Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS)
and Human Services (HHS)
EXPIRED
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
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 Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)
Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH)
U24 Resource-Related Research Projects Cooperative Agreements
None
The purpose of this Cooperative Resource-Related Research Project FOA is to establish a coordinating center to support and develop research, dissemination, and various data sharing activities for social, behavioral, and economic research on COVID-19. The Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research on COVID-19 Consortium Coordinating Center (SBECCC) will foster innovation, collaboration, and synergies across researchers funded through the Social, Behavioral and Economic Research on COVID-19 Consortium (U01) program and other relevant NIH-funded studies by supporting networking activities intended to advance research in the field; supporting the development and use of harmonized COVID-19 data constructs for primary and secondary data to support comparability and replicability; assisting in efficient and enhanced sharing/discoverability of data; and disseminating findings to the research community and the public.
May 9, 2021
| Application Due Dates | Review and Award Cycles | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Renewal / Resubmission / Revision (as allowed) | AIDS | Scientific Merit Review | Advisory Council Review | Earliest Start Date |
| June 09, 2021 | Not Applicable | Not Applicable | August 2021 | August 2021 | September 2021 |
All applications are due by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization. All types of non-AIDS applications allowed for this funding opportunity announcement are due on the listed date(s).
Applicants are encouraged to apply early to allow adequate time to make any corrections to errors found in the application during the submission process by the due date.
No late applications will be accepted for this Funding Opportunity Announcement.
Not Applicable
It is critical that applicants follow the instructions in the Research (R) Instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, except where instructed to do otherwise (in this FOA or in a Notice from NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts).
Conformance to all requirements (both in the Application Guide and the FOA) is required and strictly enforced. Applicants must read and follow all application instructions in the Application Guide as well as any program-specific instructions noted in Section IV. When the program-specific instructions deviate from those in the Application Guide, follow the program-specific instructions.
Applications that do not comply with these instructions may be delayed or not accepted for review.
Background
Pandemic mitigation and social distancing measures implemented across the United States in response to COVID-19 have had immediate effects on communities in terms of increased social isolation, reduced mobility and transportation, and historic levels of involuntary unemployment and resultant financial strain. The reallocation of healthcare system resources to expand access to COVID-19 testing and treatments may be crowding out access to medical care for other reasons, thereby producing secondary health effects. Reductions in earnings associated with job loss or reduction in hours worked could be lasting, particularly for underserved, vulnerable, and/or low-income workers. Associated reductions in income or lack of access to health insurance may influence adherence to drug regimens and other efficacious preventive services. These immediate impacts will have long-lasting downstream effects on socioeconomic status, attitudes, behaviors, health, and healthcare access that may influence the quality of life of people in the United States and around the world. However, reductions in economic activity associated with stay-at-home mitigation strategies may also reduce some health problems and causes of death (e.g., fewer traffic accidents and fewer non-urgent elective surgeries). Research is needed to understand the net health and mortality impacts of mitigation strategies and their economic side effects on diverse and vulnerable U.S. populations.
Research to understand the health impacts of coronavirus mitigation strategies and the mechanisms that may convey risk and resilience, particularly in underserved and vulnerable populations, will help improve long-term responses to the pandemic and prepare more effectively for the next public health emergency. For example, the success of coronavirus mitigation strategies is contingent on adherence to preventive behaviors including staying at home, social distancing, hand washing, and maskwearing as well as attitudes and behavior related to vaccination. Research on adherence to these preventive behaviors and to understand how personal and social factors promote or impede adherence will be key for developing and communicating effective public health recommendations. As another example, in the United States there are substantial racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 incident infections and mortality. Understanding how individual-, family-, and community-level risk factors interact to produce these COVID-19 disparities will inform the development of more effective interventions for underserved populations.
