Notice Number: NOT-NS-08-010

Key Dates
Release Date: February 6, 2008

Issued by
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), (http://www.ninds.nih.gov/)

The purpose of this Amendment to Notice NOT-NS-07-010 is to reaffirm the NINDS implementation of a 10 year time limit on the total project period for all P01 grants (i.e., no more than one 5 year renewal award would be made) and to also announce the exemption of existing P50 center grants with unique and critical resources from this sunsetting policy. Projects described in such P50 grants will generally include longitudinal human research cohorts or highly specialized resources relevant to human subject research.
Examples of such resources include:

• Unique brain lesion patient cohorts
• Pre-symptomatic patient populations
  
• Genetic cores
  
• Phenotypic data for patient populations
  
• Tissue and DNA repositories
  
• Fetal brain cell culture cores
  
• Imaging and clinical cores

NINDS will also consider exempting existing P50 center grants with non-clinical critical resources such as non-human primate cohorts, large animal model cohorts, or other unique research resources that cannot be supported through other NIH grant mechanisms.

In accordance with the criteria listed above, NINDS will change the designation, where appropriate, of currently funded P01 and unsolicited P50 grants. Toward that end, NINDS intends to publish a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) that clearly delineates the characteristics of P01 Program Project grants and unsolicited P50 center grants.

NINDS reaffirms its commitment to supporting program project grants (P01) that have outstanding innovative science and that are multidisciplinary, thematically integrated, synergistic, and advance collaborative science in areas relevant to the NINDS mission. As described in Notice NOT-NS-07-010, current P01 awardees are eligible for continued NINDS support through the P01 mechanism if, at the end of 10 years of support, they submit a new application with significant changes in scope and direction and, when appropriate, individual project leadership. Current P01 awardees are strongly encouraged to contact the NINDS program official identified on their most recent Notice of Award for further information and to discuss future options for the transition from support under the P01 to support under other investigator-initiated grant mechanisms. For additional information or for questions concerning this Notice, contact the appropriate extramural program officials listed at the following NINDS Web site: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/find_people/ninds/index.htm

The policy described in this Amendment was formulated after extensive discussion with the National Neurological Disorders and Stroke Advisory Council at its September 2007 meeting. It does not apply to applications submitted in response to Requests for Applications (RFAs) or Program Announcements (PAs) that include specific receipt dates and/or acceptance procedures. The full set of policies and procedures related to NINDS program project grants is available at the following location: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/funding/ppg_guidelines.htm. For all program project (P01)grant applications and unsolicited P50 center grant applications, as well as for any application requesting $500,000 or more in direct costs (exclusive of any consortium F&A costs) for any year, the applicant must: 1) contact the NINDS program staff at least 6 weeks before submitting the application; 2) obtain agreement from the NINDS staff that NINDS will accept the application for review and subsequent consideration for award; and 3) include a cover letter with the application identifying the NINDS staff member who agreed to accept assignment of the application. Additional information on this policy is available at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-02-004.html.

Inquiries

For questions or further information, contact:

Emmeline Edwards, Ph.D.
Deputy Director for Extramural Research
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
6001 Executive Blvd., Room 3305
Bethesda, MD 20892-9531 (for express mail use Rockville, MD 20852)
Phone: (301) 496-9248
FAX: (301) 402-4370
E-mail: ee48r@nih.gov