Notice Number: NOT-ES-10-009
Key Dates
Release Date: June 16, 2010
Application Due Date: July 15, 2010
Earliest Anticipated Start date: October 1, 2010
(NIH Competitive Revisions for P30s use paper PHS398 application forms.)
Issued by
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), http://www.niehs.nih.gov)
Purpose
- The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) invites awarded (P30) Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers (EHS CC) that do not currently support a Community Outreach and Education Core (COEC) to compete for funds for this activity. EHS CCs that were not awarded a COEC at the full Direct Cost $100,000 level are also invited to apply. These Centers are designed to establish innovative programs of excellence in the field of environmental health sciences by providing scientific and programmatic support for promising investigators and areas of research. The COEC is expected to integrate with the EHS Core Center and to take the lead in bi-directional interactions between the Core Center and its target audiences. The COEC is expected to serve as a resource for information and expertise to surrounding communities, stakeholders, and Center members to further scientific collaborations and dissemination of research results.
- Mechanism of Support. This funding method will be to provide additional funds to existing P30 grants through competitive revisions .
- Funds Available and Anticipated Number of Awards. The NIEHS plans to provide up to $600,000 in FY 2011 to fund 3 - 4 awards in response to this funding opportunity.
- Budget and Project Period. Applicants may request funding for the time remaining in the project period of the parent grant,. Direct costs are limited to $100,000 per year and are to be dedicated to the Community Outreach and Education Core (COEC).
- Hearing Impaired. Telecommunications for the hearing impaired are available at: TTY: (301) 451-5936
Background & Objectives
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) invites existing Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) Core Centers (P30) that do not currently support a Community Outreach and Education Core (COEC) to compete for funds for this activity. These Centers are designed to establish innovative programs of excellence in the field of environmental health sciences by providing scientific and programmatic support for promising investigators and areas of research. The COEC is expected to integrate with the EHS Core Center and to take the lead in bi-directional interactions between the Core Center and its target audiences. The COEC is expected to serve as a resource for information and expertise to surrounding communities, stakeholders, and Center members to further scientific collaborations and dissemination of research results.
Goals and Expected Outcomes
NIEHS expects that support for the COEC in the EHS Core Center will assist with translational advances, dissemination, bi-directional communication, and educational outreach of the Center.
NIEHS defines translational research as efforts along the spectrum of steps that transform scientific discoveries arising from laboratory, clinical, or population studies into clinical or population-based applications to reduce disease incidence, morbidity, and mortality.
The COEC takes the lead in promoting bi-directional communication with its stated target communities on issues of prevention, providing accurate and impartial information to policy makers, and environmental public health. The COEC serves as a resource for information and expertise to surrounding communities, stakeholders, and Center members to further scientific collaborations and dissemination of research results.
A key objective of the COEC is the translation of research information into knowledge for various professional and public stakeholders. The COEC must demonstrate that the objectives, activities, and products are aligned and integrated with the research strengths and focus of their Center. The COEC ensures Center understanding of community and other stakeholder needs, as well as to facilitate effective dissemination of Center research in appropriate venues.
K-12 curriculum development is not currently allowed as a COEC activity.
Further details on COEC can be found in the parent funding opportunity announcement (FOA) for the EHS Core Centers at RFA-ES-10-001.
Eligibility
This announcement is designed to complement activities at institutions with active NIEHS Environmental Health Science Core Centers (P30). Support for revision applications is contingent on availability of funds.
To be eligible, the parent grant must be active at the time the revision application is submitted, and the research proposed in the revision must be accomplished within the current competitive segment. That is, the period of support requested for the revision cannot exceed the current project period end date of the parent grant, including projects on a no-cost extension. Also, a no-cost extension must be in place before the revision application is submitted.
Revision applications should be for costs to support new research objectives or training that are outside of the scope of the approved parent grant.
This program does not require cost sharing as defined in the current NIH Grants Policy Statement.
For all revision applications, the Project Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) must be the same as the PD/PI on the parent award.
NIH encourages individuals from racial and ethnic groups underrepresented in biomedical and behavioral research, individuals with disabilities and individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds to apply.
Budget and Funding Information
For the purposes of this announcement, it is anticipated that three to four awards will be made. The total annual funds available for all awards is $600,000.