The NIH Social, Behavioral, and Economic Health Impacts of COVID-19 in Vulnerable and Health Disparity Populations initiative (hereafter SBE) was formed to support research on these and other related issues. The specific objectives of SBE include improving prediction of various mitigation efforts on transmission reduction and on social and economic impacts by leveraging and augmenting existing surveys, cohort studies, and research networks; assessing the downstream health and healthcare access effects from the economic downturn through comprehensive analysis of a wide range of available data sources; and developing digital and community interventions to ameliorate health effects of COVID-19 mitigation strategies in vulnerable populations. To achieve these ends, the SBE has initiated several funding announcements to rapidly support research and research infrastructure primarily via supplements/revisions to existing projects as well as guidance on harmonizing and sharing data to support study comparisons and replication. These calls have led to a significant number of SBE-related research studies, additions to longitudinal data to support COVID-19 SBE research, and both digital and community-level interventions. The collection of funded studies presents unique opportunities to form new research collaborations via networking among funded investigators and the broader research community conducting SBE-relevant research or possessing relevant data; harmonizing data to support comparability/replication through the sharing and development of comparable data constructs; and disseminating results of SBE-supported research to the public and policy makers. Further, these near-term data capture/collection activities may lead to follow-up or longer-term activities intended to capture changes across and even beyond the pandemic, increasing the benefits of communication and collaboration among studies.
This funding opportunity announcement calls for applications to serve as a resource to advance the field of research on social, behavioral, and economic research on COVID-19. This will be done by a coordinating center via a Cooperative Resource-Related Research Project award (U24) supporting research development activities, a cooperative agreement that would include substantial involvement by NIH in the conduct of project aims with the investigative team - the Social, Behavioral and Economic Research on COVID-19 Consortium Coordinating Center (SBECCC). A key role of the SBECCC is to serve as a research dissemination and collaboration coordinator with NIH for research awards made to the consortium under PAR-21-213 as well as other SBE-related research/investigators. Together, the SBECCC and SBE-funded research and research infrastructure projects will advance research on the impact of SARS-CoV-2 and associated mitigation efforts on individual, family, and community behavior; and on how subsequent economic disruption affects health-related outcomes, with close attention to underserved and vulnerable populations. The SBECCC will work with Consortium and other investigators conducting SBE-relevant research to share results, implement harmonization among measures captured/collected, identify new opportunities for interaction/collaboration, address methodological/measurement challenges, and share results of funded activities with NIH and the public. Further, the SBECCC will produce reports and analyses summarizing and integrating the findings/products of the consortium. These activities are intended to provide resources to the field at large to support the advancement of research on social, behavioral, and economic research on COVID-19.
Research Objectives
The primary objective of the SBECCC is to facilitate and advance social, behavioral, and economic research on COVID-19. To do this, the SBECCC will undertake several research development and sharing activities intended to support the field. The SBECCC will develop, coordinate, and disseminate the research activities of the Social, Behavioral and Economic Research on COVID-19 Consortium and other SBE-related research. Specifically, the SBECCC will conduct activities to facilitate research collaboration and development among researchers; provide information on NIH-recommended COVID-19 harmonized data constructs as they are developed and work with consortium researchers to develop new constructs as needed; facilitate sharing and discovery of data used by Consortium researchers to the field; and disseminate the research contributions of SBE-supported researchers. In conducting these activities, the SBECCC will be a resource for the field intended to support the development of innovative SBE-focused research. Examples of SBECCC functions include but are not limited to:
Additional activities or functions may be proposed to promote collaboration across consortium/SBE projects, encourage interactions between SBE programs and other NIH-supported resources, and to enhance the value, innovativeness, and visibility of SBE research.
Applications Not Responsive to this FOA
Responsive applications will include activities to facilitate all of the following: encourage research collaboration and development among researchers; provide information on NIH-recommended COVID-19 harmonized data constructs as they are developed and work with consortium researchers to develop new constructs as needed; facilitate sharing and discovery of data used by Consortium researchers to the field; disseminate the research contributions of SBE-supported researchers; and conduct an annual in-person meeting at NIH as described in this FOA. Applications that do not include these activities will be deemed not responsive and will not receive further consideration for award.
See Section VIII. Other Information for award authorities and regulations.
Cooperative Agreement: A support mechanism used when there will be substantial Federal scientific or programmatic involvement. Substantial involvement means that, after award, NIH scientific or program staff will assist, guide, coordinate, or participate in project activities. See Section VI.2 for additional information about the substantial involvement for this FOA.
The OER Glossary and the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide provide details on these application types. Only those application types listed here are allowed for this FOA.
