Key Dates

Related Announcements

PA-20-272 - Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional)

NOT-TW-21-003 - Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Administrative Supplements for COVID-19-Impacted FIC Research Training and Education Awards

Issued by

Fogarty International Center (FIC)

Purpose

This Notice describes priorities for supplemental funding from the Fogarty International Center (FIC) for active FIC awards (i.e., not awards administered by other NIH ICs with FIC co-funding) to support COVID-19-related research or mentored research projects on scientific questions unique to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

This NOSI is not intended to support COVID-19-impacted research. Applicants requesting support for COVID-19-impacted research training and education awards may consider an administrative supplement request in response to NOT-TW-21-003 “Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Administrative Supplements for COVID-19-Impacted FIC Research Training and Education Awards”.

Submission of only one administrative supplement request per FIC award is permitted; concurrent administrative supplement requests through both this NOSI initiative and NOT-TW-21-003 “Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Administrative Supplements for COVID-19-Impacted FIC Research Training and Education Awards” will not be considered.

Administrative supplement funds cannot be used to support public health COVID-19 surveillance activities.

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented research response. In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) released the WHO Coordinated Global Research Roadmap after consultation with over 400 global experts who rapidly identified COVID-19 research priorities. Analyses from the COVID-19 Research Project Tracker by UKCDR & GloPID-R database indicates that some level of COVID-19-related research is being conducted in more than 130 countries, however nearly all research projects are being led by and taking place, at least in part, in high income countries (Norton, et al. 2020). These analyses also identify clear gaps in research areas critical for LMIC efforts to understand and combat the COVID-19 epidemic. Therefore, the Fogarty International Center (FIC) requests applications for administrative supplements to existing FIC awards to support COVID-19-related research or mentored research projects on scientific questions unique to low- and middle-income countries.

Applicants should only propose COVID-19-related research specific aims that can be accomplished during one year of administrative supplement support.

Program Priorities

• Administrative supplement applications will be accepted to supplement awards issued by FIC (i.e., contain a “TW” in the grant number) for research projects (R21, R01, U01), mentored research projects (K01, K43), or research training or education grantees (D43, U2R, R25) that propose a COVID-19-related research or mentored research project.
• Alignment with the "WHO Global Research Roadmap: 2019 Novel Coronavirus" priority & sub-priority areas is required and should be addressed by the proposed request. For reference, applicants may consult the COVID-19 Research Project Tracker analyses by Norton, et al. (2020) which analyzed the research projects in this database to identify gaps in COVID-19 research in LMICs.

• Highest priority will be given to COVID-19-related research projects that address unique scientific questions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in the LMIC where the research will be conducted. The unique scientific and pandemic-related health significance of the proposed project should be described in detail.

• Priority will be given to support COVID-19-related research or research training conducted in LMICs.

Investigators are strongly encouraged to contact their FIC program officer to discuss the eligibility and alignment of the proposed request with FIC priorities prior to submission.

Reference

Norton, A., Bucher, A., Antonio, E., Advani, N., Grund, H., Mburu, S., Clegg, E., Scott, L., Boily-Larouche, G., Lay, A.M., Carson, G., & Tufet Bayona, M. (2020). A living mapping review for COVID-19 funded research projects: Three-month update. Wellcome Open Research, 5, 209. https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16259.2

Application and Submission Information

The parent award must be active (i.e., not in a no-cost or funded extension) when the supplemental application is submitted regardless of the time remaining on the current project.

Applications for this initiative must be submitted using the following funding opportunity announcement or its subsequent reissued equivalent.

• PA-20-272 - Administrative Supplements to Existing NIH Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Parent Admin Supp Clinical Trial Optional)

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and PA-20-272 must be followed, with the following additions:

• Application Due Date – May 14, 2021 by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization.
• For funding consideration, applicants must include “NOT-TW-21-004" (without quotation marks) in the Agency Routing Identifier field (box 4B) of the SF424 R&R form. Applications without this information in box 4B will not be considered for this initiative.
• Only electronic submissions will be accepted for this funding opportunity. Use one of the methods described in PA-20-272.
• Budget: Requests must not exceed $75,000 direct costs. The requested budget should support research or research training costs at the LMIC performance site. The application budget is limited to 1 year only.