Applicants must submit a budget in the same format as in the Parent Grant using a non-modular budget. .
Application Review Process
The mission of the NIH is to support science in pursuit of knowledge about the biology and behavior of living systems and to apply that knowledge to extend healthy life and reduce the burdens of illness and disability. As part of this mission, applications submitted to the NIH for grants or cooperative agreements to support biomedical and behavioral research are evaluated for scientific and technical merit through the NIH peer review system.
Applications that are complete will be evaluated for scientific and technical merit by appropriate scientific review group(s) convened by NIEHS in accordance with NIH peer review procedures (http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/peer/) using the review criteria stated below. Applicants will be notified regarding the review outcome.
As part of the scientific peer review, all applications will:
- Undergo a selection process in which only those applications deemed to have the highest scientific and technical merit, generally the top half of applications under review, will be discussed and assigned an overall impact/priority score;
- Receive a written critique; and
- Receive a second level of review by the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council.
When reviewing a revision application, the committee will consider the scientific merit of the new work proposed and the appropriateness of the proposed expansion of the scope of the project.
Overall Impact. Reviewers will provide an overall impact/priority score to reflect their assessment of the likelihood for the project to exert a sustained, powerful influence on the research field(s) involved, in consideration of the standard review criteria, and additional review criteria (as applicable for the project proposed).
Scored Review Criteria. Reviewers will consider each of the standard review criteria of Significance, Investigator(s), Innovation, Approach, and Environment (NOT-0D-09-025) in the determination of scientific and technical merit, and give a separate score for each. An application does not need to be strong in all categories to be judged likely to have major scientific impact. For example, a project that by its nature is not innovative may be essential to advance a field.
Additional Review Criteria. As applicable for the project proposed, reviewers will consider the following additional items in the determination of scientific and technical merit, but will not give separate scores for these items: Protections for Human Subjects; Inclusion of Women, Minorities, and Children; Vertebrate Animals; and Biohazards.
The COEC will be assessed based on the following criteria:
Leadership and staff expertise:
- Is the COEC Director aptly qualified for the position? Does he or she demonstrate expertise in public health, outreach and education, health communication, or other relevant disciplines at the Master’s or Doctoral level?
- Do the proposed staff possess suitable expertise to fulfill the stated objectives of the COEC?
Performance and Productivity:
- Are the overall quality and productivity of the team appropriate for dissemination and community activities as opportunities are presented by the Center?
COEC Plans and Goals:
Vision and Objectives:
- Is the COEC a logical outgrowth of the Center theme?
- Did the COEC director state clear and measurable objectives for the COEC? Do they prioritize short, mid and long-term activities? Are potentially useful evaluation plans defined to measure the impact of core activities?
Translating research information into environmental public health knowledge:
- Will outreach and educational programs be implemented to increase awareness and understanding of environmental health research being conducted at the Center?
- How appropriate is the identified target audience? With respect to the COEC’s defined target audience, are the specific plans, activities, and coordination for the proposed COEC likely to be effective? Are the described plans at an appropriate level of understanding for the target communities?
Role of the Core in the Center:
- Are the Core aims balanced and widely open to center members as opposed to being used by a few individuals?
Ensuring Center understanding of community and other stakeholder needs:
- Is the composition of the Stakeholder Advisory Board (SAB) adequate, and what is the contribution of this group to administrative decisions?
- Other than the SAB, are there appropriate specific plans to increase center awareness of community concerns?
Institutional Commitment:
- What is the level of institutional commitment to the Center and specifically to the COEC?
- What specific resources provided to the Center by the institution, such as personnel, facilities, or financial support build confidence in the success of the COEC and integration with the Center members and projects?
After the peer review of the application is completed, the PD/PI will be able to access his or her Summary Statement (written critique) via the NIH eRA Commons.
Selection Process
Applications submitted in response to this funding opportunity will compete for available funds with all other recommended applications. The following will be considered in making funding decisions:
- Scientific and technical merit of the proposed project as determined by scientific peer review.
- Availability of funds.
- Relevance of the proposed project to program priorities.
