Notice of Intent to Publish a Request for Applications for the Genes, Environment, and Development Initiative (GEDI)

Notice Number: NOT-DA-06-027

Key Dates
Release Date: September 19, 2006

Issued by
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), (http://www.nida.nih.gov )

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) plans to issue a Request for Applications (RFA), in the fall of 2006, with review and funding expected by the end of fiscal 2007 (September 2007), to launch the Genes, Environment, and Development Initiative (GEDI). This initiative will support research investigating interactions among genetic, environmental, and developmental factors in the etiology of drug abuse. Prior lines of research have established that genetic, environmental, and developmental factors all contribute to vulnerability to drug experimentation, use, and progression to abuse and dependence and to the transitions among these stages. Numerous high quality longitudinal and developmental datasets are currently available which provide a wealth of individual-level, familial, and other environmental data on individuals who are at risk for, or are in the course of development, progression, and desistance of, drug abuse. Studies qualifying for submission under this Request for Applications will be longitudinal in design; cover at least two developmental periods; assess subjects in or through the period of risk for drug abuse; have rich environmental data; include categorical and quantitative measures of both drug abuse and relevant psychiatric or behavioral phenotypes; and will have the ability to collect and share DNA, and to join the NIDA Genetics Consortium http://www.nida.nih.gov/about/organization/Genetics/consortium/index.html. Proposals are expected to demonstrate sufficient power to study main effects and interactions, and to include plans and datasets for replication. Where data are pooled across studies or used for replication, reasonable comparability will need to be shown. The investigative teams are expected to be interdisciplinary, with the appropriate expertise to address these complex interactions. Funded research is expected to yield a richer understanding of the true contributions of and interactions among individual, environmental and transitional factors in the etiology of drug abuse and, ultimately, lead to improved preventive and treatment interventions for these complex and costly disorders.

Inquiry

For further information regarding this potential RFA, please contact:

Naimah Weinberg, M.D.
National Institute on Drug Abuse
6001 Executive Boulevard, MSC 9589
Bethesda, MD 20892
Phone: 301-443-6504
Fax: 301-443-2636
E-mail: NW46W@NIH.GOV