Key Dates

Related Announcements

•  November 24, 2023 - Competing Revisions to Existing NIH Single Project Research Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Clinical Trial Optional). See NOFO PA-23-317.

Issued by

Office of Data Science Strategy (ODSS)

National Eye Institute (NEI)

National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)

National Institute on Aging (NIA)

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)

National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)

National Library of Medicine (NLM)

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

All applications to this funding opportunity announcement should fall within the mission of the Institutes/Centers. The following NIH Offices may co-fund applications assigned to those Institutes/Centers.

Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS)

Purpose

This Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) solicits competitive revision applications that focus on data reuse and secondary data analysis in NIH-funded data repositories and knowledgebases to advance scientific inquiry and address health research questions.

Background

National Institutes of Health (NIH) acknowledges the significant role of data in the current health research landscape. The NIH’s Strategic Plan for Data Science highlights enhancing the data science infrastructure and fostering a data ecosystem that encourages discovery, use, and reuse of data. With this NOSI, NIH hopes to encourage data reuse research activities and enrich NIH’s data resource infrastructure potentially through the data reuse experiences of funded investigators.

Support for data reuse and secondary data analysis has emerged as a strategy that benefits researchers, particularly those in the early stages of their careers or at institutions with limited resources. Previously, data reuse and secondary data analysis were hindered by limited data availability and poor documentation. However, with NIH’s ongoing efforts for data sharing, the expansion of NIH data and resource sharing requirements, and the establishment of data documentation and metadata standards, the landscape has significantly transformed. These initiatives have amplified the volume and quality of data available for data reuse and secondary data analysis.

Maximizing the effective use and reuse of stored data is pivotal to fully harness the potential of data resources. This is particularly relevant in the context of secondary analysis, which involves reusing existing data and can lead to the discovery of new insights. The FAIR principles, which stand for findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable, serve as a guiding framework for this process. Adherence to these principles can not only strengthen research reproducibility, a fundamental aspect of scientific advancement, but also augment the utility and impact of NIH-funded data resources. Ultimately, promoting data reuse and secondary analysis is vital for magnifying the effectiveness and impact of NIH-funded research and data resources, thereby propelling the field of health research forward.

Research Objectives

The primary goal is to promote data reuse and secondary data analysis to drive advancements in biomedical, behavioral, clinical, or health-related research.

For this NOSI, applications must:

• Focus on advancing scientific inquiry and addressing pivotal health research questions via data reuse or secondary data analysis.
• Include data from at least one publicly accessible, NIH-funded data repository or knowledgebase. Applications that use less or under-utilized data repositories or knowledgebases are encouraged. The data resource can be open, registered, or controlled access. However, the data resource must be available to the general research public and permit the submission or upload of new data. Guidance on NIH-funded data repositories and knowledgebases is available at https://datascience.nih.gov/data-ecosystem/biomedical-data-repositories-and-knowledgebases
• Describe how results and best practices for data reuse are to be shared with NIH and the broader community. In addition, the description should include methods for tracking and documenting the data reuse experience over the period of award. Key elements to consider include:
  • assessments of the data with regard to the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIR) principles;
  • how the quality of the data, in terms of FAIR principles, influenced the outcomes of the project;
  • propose a mechanism to share results generated from analysis of existing data, tools associated with the analysis, and other digital assets adhering to the FAIR principles;
  • data reuse experiences and lessons learned from the project.

Additionally, applicants are encouraged to develop projects for competitive revision to active parent awards that include, but are not limited to:

• Demonstrating innovative approaches to data reuse, which may include novel methods of data analysis;
• Exploring and implementing strategies for leveraging data across different data resources or data types;
• Identify specific actions or strategies to ensure that data obtained through secondary analysis is integrated back into existing data resources while minimizing quality loss;

Applications will be considered non-responsive to this NOSI if the application:

• Does not use any data repository or knowledgebase funded by NIH;
• Does not provide a comprehensive plan for sharing results and best practices for data reuse;
• Proposes to collect/generate new experimental data even if it is to enhance current or existing datasets;
• Proposes only using data generated by the applicant(s) from their current/past projects, which could include any data they have uploaded to a data resource;
• Proposes only reanalysis of data to reproduce previous results without an innovative application of the analysis;

Applicants that are funded are expected to:

• Participate in one program meeting or NIH-approved equivalent per year to report on goals and milestones met, lessons learned and recommendations that will be shared with the NIH research and data resource community; contributions may result in a meeting report;
• Participate in community conferences or meetings to share scientific outcomes, tools, and best practices;

Application and Submission Information

Budget

ODSS intends to commit $275,000 direct costs per award which can be used for up to two years.  No more than $200,000 may be requested in any single year. The number of awards is contingent upon NIH appropriations and the submission of a sufficient number of meritorious applications. Awardees are expected to allocate a portion of their budget for travel expenses to attend at least one program meeting or approved equivalent each year. This is to facilitate their attendance where they can share the outcomes of their projects and the lessons learned from data reuse.

Eligibility

The application’s project and budget periods must be within the currently approved project period for the existing parent award. At the time of application submission, the parent award must have a minimum of two years remaining. Further, while supplemental funds can support up to two years of research, their use is bound by the parent award's original end date, meaning the use of supplemental funds cannot extend beyond the parent award’s original end date.

Eligible active grants that can be revised in response to this NOSI are limited to R01, U01.   Applicants are strongly encouraged to consult the program officer and the grant management specialist of the parent grant to confirm eligibility.

Additional Information

This notice applies to the due dates below: 

Applications for this initiative should be submitted using the appropriate Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) or any reissues of this announcement through the expiration date of this notice.  

• PA-23-317 - Competing Revisions to Existing NIH Single Project Research Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Clinical Trial Optional)

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and the notice of funding opportunity used for submission must be followed, with the following additions:

• For funding consideration, applicants must include “NOT-OD-24-096” (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.

Evaluation Process

Submitted applications must follow the guidelines of the IC that funds the parent award. The applications will be evaluated by NIH Center for Scientific Review (CSR) by using the criteria described in PA-23-317. Applications will proceed to the Advisory Council of the parent awards for a second-round review before the final selection for award.

Applications nonresponsive to terms of this NOSI will be withdrawn from consideration for this initiative.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to the Scientific/Research, Peer Review, and Financial/Grants Management contacts in Section VII of the listed notice of funding opportunity.

Scientific/Research Contact(s)
Office of Data Science Strategy (ODSS)
Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives
Office of the Director
drkb-foa@nih.gov