• Page limits: As applicable, the Research Strategy section for research grants or career development awards or the Mentored Research Training Plan for research training or education grants is limited to 6 pages. Within these 6 pages, all applications must provide:
  • Detailed explanation argument for how the proposed project broadly fits within the scope of the parent award's specific aims
  • Information about any pending applications for support for proposed activities
  • Documentation of anticipated carry-over funds and plans to use those funds
  • Detailed human subjects research procedures (if applicable), including the availability of the proposed subject population, feasibility of achieving recruitment goals, status of IRB approval of the project, and implementation plans to address the impact of COVID-19 on human subject protection
  • Vertebrate animal research procedures (if applicable), including availability of research organisms, description of housing facility, including COVID-19 biohazard procedures (as applicable), status of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) approval of facility and research protocol
  • Research resources and environment at proposed performance sites regarding COVID-19 biohazard procedures (if applicable), including any changes from the original application and discuss the impact on proposed research
  • Specific research and research training aims as well as a detailed research methodological approach and timeline for a one-year project
  • Feasibility of the proposed plan given the current and foreseeable COVID-19-related limitations on LMIC and U.S. research activities
  • Detailed justification for each U.S.-based research cost proposed
  • Biosketches and description of specific roles for the researchers and/or research trainees who will be involved

For career development awards (K01 or K43):

• Explain in detail how the proposed research plan fits into the originally proposed research, and career development activities and timeline

• Provide LMIC and US mentor letters of support and mentorship plans for the upcoming year.

• Include letter signed by the Institutional Business Official providing a description of institutional support for the PI’s research, career development activities and protected time during the supplement period.

For research training or education grants (D43, U2R, R25):

• Provide detailed training progress report for each LMIC trainee proposed for supplement support and how the proposed mentored research will impact their training

• Provide LMIC and US mentor letters of support and mentorship plans for each LMIC trainee proposed for support for the upcoming year

For research grants (R21, R01, U01):

• Explain in detail how the proposed research plan fits into the originally proposed research activities and timeline

• Provide letters of support from the LMIC and US collaborators involved in completing the proposed research that describes their availability and specific roles

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to the program officer for your parent award:

Barbara Sina, Ph.D.
Division of International Training and Research
Fogarty International Center (FIC)
Telephone: (301) 402-9467
Email: sinab@mail.nih.gov

Kathleen Michels, Ph.D.
Division of International Training and Research
Fogarty International Center (FIC)
Telephone: (301) 496-1653
Email: brainfic@nih.gov

Geetha Bansal, Ph.D.
Division of International Training and Research
Fogarty International Center (FIC)
Telephone: 301-496-1492
Email: geetha.bansal@nih.gov

Laura Povlich, Ph.D.
Division of International Training and Research
Fogarty International Center (FIC)
Telephone: 301-827-2227
Email: Laura.povlich@nih.gov

Christine Jessup, Ph.D.
Division of International Training and Research
Fogarty International Center (FIC)
Telephone: 301-496-1653
Email: Christine.Jessup@nih.gov

Marya Levintova, Ph.D.
Division of International Training and Research
Fogarty International Center (FIC)
Telephone: (301) 496-1653
Email: Marya.Levintova@nih.gov

Brad Newsome, Ph.D.
Division of International Training and Research
Fogarty International Center (FIC)
Telephone: 301-480-8389
Email: brad.newsome@nih.gov

UnJa Hayes, Ph.D.
Division of International Training and Research
Fogarty International Center (FIC)
Telephone: 301-827-7024
Email: unja.hayes@nih.gov