Notice Number: NOT-OD-18-102

Key Dates
Release Date: November 9, 2017

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Division of Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic Initiatives, Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP)

Purpose

The purpose of this Notice is to clarify types of projects that will not be supported by ORIP under PAR-16-369 Resource-Related Research Projects for Development of Animal Models and Related Materials (R24)".

Revised Language is below in Italics to be placed after the last bullet at the end of this section.

Section I. Funding Opportunity Description

Research Objectives

The translation of basic biomedical knowledge for prevention or new treatments often requires the use of animals as models for human disease or as a means to test therapies or vaccines. Efficient use of animal models is facilitated by development of specific resources for characterizing, archiving and distributing animals and/or related biological materials such as cell cultures, tissues, proteins, nucleic acids, and data such as genomic, phenotypic, or other "omics" data. Animal-related resources of use to the biomedical community can also comprise the information needed for optimal use of animal models such as physical and genetic maps or computer models, without actually archiving animals or animal-based materials. The Division of Comparative Medicine in ORIP supports these various types of resources related to animal models of human disease.

Development of an animal-based resource often requires preliminary work that is research-based. This resource-related research is often not hypothesis driven and cannot be addressed appropriately by NIH R01 or R21 grant applications. Accordingly, DCM/ORIP supports R24 grants, which have the following features:

• The grant supports applied studies to characterize and develop new animal-based resources or to improve existing resources.
• The grant supports research projects that contribute to the knowledge of a model system, making the system more useful and accessible to the research community.
• The grant must be related to animal models that are applicable to the interests of two or more of the categorical NIH ICs. Applications to develop models that relate strictly to a specific disease or category of research will not be considered acceptable. For example, applications from investigators interested in models or model systems with a primary focus on heart disease or neurological disorders would not be considered acceptable. Furthermore, applications proposing studies that are related predominantly to the interest of one IC and only peripherally to the interests of other ICs are not acceptable. Another example of an inappropriate request is one exclusively involving an animal model of cancer.
• The particular emphasis of an application can vary in regard to the balance of research-versus resource-related activities, depending on the state of the art at the time. An application can be predominantly research based if the research will plausibly lead to development of a resource, or can be predominantly aimed at final development or enhancement of a resource if most of the necessary research has already been accomplished.
• The application must demonstrate a need for the resource (or resource to be developed) by the biomedical research community.
• Cost recovery is not required.

Examples of potential research topics include, but are not limited to development of the following:

• Antibodies or other reagents for quantifying or characterizing macromolecules or cells in animal models of specific diseases.
• Animal-based genetic, genomic, phenomic and proteomic tools.
• Methods to improve cryopreservation of animal cells and germ plasm.
• Methods and tools for advancing the techniques of regenerative medicine.
• Methods and tools for studying the behavior of animals in captive breeding colonies.
• Methods and tools for identifying, developing, screening and/or archiving specific animal models such as genetically engineered strains of mice, mutant nonhuman primates and specific aquatic models.
• Informatics tools related to use of animal models information.
• Systems biology approaches to make the data generated from use of animal models more globally discoverable and useful.
• Methods to identify emerging or potential pathogens in animal resource facilities.
• Models related to newly emerging human pathogens.

Examples of projects that would not be supported under this program include:

• Projects focused on genomic sequencing of model organisms (for example, only for deposition into a database).
• Projects focusing primarily on creating or maintaining genomic databases.
• Projects focusing solely on creating or maintaining individual model organism databases.
• Projects proposing repositories of specific tissues and related bio-specimens (i.e. RNA extracts, processed tissues) from model organisms. If you are proposing this type of project, you should contact the appropriate categorical IC to explore current funding announcements.

Program Directors/Principal Investigators (PD/PIs) planning to submit applications to this FOA are strongly encouraged to contact the scientific contacts listed in this announcement to be advised on the appropriateness of the intended resource or research plans for this program, competitiveness of a potential application and alignment with ORIP's program priorities.

See Section VIII. Other Information for award authorities and regulations.

All other aspects of this FOA remain the same.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Stephanie Murphy, V.M.D., Ph.D.
Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP)
Telephone: 301-451-7818
Email: stephanie.murphy@nih.gov