Notice Number: NOT-MD-19-023

Key Dates
Release Date: May 8, 2019

Issued by
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)

Purpose

NIMHD and NHGRI are soliciting administrative supplements to support collection and/or analysis of data from Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (NH/OPI) populations, who represent one of NIH’s designated health disparity populations.

Based on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) classification, “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander” refers to a person residing in the US having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands (see https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about.html for more information about the OMB racial categories). For this Notice, NH/OPI populations of specific interest include Native Hawaiians, individuals with origins in the US-Affiliated Pacific Islands (American Samoa, Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Republic of Palau), and individuals with origins in Fiji or Tonga, as these groups have the highest representation in the US.

Existing data indicate that NH/OPI populations have higher prevalence of and/or poorer outcomes for a variety of health conditions, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic lower respiratory disease, cancer, infant mortality, depression, and HIV/AIDS, as well as a shorter life expectancy. However, in many available studies or datasets, NH/OPI populations are absent, included in numbers too small to include in subpopulation analysis, combined with Asians, or placed into the heterogeneous category of “Other.” More research is needed using disaggregated data, including NH/OPIs separated from other racial/ethnic groups, as well as differentiation of subpopulations under the NH/OPI umbrella, to better understand the health status and needs of NH/OPI populations and address health disparities.

Appropriate research activities include, but are not limited to the following:

• Enrollment of NH/OPI populations in primary data collection studies to increase sample size to allow for adequately powered subgroup analysis. This may include increasing sample size of NH/OPI samples overall or for specific subgroups (e.g., Samoans). Primary data collection may only occur in the US (including the US Affiliated Pacific Islands).
• Pooling of data from the parent award with other studies or datasets to increase sample size for valid subgroup analysis and/or cross-study comparisons.
• Using publicly available data to conduct comparative analysis with study data, and/or to link with study data (e.g., neighborhood-level characteristics) to conduct multi-level analysis. Examples of publicly available data include US Census Data, the American Community Survey, the Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander National Health Interview Survey, or Medicaid/Medicare claims data.

Projects that plan to aggregate NH/OPI populations with Asian or other populations for data collection or analysis are not targeted for support under this Notice.

Areas of specific interest include but are not limited to the following:

• Comparisons between NH/OPI populations and other racial/ethnic groups related to study variables or outcomes, such as patterns of disease risk, resilience, morbidity, and mortality; healthcare utilization and outcomes; or intervention effectiveness.
• Examination of variation on study variables or outcomes within NH/OPI populations, including different population subgroups (e.g., Tongans compared to Fijians) or geographic distribution (e.g., Chamorros residing in Guam vs. the US mainland, NH/OPI populations living in the Western vs. Southern region of the US).
• Projects using public use or restricted data from the 2014 Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander National Health Interview Survey (NHPI NHIS), https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/nhpi.html, are also encouraged.

The work proposed must be within the scope of the existing award. For supplements to center awards, the proposed work must be within scope of one or more of the center research projects or be used to support one or more additional pilot projects. Before submitting, grantees are strongly encouraged to contact the program official for their grant award to discuss whether the proposed supplement is within the scope.

The activities proposed in the supplement must be able to be accomplished within the current competitive segment. No-cost extensions will not be approved to permit the submission of a supplement request.

Budget: Requests must reflect the actual needs of the proposed projects. The supplement budget periods must be within the currently approved project period of the existing parent award. The maximum award period is one year. Administrative supplement requests should not exceed $125,000 Total Costs.

Submitting your administrative supplement request: Applicants should submit to PA-18-591, Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional). Electronic submission is strongly encouraged for eligible activity codes.

Applicants should begin the supplement application abstract by stating “This application is being submitted in response to NOT-MD-19-023", to assist in identifying supplements submitted to this Notice. The process for Streamlined Submissions using the eRA Commons cannot be used for this initiative.

To be considered for funding, administrative supplement requests must be submitted no later than July 15, 2019. NIMHD will consider supporting supplements to NIMHD parent awards in FY2019 or FY2020. NHGRI will consider supporting supplements to NHGRI parent awards in FY2020.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Jennifer Alvidrez, PhD
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
Telephone: 301-594-9567
Email: jennifer.alvidrez@nih.gov

Dave Kaufman, PhD
National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)
Telephone: (301) 594-6907
Email: dave.kaufman@nih.gov