Not Allowed: Only accepting applications that do not propose clinical trials.
Need help determining whether you are doing a clinical trial?
NIA and partner components intend to commit $750,000 in FY 2021 to fund one award. The number of awards is contingent upon NIH appropriations and the submission of a sufficient number of meritorious applications.
Application budgets are limited to $500,000 in annual direct costs.
The total project period may not exceed 5 years.
NIH grants policies as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement will apply to the applications submitted and awards made from this FOA.
Higher Education Institutions
The following types of Higher Education Institutions are always encouraged to apply for NIH support as Public or Private Institutions of Higher Education:
Nonprofits Other Than Institutions of Higher Education
For-Profit Organizations
Local Governments
Federal Governments
Other
Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions) are not eligible to apply.
Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations are not eligible to apply.
Foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are not allowed.
Applicant organizations
Applicant organizations must complete and maintain the following registrations as described in the SF 424 (R&R) Application Guide to be eligible to apply for or receive an award. All registrations must be completed prior to the application being submitted. Registration can take 6 weeks or more, so applicants should begin the registration process as soon as possible. The NIH Policy on Late Submission of Grant Applications states that failure to complete registrations in advance of a due date is not a valid reason for a late submission.
Program Directors/Principal Investigators (PD(s)/PI(s))
All PD(s)/PI(s) must have an eRA Commons account. PD(s)/PI(s) should work with their organizational officials to either create a new account or to affiliate their existing account with the applicant organization in eRA Commons. If the PD/PI is also the organizational Signing Official, they must have two distinct eRA Commons accounts, one for each role. Obtaining an eRA Commons account can take up to 2 weeks.
Any individual(s) with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research as the Program Director(s)/Principal Investigator(s) (PD(s)/PI(s)) is invited to work with his/her organization to develop an application for support. Individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups as well as individuals with disabilities are always encouraged to apply for NIH support.
For institutions/organizations proposing multiple PDs/PIs, visit the Multiple Program Director/Principal Investigator Policy and submission details in the Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) Component of the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.
The PD/PI and the SBECCC team are expected to have significant knowledge about priority areas in social, behavioral, and economic research; experience in promoting collaboration across different research groups or institutions; and experience in program management and coordination.
This FOA does not require cost sharing as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.
Number of Applications
Applicant organizations may submit more than one application, provided that each application is scientifically distinct.
The NIH will not accept duplicate or highly overlapping applications under review at the same time. This means that the NIH will not accept:
The application forms package specific to this opportunity must be accessed through ASSIST, Grants.gov Workspace or an institutional system-to-system solution. Links to apply using ASSIST or Grants.gov Workspace are available in Part 1 of this FOA. See your administrative office for instructions if you plan to use an institutional system-to-system solution.
Letter of Intent
Although a letter of intent is not required, is not binding, and does not enter into the review of a subsequent application, the information that it contains allows IC staff to estimate the potential review workload and plan the review.
By the date listed in Part 1. Overview Information, prospective applicants are asked to submit a letter of intent that includes the following information:
The letter of intent should be sent to:
John W.R. Phillips, Ph.D.
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Telephone: 301-496-3136
Email: [email protected]
All page limitations described in the SF424 Application Guide and the Table of Page Limits must be followed.
The following section supplements the instructions found in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and should be used for preparing an application to this FOA.
All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.
All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.
All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.
All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.
The applicant should propose PD(s)/PI(s) and other personnel well suited to conduct the roles of the SBECCC. Specifically, they should include demonstrated experience and an ongoing record of accomplishments in managing social, behavioral, and economic research and research resources; experience with coordinating collaborative research; and expertise appropriate to support the development and implementation of relevant comparable data constructs for secondary data collections or Common Data Elements for primary data collections. If the application is multi-PD/PI, the investigators should have complementary and integrated expertise as well as clear governance plans for the administration of the proposed SBECCC.
R&R Budget
All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.
Additionally, all applications should include costs for an annual meeting of up to two days. The SBECCC will plan and implement one annual in-person meeting at NIH to be attended by PD/PIs of SBE/Consortium projects in coordination with NIH program staff. The SBECCC will create the agenda for and chair that meeting with guidance from NIH program staff. The purpose of the annual meeting will be to share updates and scientific advances, discuss and plan collaborative activities including the development/sharing of CDEs, host expert sessions on methods/measurement advancement, discuss and plan activities to develop new research activities to advance the field relevant to NIH research priorities, etc. Requested costs should reflect the proposed vision for this meeting.
