Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS)
and Human Services (HHS)
RESCINDED
August 26, 2020
NOT-TW-19-007 - Notice of NIH Participation in the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases Program
Fogarty International Center (FIC)
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
The purpose of this Notice is to announce that the NIH is collaborating on the multi-agency funding opportunity, the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) (NSF-20-585). This Notice updates and supersedes the previous Guide Notice, NOT-TW-19-007, published in the NIH Guide, August 28, 2019.
The Fogarty International Center (FIC), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will continue participation in this initiative led by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that supports research on the ecological, evolutionary, and socio-ecological principles and processes that influence the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases.
The central theme of submitted projects must be the quantitative or computational understanding of pathogen transmission dynamics. The intent is discovery of principles of infectious disease transmission and testing mathematical or computational models that elucidate infectious disease systems. Projects should be broad, interdisciplinary efforts that go beyond the scope of typical studies. They should focus on the determinants and interactions of transmission among any host species, including but not limited to humans, non-human animals, and/or plants. This includes, for example, the spread of pathogens; the influence of environmental factors such as climate; the population dynamics and genetics of reservoir species or hosts; the feedback between ecological transmission and evolutionary dynamics; and the cultural, social, behavioral, and economic dimensions of pathogen transmission. Research may be on zoonotic, environmentally-borne, vector-borne, or enteric pathogens of either terrestrial or aquatic systems and organisms, including diseases of animals and plants, at any scale from specific pathogens to inclusive environmental systems. Applications for research on disease systems of public health concern to Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) are strongly encouraged, as are disease systems of concern in agricultural systems. Investigators are encouraged to develop the appropriate multidisciplinary team, including for example, anthropologists, modelers, ecologists, bioinformaticians, genomics researchers, social scientists, economists, oceanographers, mathematical scientists, epidemiologists, evolutionary biologists, entomologists, parasitologists, microbiologists, bacteriologists, virologists, pathologists or veterinarians, with the goal of integrating knowledge across disciplines to enhance our ability to predict and control infectious diseases.
Award Information
It is anticipated the EEID program will issue approximately ten awards (through all EEID partners combined) in Fiscal Year 2021 for projects to begin in the summer of 2021, subject to the availability of funds. Under the NSF solicitation, the maximum award size for all years is $2.5 million, including indirect costs, and the maximum award duration is five years. Awards made by components of the NIH may receive support of up to $350,000 in direct costs per year for up to five years. The NIH will consider both EEID research applications and Research Coordination Network (RCN) applications.
Application Preparation and Submission Instructions
Applications must be submitted to the NSF in accordance with NSF-20-585, and not to the NIH. Following a jointly-conducted initial peer review of these applications, meritorious applications may be recommended for funding by either NSF, NIH, or USDA, at the option of the agencies. For those applications that are selected for funding by participating NIH Institutes and Centers, the PD/PI will be invited to submit the application in an NIH-approved format directly to the Center for Scientific Review (http://www.csr.nih.gov/) of the NIH for further processing. Subsequent submission and grant administration procedures will be in accordance with NIH policy.
Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to contact NIH or NSF program officials prior to submitting an application.
The deadline for submission to NSF is November 18, 2020. In subsequent years, the deadline is the third Wednesday in November.
Detailed information about this program can be obtained on the NSF website at https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5269&org=DEB&from=home and on the NIH website at http://www.fic.nih.gov/programs/Pages/ecology-infectious-diseases.aspx.
NIH Partner Interests
Fogarty International Center
The Fogarty International Center (FIC) is dedicated to advancing the mission of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by supporting and facilitating global health research conducted by U.S. and international investigators, building partnerships between health research institutions in the U.S. and abroad, and training the next generation of scientists to address global health needs. The FIC is interested in EEID applications that include explicit plans for capacity building in Low- or Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), as defined by the World Bank and encourages applications that are focused on significant and/or emerging infectious disease threats, including zoonotic disease threats, to human health in LMICs. The FIC will consider supporting meritorious EEID research applications that address the above priorities and/or meritorious EEID Research Coordination Network (RCN) applications aimed at capacity building in LMICs.
National Institute of General Medical Sciences
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) supports basic research that improves understanding of biological processes and lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnoses, prevention, and treatment. NIGMS also has a strong interest in training and support of the nation’s scientific workforce. NIGMS is interested in EEID applications that address the evolution of hosts, pathogens and their interactions as well as basic biology and population genetics of hosts and pathogens as they relate to disease transmission and prevention. NIGMS will consider supporting meritorious EEID research applications as single-PI or multi-PI research program grants.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) conducts and supports basic and applied research to better understand, treat, and ultimately prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases. For more than 60 years, NIAID research has led to new therapies, vaccines, diagnostic tests, and other technologies that have improved the health of millions of people in the United States and around the world. NIAID supports research on nearly 300 pathogens that cause disease in humans and investigates the biological properties of these pathogens and the immune system’s responses to them. Findings from this research are vital to NIAID efforts to create vaccines, drugs, and diagnostic tools to better diagnose, prevent, and treat infectious diseases.
NIAID seeks EEID applications that develop multi-scale modeling approaches ranging from molecular, cellular, organ, individual, and population-level scales to determine the effects of population-based immunity generated by prior exposure to phylogenetically related organisms present in the environment/reservoirs on pathogen evolution, disease transmission dynamics, and asymptomatic carriage, especially for emerging and re-emerging viruses. Applications are encouraged to describe ways to integrate data and resources from NIAID-funded programs, including Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID), Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS), Systems Biology for Infectious Diseases, among others.
Christine Jessup, Ph.D.
Fogarty International Center (FIC)
National Institutes of Health
Telephone: 301-496-1653
Email: Christine.Jessup@nih.gov
Stephanie Coomes, Ph.D.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
National Institutes of Health
Telephone: 301-761-6855
Email: stephanie.coomes@nih.gov
Daniel Janes, Ph.D.
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
National Institutes of Health
Email: daniel.janes@nih.gov