RFA-DC-23-002

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) intends to promote a new initiative by publishing a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to solicit applications to create a network of laboratories to serve as a national technological resource for auditory and vestibular researchers who use human inner and middle ear tissues for a range of basic and clinical studies.

The objective of this FOA is to establish a network of laboratories, called the NIDCD National Human Ear Resource Network, to serve as a national technological resource for auditory and vestibular researchers using human inner and middle ear tissues in their studies. The Network will also serve as a nucleus for expanding the use of human temporal bones in the research community and to facilitate communication and collaboration between laboratories, both Network laboratories and non-Network laboratories, using human temporal bones. The laboratories will develop and provide technical services for procuring, preparing, sectioning and distributing high-quality human ear tissues; develop and disseminate techniques for improved tissue preservation and processing; and optimize methods for visualizing human middle and inner ear structures, including cellular and membranous components; upload digitized temporal bone images to NIDCD-approved databases for wide dissemination; provide opportunities for technical instruction in the special skills needed to prepare ear tissue for use from post-mortem human temporal bones; provide outreach to the scientific and clinical communities to promote the use of human temporal bones in their research and to facilitate the use of resources maintained and developed under this initiative. In addition, individual laboratories may propose research to improve current techniques for the processing and use of human temporal bones. A cooperative agreement will coordinate interactions between the laboratories and the research community to maximize impact while avoiding duplicative e?orts. This national resource will benefit a broad spectrum of research projects, including clinical and translational, by providing a critical link towards the translation of animal studies to the human ear and eventually the clinic, supporting the NIDCD mission to help prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat deafness and other communication disorders

This Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations and responsive projects.

The FOA is expected to be published in Winter 2022 with an expected application due date in Spring 2022.

This FOA will utilize the U24 activity code.

Tthis FOA will create a Network of laboratories to serve the auditory and vestibular basic and clinical research communities more broadly, by improving the quantity, quality and availability of human inner and middle ear specimens; by developing and sharing advances in methods and techniques for human ear tissue processing; by addition of scanned temporal bone images to widely accessible databases; and by providing technical instruction and outreach, all to enhance opportunities for needed research on human ear tissues.

Applications should address the following points:

• Improving access for the auditory and vestibular research community to human ear tissues from temporal bone specimens
• Optimizing human temporal bone tissue preparation techniques and disseminating protocols
• Providing technical instruction on the use of human temporal bones for the scientific and clinical communities
• Providing outreach to the scientific and clinical communities to promote the use of human temporal bones in their research and to facilitate the use of resources maintained and developed under this award.

Although the purpose of this FOA is to provide resources for the scientific and clinical communities, within the scope of the required four points listed above, applications may include hypothesis-driven work towards the improvement of human temporal bone use, processing, or imaging. Studies on animal temporal bones may be included, if appropriate, but the main focus of the application must be on human inner and middle ear tissues.