All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.
All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.
All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed, with the following additional instructions:
Research Strategy
The successful completion of program objectives will require the SBECCC to effectively interact with experts in SBE-relevant research, including (but not limited to) four specific groups defined here for clarity:
Applicants should propose an organizational structure that describes how interactions among these groups will take place to achieve the objectives of this FOA.
Working in collaboration with these groups and others as appropriate, the SBECCC should propose activities in support of the following objectives:
Resource Sharing Plan: Individuals are required to comply with the instructions for the Resource Sharing Plans as provided in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.
The following modifications also apply:
When involving human subjects research, clinical research, and/or NIH-defined clinical trials (and when applicable, clinical trials research experience) follow all instructions for the PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide, with the following additional instructions:
If you answered Yes to the question Are Human Subjects Involved? on the R&R Other Project Information form, you must include at least one human subjects study record using the Study Record: PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information form or Delayed Onset Study record.
Study Record: PHS Human Subjects and Clinical Trials Information
All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.
Note: Delayed onset does NOT apply to a study that can be described but will not start immediately (i.e., delayed start).All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.
All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide must be followed.
See Part 1. Section III.1 for information regarding the requirement for obtaining a unique entity identifier and for completing and maintaining active registrations in System for Award Management (SAM), NATO Commercial and Government Entity (NCAGE) Code (if applicable), eRA Commons, and Grants.gov.
Part I. Overview Information contains information about Key Dates and times. Applicants are encouraged to submit applications before the due date to ensure they have time to make any application corrections that might be necessary for successful submission. When a submission date falls on a weekend or Federal holiday, the application deadline is automatically extended to the next business day.
Organizations must submit applications to Grants.gov (the online portal to find and apply for grants across all Federal agencies). Applicants must then complete the submission process by tracking the status of the application in the eRA Commons, NIH’s electronic system for grants administration. NIH and Grants.gov systems check the application against many of the application instructions upon submission. Errors must be corrected and a changed/corrected application must be submitted to Grants.gov on or before the application due date and time. If a Changed/Corrected application is submitted after the deadline, the application will be considered late. Applications that miss the due date and time are subjected to the NIH Policy on Late Application Submission.
Applicants are responsible for viewing their application before the due date in the eRA Commons to ensure accurate and successful submission.
Information on the submission process and a definition of on-time submission are provided in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.
This initiative is not subject to intergovernmental review.
All NIH awards are subject to the terms and conditions, cost principles, and other considerations described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.
Pre-award costs are allowable only as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.
Applications must be submitted electronically following the instructions described in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide. Paper applications will not be accepted.
Applicants must complete all required registrations before the application due date. Section III. Eligibility Information contains information about registration.
For assistance with your electronic application or for more information on the electronic submission process, visit How to Apply Application Guide. If you encounter a system issue beyond your control that threatens your ability to complete the submission process on-time, you must follow the Dealing with System Issues guidance. For assistance with application submission, contact the Application Submission Contacts in Section VII.
Important reminders:
All PD(s)/PI(s) must include their eRA Commons ID in the Credential field of the Senior/Key Person Profile Component of the SF424(R&R) Application Package. Failure to register in the Commons and to include a valid PD/PI Commons ID in the credential field will prevent the successful submission of an electronic application to NIH. See Section III of this FOA for information on registration requirements.
The applicant organization must ensure that the DUNS number it provides on the application is the same number used in the organization’s profile in the eRA Commons and for the System for Award Management. Additional information may be found in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.
See more tips for avoiding common errors.
Upon receipt, applications will be evaluated for completeness and compliance with application instructions by the Center for Scientific Review and responsiveness by components of participating organizations, NIH. Applications that are incomplete, non-compliant and/or nonresponsive will not be reviewed.
In order to expedite review, applicants are requested to notify the NIA Referral Office by email at [email protected] when the application has been submitted. Please include the FOA number and title, PD/PI name, and title of the application.
