

Purpose

The Office of Strategic Coordination (Common Fund) intends to publish a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) to solicit an application from the Program Directors/Principal Investigators of the Coordination and Evaluation Center (CEC) that is currently supporting the research being performed for the Enhancing the Diversity of the NIH-Funded Workforce Program. This program, known as the Diversity Program Consortium (DPC), consists of three integrated initiatives: Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD), the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) and the CEC.

Continued Common Fund support for the DPC will provide the time and resources needed to (1) gather additional data to test site-specific and consortium-wide interventions; (2) transition into sustainable models for enhancing diversity in biomedical research fields; and (3) disseminate effective strategies to a broad range of institutions to have a lasting national impact. NIH intends that institutions not currently part of the DPC will have the opportunity to apply for funds to implement a DPC training, mentoring, or research capacity intervention in collaboration with funded BUILD or NRMN sites (see NOT-RM-18-007).

Because of the extensive infrastructure developed by the CEC and the time required to integrate with the BUILD sites and develop data collection pipelines, changing institutions at this stage of the project would not be tenable. Therefore, this FOA will be a limited competition and review will assess the strengths and weaknesses of the existing center.

This Notice is being provided to allow the applicant sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations and responsive projects. The FOA will utilize the U54 activity code. Details of the planned FOA are provided below.

Research Initiative Details

The structure of the CEC will remain largely intact, including the Administrative Core, Data Coordination Core, and Evaluation Core. For the second phase, a Communications and Dissemination Core will be added to facilitate the implementation of DPC training, mentoring and research capacity interventions at institutions not formerly part of the DPC. The application should describe how the CEC will continue to organize the activities required for the attainment of program-wide goals and to measure the agreed upon Hallmarks of Success at the student, faculty, and institutional levels. The application should describe how the CEC will use and refine the instruments and processes developed in the previous funding period to assess the impact of BUILD and NRMN activities on attainment of these hallmarks by program participants. The applicant should describe how the CEC will coordinate the collection of data from BUILD and NRMN awardees and other sources, assess the data in an ongoing way, provide feedback to the consortium and facilitate an iterative process of program adjustment to maximize the research benefit of BUILD and NRMN activities. For this phase of the project, the CEC will also focus on the dissemination of sustainable and effective strategies for enhancing the diversity of the biomedical research workforce and for transitioning into a sustainable model for evaluating diversity enhancing programs beyond the funding cycle.

Funding Information

Estimated Total Funding $4,000,000 direct costs
Expected Number of Awards One
Estimated Award Ceiling $4,000,000
Primary CFDA Numbers 93.310

Anticipated Eligible Organizations

Public/State Controlled Institution of Higher Education

Applications are not being solicited at this time.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Michael Sesma, Ph.D.
National Institute of General Medical Sciences
301-594-3900
msesma@mail.nih.gov