Award Notices
The proposal’s scientific merit will always be the prevailing criterion. If the application is considered for funding, NIH will request "just-in-time" information from the applicant. For details, applicants may refer to the NIH Grants Policy Statement Part II: Terms and Conditions of NIH Grant Awards, Subpart A: General. All applications under this notice that are selected for funding will be required to submit a detailed budget as part of the Just-In-Time information.
A formal notification in the form of a Notice of Award (NoA) will be provided to the applicant organization. The NoA signed by the grants management officer is the authorizing document. Once all administrative and programmatic issues have been resolved, the NoA will be generated via email notification from the awarding component to the grantee business official.
Terms of Award
Selection of an application for award is not an authorization to begin performance. Any costs incurred before receipt of the NoA are at the recipient's risk. These costs may be reimbursed only to the extent considered allowable pre-award costs. See Section IV.5., “Funding Restrictions.”
The resource sharing plan will become part of the terms and conditions of the award.
A Program Official from NIEHS will be assigned to each funded application and will assume responsibility for normal stewardship of the awards.
All NIH grant and cooperative agreement awards include the NIH Grants Policy Statement as part of the NoA. For these terms of award, see the NIH Grants Policy Statement Part II: Terms and Conditions of NIH Grant Awards, Subpart A: General and Part II: Terms and Conditions of NIH Grant Awards, Subpart B: Terms and Conditions for Specific Types of Grants, Grantees, and Activities.
Preparing a Competitive Revision Application
Requests under this notice should use the most current PHS 398 paper forms available at: http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/phs398.html) and include the following elements in the request packet. Font size restrictions apply as designated within the PHS398 instructions.
1) PHS 398 Form Page 1 (Face page) MS Word PDF
- The title of the project (Box 1) must be the title of the parent award.
- This Notice (number and title, “Notice of Availability of Funds for Community Outreach and Education Cores for Environmental Health Sciences Core Center Grants (P30)”) should be cited in Box 2, and the “yes” box should be checked.
- The Project Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) must be the same as the PD/PI on the parent award. For Multiple PD/PI parent awards, the Contact PD/PI must be the PD/PI listed on the request.
- The remaining items on the face page should be filled out in accordance with the PHS 398 application instructions.
2) PHS 398 Form page 2 MS Word PDF
Note: The project “summary” is that of the competitive revision, not the parent grant. All other information requested on Form Page 2 should be provided.
3) A brief project description, including:
a) Introduction (not to exceed one page). Describes the nature of the revision and how it will expand the scope of the specific aims, research design, and methods of the parent grant. Use Item 1, Introduction to Application, of the PHS 398 Research Plan component to provide this information
b) Specific Aims (not to exceed one page). Summarize the activities that were included in the parent grant that encompass those proposed in the revision request. This section should include a description of the revision’s specific aims, including research design and methods and data analysis. Describe the relationship of the revision request to the parent grant and the impact that the proposed work will have on the research field.
c) Research Strategy (not to exceed 12 pages). For this section address the following points:
- Overall plans and strategies for bi-directional communication and education. What activites, forums, and intereactive boards will be convened in order to learn and address concerns of the target communities?.
- Target audiences of the COEC. Why were the specific communities chosen and what are the expected deliverables to them?
- Experience of the proposed COEC team with this or other communities that highlight sensitivity to lay (non-scientific) audiences, culture, and/or degree to which working individuals may be able to take part in he proposed activites.
- Interactions and cohesion with the parent EHS Core Center. Describe how the COEC will work to disseminate findings from the Center or related scientific or outreach advances. Indicate scientific personnel from the EHS Core Center or parent institution that will take part in COEC activites.
d) Budget for the revision with a justification that details the items requested, and a justification for all personnel and their role in this project. The budget should be appropriate for the work proposed in the revision request. To meet the various transparency, accountability, and reporting requirements, all applications under this Notice must include detailed budgets on the PHS 398 Form Pages 4 (MS Word PDF) and 5 (MS Word PDF). Any budgetary changes for the remainder of the project period of the current grant must be discussed in the Budget Justification. The budget needs to follow the format of the parent application
e) Biographical Sketch for PD/PI and all new Senior/Key Personnel (those who are additions on the revision project). You should include an updated biographical sketch for the PD/PI and new Senior/Key Personnel, using the forms, which are available as MS Word (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/biosketch.doc) or PDF (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/biosketch.pdf). There is no need to repeat information previously provided for other Senior/Key Personnel.