Applicants are required to follow the instructions for post-submission materials, as described in the policy. Any instructions provided here are in addition to the instructions in the policy.
Only the review criteria described below will be considered in the review process. Applications submitted to the NIH in support of the NIH mission are evaluated for scientific and technical merit through the NIH objective review system.
Reviewers will provide an overall impact score to reflect their assessment of the likelihood for the SBECCC to exert a sustained, powerful influence on social, behavioral, and economic research on COVID-19, in consideration of the following review criteria and additional review criteria (as applicable for the project proposed).
Reviewers will consider each of the review criteria below in the determination of scientific merit, and give a separate score for each. An application does not need to be strong in all categories to be judged likely to have major scientific impact. For example, a project that by its nature is not innovative may be essential to advance a field.
Does the proposed SBECCC address the needs of the SBE investigators that it will coordinate and serve? Is the scope of activities proposed appropriate to meet those needs? Will successful completion of the aims bring added value or unique advantages or capabilities to the scientific activities and accomplishments of the SBE program? Does the proposed Coordinating Center address the dissemination and collaborative needs of the SBE Consortium? Is there strong evidence of the availability of sufficient scientific expertise and of the ability to work with scientists to serve as the overall SBE Consortium point-of-contact for a broad scientific and policy-oriented community?
Are the PD(s)/PI(s) and other personnel well suited to their roles in the SBECCC? Do they have appropriate experience and training, and have they demonstrated experience and an ongoing record of accomplishments in managing social, behavioral, and economic research and research resources? Do the investigators demonstrate significant experience with coordinating collaborative research? Do they have expertise appropriate to support the development and implementation of relevant comparable data constructs for secondary data collections or Common Data Elements for primary data collections? If the SBECCC is multi-PD/PI, do the investigators have complementary and integrated expertise and skills, and are their leadership approach, governance, plans for conflict resolution, and organizational structure appropriate for the SBECC? Does the applicant have experience overseeing selection and management of subawards, if needed? Does the investigative team have relevant experience and expertise in project management and coordination required for activities proposed for the SBECCC? Will the investigative team proposed be able to facilitate cooperation across a wide range of social science fields?
Does the application propose appropriate and innovative organizational concepts or management strategies in coordinating SBE Consortium research activities? Are the strategies to form collaborations among SBE investigators new or uniquely applied? Are the concepts, strategies, or instrumentation novel to one type of research program or applicable in a broad sense? Is a refinement, improvement, or new application of organizational concepts or management strategies proposed? Do the dissemination strategies include novel approaches to share activities and outcomes with appropriate audiences? Are plans for assisting researchers with development or implementation of CDEs innovative?
Are the overall strategy, operational plan and organizational structure well-reasoned and appropriate to accomplish the goals of the SBECCC and the goals of the SBE Consortium that the coordinating center will serve? Do the investigators promote strategies to ensure a robust participation across SBE investigators in SBECCC activities (e.g., collaborations, comparability, dissemination, etc.)? Are potential problems, alternative strategies, and benchmarks for success presented? Does the proposed strategy adequately establish feasibility and manage the risks associated with the activities of the SBECCC? Does the application include an appropriate plan for workflow and a well-established timeline? Do they provide plans to effectively share NIH recommended COVID-19 common data constructs and, when necessary, develop new ones to support SBE COVID-19 research aims among the SBE research community? To what extent will the SBECCC facilitate the effectiveness and impact of the SBE Consortium? Is the approach to the coordinating functions effective? Are the proposed procedures for communication, cooperation, and fostering collaboration among the Consortium and NIH staff adequate? Are there appropriate plans to coordinate interaction between the Consortium program and other relevant NIH programs? Are there appropriate plans to collect, maintain and synthesize data to achieve stated reporting needs?
If the project involves human subjects and/or NIH-defined clinical research, are the plans to address 1) the protection of human subjects from research risks, and 2) inclusion (or exclusion) of individuals on the basis of sex/gender, race, and ethnicity, as well as the inclusion or exclusion of individuals of all ages (including children and older adults), justified in terms of the scientific goals and research strategy proposed?
