NOT-MH-12-014: Notice of Availability of One-Year Administrative Supplements to NIMH-supported Research for FY 2012

Notice of Availability of One-Year Administrative Supplements to NIMH-supported Research for FY 2012

Notice Number: NOT-MH-12-014

Key Dates
Release Date: January 23, 2012
Receipt Date: March 22, 2012
Earliest Anticipated Start Date: June 1, 2012

Issued by
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Purpose

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) announces opportunities for investigators with active NIMH-supported research grants to request 1 year of supplemental funding in FY2012. NIMH has identified specific areas of interest in accordance with its goal of accelerating mental health research as described in the Institute’s Strategic Plan.

All supplement requests must be received by March 22, 2012, 5 pm local time of applicant organization. All applications should be preceded by consultation with the NIMH Program Staff associated with the parent grant to discuss the potential supplement request.

NIMH priority research areas to be considered for 1-year of supplemental funding in FY2012:

Administrative Supplements to Obtain Data on Neural Connectivity in Ongoing Neuroimaging Studies of Early Development and Aging. The intent of this one-year supplemental topic is to capitalize on NIMH’s current neuroimaging investments in young and aging populations to obtain additional data focused specifically on connectivity, e.g., resting state fMRI, diffusion imaging, and/or application of other techniques to address connectivity across brain regions (e.g., task-based fMRI, magnetoencephalography, and electroencephalography). Eligible ongoing grants should have subject populations in infancy, childhood, adolescence, or adulthood beyond age 35. Supplements will facilitate comparisons among connectivity and other imaging assessments within and across studies and provide pilot data for future studies on normative development, aging and/or risk.
Administrative Supplements to Encourage Integration, Data Sharing, and Standardization. The intent of this one-year administrative supplement topic is to develop and implement data sharing plans among funded NIMH investigators. The NIH requires that all investigator-initiated applications with direct costs greater than $500,000 in any single year develop a data sharing plan (see NIH Data Sharing Policy and NOT-OD-03-032). Consistent with NIMH’s efforts to facilitate standardization, integration, and data sharing across projects, this supplement opportunity is directed to those NIMH-supported grants with a direct cost at or less than $500,000 that are not currently mandated to develop data sharing plans, and for which data sharing could afford important scientific advantages. A goal is to promote collaboration among scientists and institutions for new discoveries through enhanced statistical power, innovative and multi-level analyses, and data modeling. Priority will be given to requests that will significantly accelerate scientific discovery through the harmonization of efforts or sharing of data.

Although applications for supplements may be submitted by a single Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) to develop and implement a data sharing plan, NIMH will give special consideration to ‘linked’ supplement applications from multiple basic and/or clinical investigators who are studying a related topic (e.g., disorder, dimension, mechanism) and propose to share data across studies and engage with a common storage/use platform.

Activities supported under this topic area may include, but are not necessarily limited to:

Developing a data-structure

Developing and implementing additional procedures for informed consent and protection of patient privacy

Preparing and sharing data through an existing platform

Developing standard operating procedures for contributing and accessing data in a new multi-study platform

Standardizing and Integrating Data from Conceptually Related Clinical Research Studies. The intent of this one-year administrative supplement topic to current NIMH-supported clinical research studies is to foster standardization of measures, data aggregation, and sharing of pooled data among projects that are similar in terms of target samples, research aims, variables, methods, and/or conceptual framework. The aim is to create scientifically integrated, federated databases that will support analysis of pooled data from multiple independent projects.

Advancing the Development of one or more Biomarkers for Use in Clinical Research. The intent of this one-year administrative supplement topic is to leverage current NIMH investments to facilitate the initial testing of potential biomarkers that may have predictive value for disease onset, progression, remission, or treatment response. The supplement request must provide a strong rationale for the proposed research effort, clarifying the potential utility of the targeted biomarker(s), specific analyses needed to ready them for use in future research or the other scientific opportunity to be served by the additional data collection, and the feasibility of completing the required work within the scope and remaining funding period of the current project. The investigator must clearly describe how the additional data to be obtained will be combined with other information available within the project or from other sources so as to enable analyses that will contribute substantially to advancing the targeted biomarker development. As appropriate to the design and aims of the existing study, the supplemental request may focus on development of any of a variety of biomarker types (e.g., markers of disease risk, pathophysiological process, disease severity or progression, response to treatment).

Documenting the Potential Public Health Impact of Intervention Research by Adding/Broadening Cost Analyses to Existing Studies.The intent of this one-year administrative supplement topic focuses on estimating the potential net cost savings of promising preventive/treatment/health services interventions from the payer’(s) (Medicaid, Medicare, private insurance, patient) perspective. Supplement requests should propose economic modeling that account both for changes in expenditures resulting from the intervention and the cost of implementing and operating the program. For consistency in reporting, it is expected that investigators will calculate the cost savings per capita, the total cost savings for the payer(s) and the return on investment (ROI) ratio in 2010 Dollars.

Budget and Funding Information

To be considered for FY2012 funds, Administrative Supplement requests must be received by March 22, 2012, 5 pm local time of applicant organization. All applications should be preceded by consultation with the NIMH Program Staff associated with the parent grant to discuss the potential supplement request.

All awards are subject to the terms and conditions, cost principles, and other considerations described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

An award issued under this Notice is contingent upon adequate progress on the parent grant during the current project period, an evaluation of the unoblicated balance for the budget period, the availability of funds, and the receipt of a sufficient number of meritorious applications.