f) Human Subjects/ Vertebrate Animal documentation (if applicable). Include a current Human Subjects/IRB or Vertebrate Animals/IACUC approval letter, if available. Otherwise, this will be required at the time of funding. All appropriate IRB and IACUC approvals must be in place prior to a revision award being made. Any differences in the involvement or use of human subjects or specimens, or use of vertebrate animals, between the administrative revision activity and the parent grant should be noted. When appropriate, details should be provided on the protection of human subjects and inclusion of women, children, and minorities. Additional guidance on Human Subjects Research and Vertebrate Animals is provided under Part II of the PHS 398 instructions (http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/phs398.html).
g) PHS 398 Checklist Form MS Word PDF
h) Appendices. All applications submitted must provide appendix material on CDs only. See http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-031.html. Do not use the Appendix to circumvent the page limitations of the Research Strategy component. An application that does not observe the required page limitations may be delayed in the review process.
Allowable Budget Items
Personnel Salaries
Salaries are permitted only for the following:
1. COEC Leaders
2. Salaries for Co-Directors, consultants, or other investigators within the COEC with clear justification. If present, terms such as Co-Directors must be clearly defined and the roles of such individuals are to be clearly justified in order to qualify for salary support.
3. Administrative and Technical Support Personnel and Consultants.
Supplies
Consumable supplies, such as office materials may be requested.
Travel
Appropriate travel requests include:
1. Annual Centers Meeting: The two day annual meeting of the EHS Core Centers Program held at a location determined by the Center Directors in consultation with NIEHS Staff.
2. Travel for training to enhance the quality of COEC operations.
3. Travel of staff for dissemination to target communities, to organize community activities, or other field work within the approved COEC specific aims.
4. Travel and expenses for consultants and members of the Stakeholder Advisory Board and their associated costs.
Items Not Fundable Under a P30 EHS Core Center Grant Include:
1. Salary and support for central institutional administrative personnel, usually paid from institutional overhead charges.
2. Salary and support for activities such as public relations or lobbying the US Federal Government or state or local governments.
How to apply
The due date for revision applications is July 15, 2010. Submit a signed, typewritten original of the application, including the checklist, and three signed photocopies in one package to:
Center for Scientific Review
National Institutes of Health
6701 Rockledge Drive, Room 1040, MSC 7710
Bethesda, MD 20892-7710 (U.S. Postal Service Express or regular mail)
Bethesda, MD 20817 (for express/courier service; non-USPS service)
Personal deliveries of applications are no longer permitted (see http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-03-040.html).
At the time of submission, two additional copies of the application and all five copies of the appendix material should be sent to:
Linda Bass, Ph.D.
Scientific Review Branch
Division of Extramural Research and Training
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Building 530, Room 3074
P.O. Box 12233, K3-03
530 Davis Drive
Research Triangle Park, NC 27713
Telephone: (919) 541-1307
FAX: (919) 316-4606
Email: [email protected]
Inquiries
1. Scientific/Research Contacts:
Leslie Reinlib, Ph.D.
Division of Extramural Research and Training
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Building 530, Room 3072
P.O. Box 12233 (K3-12)
530 Davis Drive
Research Triangle Park, NC 27713
Telephone: (919) 541-4998
Fax: (919) 316-4606
E-mail: [email protected]
2. Peer Review Contacts:
Linda Bass, Ph.D.
Scientific Review Branch
Division of Extramural Research and Training
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Building 530, Room 3074
P.O. Box 12233 (K3-03)
530 Davis Drive
Research Triangle Park, NC 27713
Telephone: (919) 541-1307
Fax: (919) 541-2503
Email: [email protected]
3. Financial or Grants Management Contacts:
Aaron Nicholas
Grants Management Branch
Division of Extramural Research and Training
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Building 530, Room 3053
P.O. Box 12233 (K3-11)
530 Davis Drive
Research Triangle Park, NC 27713
Telephone: (919) 541-0039
Fax: (919) 541-2860
E-mail: [email protected]
and Human Services (HHS)