Will the institutional environment in which the SBECCC will operate contribute to the probability of success in facilitating the research activities of the Consortium it serves? Are the institutional support, equipment, and other physical resources available to the investigators adequate for the SBECCC proposed? Will the SBECCC benefit from unique features of the institutional environment, infrastructure, or personnel? Are resources available within the scientific environment to support electronic information handling?
As applicable for the project proposed, reviewers will evaluate the following additional items while determining scientific and technical merit, and in providing an overall impact score, but will not give separate scores for these items.
Protections for Human Subjects
For research that involves human subjects but does not involve one of the categories of research that are exempt under 45 CFR Part 46, the committee will evaluate the justification for involvement of human subjects and the proposed protections from research risk relating to their participation according to the following five review criteria: 1) risk to subjects, 2) adequacy of protection against risks, 3) potential benefits to the subjects and others, 4) importance of the knowledge to be gained, and 5) data and safety monitoring for clinical trials.
For research that involves human subjects and meets the criteria for one or more of the categories of research that are exempt under 45 CFR Part 46, the committee will evaluate: 1) the justification for the exemption, 2) human subjects involvement and characteristics, and 3) sources of materials. For additional information on review of the Human Subjects section, please refer to the Guidelines for the Review of Human Subjects.
Inclusion of Women, Minorities, and Individuals Across the Lifespan
When the proposed project involves human subjects and/or NIH-defined clinical research, the committee will evaluate the proposed plans for the inclusion (or exclusion) of individuals on the basis of sex/gender, race, and ethnicity, as well as the inclusion (or exclusion) of individuals of all ages (including children and older adults) to determine if it is justified in terms of the scientific goals and research strategy proposed. For additional information on review of the Inclusion section, please refer to the Guidelines for the Review of Inclusion in Clinical Research.
Vertebrate Animals
The committee will evaluate the involvement of live vertebrate animals as part of the scientific assessment according to the following criteria: (1) description of proposed procedures involving animals, including species, strains, ages, sex, and total number to be used; (2) justifications for the use of animals versus alternative models and for the appropriateness of the species proposed; (3) interventions to minimize discomfort, distress, pain and injury; and (4) justification for euthanasia method if NOT consistent with the AVMA Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals. Reviewers will assess the use of chimpanzees as they would any other application proposing the use of vertebrate animals. For additional information on review of the Vertebrate Animals section, please refer to the Worksheet for Review of the Vertebrate Animal Section.
Biohazards
Reviewers will assess whether materials or procedures proposed are potentially hazardous to research personnel and/or the environment, and if needed, determine whether adequate protection is proposed.
Resubmissions
Not Applicable
Renewals
Not Applicable
Revisions
Not Applicable
As applicable for the project proposed, reviewers will consider each of the following items, but will not give scores for these items, and should not consider them in providing an overall impact score.
Reviewers will comment on whether the following Resource Sharing Plans, or the rationale for not sharing the following types of resources, are reasonable: (1) Data Sharing Plan; (2) Sharing Model Organisms; and (3) Genomic Data Sharing Plan (GDS).
Applications from Foreign Organizations
Not Applicable.
Select Agent Research
Reviewers will assess the information provided in this section of the application, including 1) the Select Agent(s) to be used in the proposed research, 2) the registration status of all entities where Select Agent(s) will be used, 3) the procedures that will be used to monitor possession use and transfer of Select Agent(s), and 4) plans for appropriate biosafety, biocontainment, and security of the Select Agent(s).
Authentication of Key Biological and/or Chemical Resources:
For projects involving key biological and/or chemical resources, reviewers will comment on the brief plans proposed for identifying and ensuring the validity of those resources.
Budget and Period of Support
Reviewers will consider whether the budget and the requested period of support are fully justified and reasonable in relation to the proposed research.
Applications will be evaluated for scientific and technical merit by (an) appropriate internal NIA review group(s), using the stated review criteria. Assignment to a internal NIA review group will be shown in the eRA Commons.
As part of the scientific objective review, all applications:
Appeals of initial peer review will not be accepted for applications submitted in response to this FOA.
Applications will be assigned on the basis of established PHS referral guidelines to the appropriate NIH Institute or Center. Applications will compete for available funds with all other recommended applications submitted in response to this FOA. Following initial objective review, recommended applications will receive a second level of review by the National Advisory Council on Aging. The following will be considered in making funding decisions:
Information regarding the disposition of applications is available in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.