Eligibility

Applications for these FY 2012 Administrative Supplements must meet the following criteria:

The parent grant must be an NIMH-supported research project
The parent grant must be active and the activities proposed in the supplement must be able to be accomplished within the current competitive segment. No-cost extensions will not be granted to permit the submission of a supplement request.
The research proposed in the supplement must be within scope of the peer-reviewed activities and aims of the parent grant.
Supplement requests cannot exceed 1 year.

Submitting an Administrative Supplement Request

To be considered for an administrative supplement, the request must be signed by the Authorized Organizational Representative/Signing Official (AOR/SO), and must describe the need for additional funding and the categorical costs.

All requests for Administrative Supplements must be submitted electronically via the following link: https://wwwapps.nimh.nih.gov/ssf/

The application must be submitted by the PD/PI of the parent grant
When the PD/PI clicks on the link, he/she must provide his/her eRA Commons ID and password.
When prompted for the type of supplement, select Administrative Supplement.
Follow the instructions on the webpage to upload the administrative supplement application packet. Please note, the request must be signed by the Authorized Organizational Representative/Signing Official (AOR/SO) or it will not be considered for funding,
The PD/PI will receive an e-mail confirmation and a supplement request number when the supplement is successfully submitted. This information will also appear on the screen when the submission has been successfully received by NIMH. Please retain this information as this will be the means of identifying your request when contacting NIMH.
Do NOT submit the same supplement more than once, even if a correction is required. If there is an error, please contact Tracy Waldeck at [email protected] to withdraw your previous submission BEFORE submitting the corrected application.

The Administrative Supplement request packet must include:

Cover Letter – The cover letter must be signed by the authorized organizational representative and should indicate that you are requesting an Administrative Supplement in response to NOT-MH-12-014. The content of the letter should include the following information:

Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) name on the parent grant
Parent grant number and title
Dollar amount of the requested supplement
Topic area under which the request is submitted
Name and title of the authorized institutional official who has signed the cover supplement request, and
Phone, email, and address information for both the PD/PI and the institutional official.

PHS 398 Form Page 1 (Face page) MS Word PDF

The title of the project (Box 1) should be the title of the parent award.
The Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) must be the same as the PD/PI on the parent award. For Multiple PD(s)/PI(s) parent awards, the Contact PD(s)/PI(s) must be the PD(s)/PI(s) listed on the supplement request. Administrative supplements cannot change the Multiple PD(s)/PI(s) team or convert a grant from a single PD/PI to a multiple PD/PI grant.
The remaining items on the face page should be filled out in accordance with the PHS 398 application instructions.

PHS 398 Form page 2 MS Word PDF Note: The project “summary” is that of the administrative supplement, not the parent grant. All other information requested on Form Page 2 should be provided.

A brief application describing the project, including:

Scope of the overall project and the anticipated contribution of the requested supplement (not to exceed five pages). This section should include a description of the supplement's purpose; including research design/proposed scientific activities and methods and data analysis. Describe the relationship of the supplement request to the parent grant. Specifically, summarize how the activities proposed in the supplemental request fit within the scope/aims of the parent grant. Identify and clearly state how the supplement request fits within one or more of the five solicited topics identified above as areas of interest for NIMH.
Budget for the supplement with a justification that details the items requested, including F&A costs and a justification for all personnel and their role(s) in this project. Note the budget is not limited but should be appropriate for the work proposed in the supplement request. Applicants are encouraged to discuss budgets with their NIH Program Officer. All supplement requests must include detailed budgets on the PHS 398 Form Pages 4 (MS Word PDF) and 5 (MS Word PDF). Modular budget pages will not be accepted even when the parent grant was funded as a modular grant. See Budget and Funding Information for additional information.
Biographical Sketch for all new Senior/Key Personnel. There is no need to repeat information previously provided for other Senior/Key Personnel. MS Word PDF
Human Subjects/Vertebrate Animal documentation (if applicable). Include a current Human Subjects/Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Vertebrate Animals/Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) approval letter, if applicable. Otherwise, this letter will be required at time of funding. All appropriate IRB and IACUC approvals must be in place prior to a supplement award being made.

PHS 398 Checklist Form MS Word PDF

Selection Factors

Administrative supplement requests will be reviewed administratively by NIMH Program and Grants Management Staff. Selection factors will include the following:

Responsiveness to the goals and scientific priorities of this initiative
Quality of the scientific approach
Appropriate and well-described plan to accomplish the goals within the timeframe proposed
Relevance of the proposed activities to the parent grant
Adequate progress of the parent grant appropriate to the current stage of the project
Expertise of the research team proposed to conduct and achieve the project goals

Inquiries

Specific questions regarding eligibility or questions about the science to be proposed, should be directed to the NIMH Program Official for the parent grant.

For general information on Administrative Supplements or questions on how to submit contact:
Tracy Waldeck, Ph.D.
Branch Chief, Extramural Policy Branch
National Institute of Mental Health
Telephone: (301) 435-0322
Email: [email protected]

For financial or grants management questions contact:
Rebecca Claycamp, M.S., CRA
Chief Grants Management Officer
National Institute of Mental Health
6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 6115, MSC 9605
Bethesda, MD 20892-9605
Telephone: 301-402-7111
Email: [email protected]