Key Dates

Related Announcements

PA-18-935 - Urgent Competitive Revision to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Urgent Supplement - Clinical Trial Optional)

NOT-GM-21-031 - Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Urgent Competitive Revisions to IDeA and NARCH Programs for SARS-CoV-2 Surveillance Studies

Issued by

National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)

Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office (SGMRO)

Purpose

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) announces the availability of urgent competitive revisions to support vaccine hesitancy research relevant to SARS-CoV-2. This NOSI is intended to provide funds for the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) (P20, P30, and U54) and Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH) (S06) grantees to expand the scope of their active grants.

Background

Vaccinating the US population with SARS-CoV-2 vaccines is the key to control the spread of COVID-19 in the nation. However, a significant number of Americans, especially those in medically underserved communities, have doubts about vaccination. The goal of this NOSI is to support IDeA and NARCH grantees to conduct research that helps understand the causes of vaccine hesitancy and/or tests intervention strategies to increase vaccine uptake in IDeA states and/or the American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities.

Research Objectives

To understand the causes of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitancy and test intervention strategies to increase vaccine uptake, NIGMS encourages submission of applications for urgent competitive revisions to active IDeA and NARCH grants to address questions including but not limited to those listed below:

• What are the causes of vaccine hesitancy in IDeA states and the AI/AN communities?
• What are the effective culturally specific and/or community competent approaches for reducing barriers and increasing the vaccination uptake and completion?
• What interventions and strategies are most effective to increase the acceptance of vaccines among populations that experience health disparities?
• How can evidence-based interventions that have reduced vaccine hesitancy and increased uptake of other vaccinations be adapted and/or adopted to increase the uptake of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine?
• How can social media, digital marketing, and other innovative technologies (e.g., smart phone applications) be integrated into vaccine promotion interventions to identify and address the sources of misinformation regarding vaccination?
• How can vaccine-related communications on SARS-CoV-2 be generated and promoted by clinicians and healthcare systems to be community and culturally appropriate?
• What service delivery or organizational level policies are effective in facilitating broad vaccination uptake and reducing barriers such as stigma, distrust, fear, discrimination, and exposure to misinformation?
• What are effective dissemination and implementation strategies related to vaccination in clinical and community settings?

Applications for projects that require or involve administering vaccines to study participants must partner with ongoing vaccination programs, as no vaccination-related expenses will be paid by this supplement.

Eligibility

Eligibility for this competitive program is limited to current awardees of the following NIGMS programs:

• IDeA Program Infrastructure for Clinical and Translational Research (IDeA-CTR)
• Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE)
• IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE)
• Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH)

Only one supplement request per IDeA-CTR, COBRE, INBRE, or NARCH grant will be accepted for this NOSI. The parent award must be active when the application is submitted (e.g., within the originally reviewed and approved project period), regardless of the time remaining on the current project.

All PD/PIs of the parent award must be listed as PD/PIs on the application, but another investigator or co-investigator team may lead the research project. The designated project leader must have prior experience relative to the proposed research.

Competitive revision requests must be consistent with the terms and conditions of the parent award, which include:

• The PD/PIs of IDeA awards cannot serve as Project Lead(s) for the proposed supplement project nor use the supplement to support research in their own laboratories.
• For supplements to IDeA awards, funds cannot be used by or for collaborators at institutions in non-IDeA states or foreign sites, except for fee-for-service or consulting activities.
• NARCH awardees may support foreign components only when the ancestral catchment area(s) of tribe(s) cross(es) national boundaries.

Application Submission

Applications in response to this NOSI must be submitted using the following target funding opportunities.

• PA-18-935 Urgent Competitive Revision to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Urgent Supplement -Clinical Trial Optional) is intended to provide funds for NIH grantees applying to expand the scope of their active grant.
• The funding instrument, or activity code, will be the same as the parent award.

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and in the target funding opportunity announcement (PA-18-395) must be followed, with the following additions:

• Application Due Date: April 30, 2021 by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization. This NOSI expires on May 1, 2021. No late applications will be accepted.

• Only electronic submissions will be accepted for this funding opportunity. Use one of the methods described in PA-18-935. Paper submissions and applications submitted as email attachments will be rejected without review.

• IMPORTANT: For funding consideration, all applicants must designate NOT-GM-21-021 in the Agency Routing Identifier field (Box 4b) of the SF424 (R&R) Form. Applications without this information in Box 4b will not be considered for this initiative.
• The title of the supplement must be distinct from the title of the parent award and reflect the proposed research project.
• Individual requests can be no more than $200,000 in direct costs exclusive of Facilities and Administrative costs on sub-contracts. Supplements may provide support above the established dollar limit for the parent grant award.
• Requests may be for up to one year of support.
• The Research Strategy section of the application is limited to 6 pages and must clearly describe the significance of the project.
  • Projects must use tests, reagents, and supplies that are approved or authorized for emergency use by the FDA.
• NIH requires access to research data for all projects, where not prohibited (i.e.,Tribal data sovereignty). The NIH expects and supports the timely release and sharing of final research data from NIH-supported studies for use by other researchers to expedite the translation of research results into knowledge, products, and procedures to improve human health.

Review Process

NIGMS anticipates a 2-step administrative review process:

1. NIGMS staff will review the applications for compliance with the NOSI requirements
2. Applications will be evaluated for scientific and technical merit by (an) appropriate internal review group convened by NIGMS staff, using the review criteria specified in PA-18-935 as well as these additional review criteria:

• How well qualified is the project leader to lead the proposed research?
• Do the researchers involved have community engagement experience?
• Does the investigative team demonstrate behavioral and social science, implementation, and dissemination research expertise required for the proposed research?
• Are appropriate populations proposed?
• Are the experimental designs sound and have sufficient statistical power?
• Is rapid engagement and recruitment addressed and feasible?
• Are objective, measurable milestones matched to scope and budget?
• Will the proposed outcomes be impactful and have potential for sustainability?

Before developing a research project in response to this NOSI, applicants are strongly encouraged to discuss the scientific focus of their application with the NIGMS contact and to notify the contact when a request has been submitted.

Although NIGMS is not listed as a Participating Organization in all the FOAs listed above, applications for this initiative will be accepted.

Applications nonresponsive to terms of this NOSI will be withdrawn from consideration for this initiative.

Inquiries

Sheila A. Caldwell, Ph.D.
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Email: [email protected]