If the application is under consideration for funding, NIH will request "just-in-time" information from the applicant as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.
A formal notification in the form of a Notice of Award (NoA) will be provided to the applicant organization for successful applications. The NoA signed by the grants management officer is the authorizing document and will be sent via email to the recipient's business official.
Awardees must comply with any funding restrictions described in Section IV.5. Funding Restrictions. Selection of an application for award is not an authorization to begin performance. Any costs incurred before receipt of the NoA are at the recipient's risk. These costs may be reimbursed only to the extent considered allowable pre-award costs.
Any application awarded in response to this FOA will be subject to terms and conditions found on the Award Conditions and Information for NIH Grants website. This includes any recent legislation and policy applicable to awards that is highlighted on this website.
Institutional Review Board or Independent Ethics Committee Approval: Recipient institutions must ensure that protocols are reviewed by their IRB or IEC. To help ensure the safety of participants enrolled in NIH-funded studies, the awardee must provide NIH copies of documents related to all major changes in the status of ongoing protocols.
All NIH grant and cooperative agreement awards include the NIH Grants Policy Statement as part of the NoA. For these terms of award, see the NIH Grants Policy Statement Part II: Terms and Conditions of NIH Grant Awards, Subpart A: General and Part II: Terms and Conditions of NIH Grant Awards, Subpart B: Terms and Conditions for Specific Types of Grants, Recipients, and Activities. More information is provided at Award Conditions and Information for NIH Grants.
Recipients of federal financial assistance (FFA) from HHS must administer their programs in compliance with federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, age and, in some circumstances, religion, conscience, and sex. This includes ensuring programs are accessible to persons with limited English proficiency. The HHS Office for Civil Rights provides guidance on complying with civil rights laws enforced by HHS. Please see https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-providers/provider-obligations/index.html and http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/civilrights/understanding/section1557/index.html.
HHS recognizes that research projects are often limited in scope for many reasons that are nondiscriminatory, such as the principal investigator’s scientific interest, funding limitations, recruitment requirements, and other considerations. Thus, criteria in research protocols that target or exclude certain populations are warranted where nondiscriminatory justifications establish that such criteria are appropriate with respect to the health or safety of the subjects, the scientific study design, or the purpose of the research. For additional guidance regarding how the provisions apply to NIH grant programs, please contact the Scientific/Research Contact that is identified in Section VII under Agency Contacts of this FOA.
Please contact the HHS Office for Civil Rights for more information about obligations and prohibitions under federal civil rights laws at https://www.hhs.gov/ocr/about-us/contact-us/index.html or call 1-800-368-1019 or TDD 1-800-537-7697.
In accordance with the statutory provisions contained in Section 872 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2009 (Public Law 110-417), NIH awards will be subject to the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) requirements. FAPIIS requires Federal award making officials to review and consider information about an applicant in the designated integrity and performance system (currently FAPIIS) prior to making an award. An applicant, at its option, may review information in the designated integrity and performance systems accessible through FAPIIS and comment on any information about itself that a Federal agency previously entered and is currently in FAPIIS. The Federal awarding agency will consider any comments by the applicant, in addition to other information in FAPIIS, in making a judgement about the applicant’s integrity, business ethics, and record of performance under Federal awards when completing the review of risk posed by applicants as described in 45 CFR Part 75.205 Federal awarding agency review of risk posed by applicants. This provision will apply to all NIH grants and cooperative agreements except fellowships.
The following special terms of award are in addition to, and not in lieu of, otherwise applicable U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) administrative guidelines, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) grant administration regulations at 45 CFR Part 75, and other HHS, PHS, and NIH grant administration policies.
The administrative and funding instrument used for this program will be a cooperative agreement, an "assistance" mechanism (rather than an "acquisition" mechanism), in which substantial NIH programmatic involvement with the recipients is anticipated during the performance of the activities. Under the cooperative agreement, NIH will support and stimulate the recipients' activities by involvement in and otherwise working jointly with the award recipients in a partnership role; it is not to assume direction, prime responsibility, or a dominant role in the activities. Consistent with this concept, the dominant role and prime responsibility resides with the recipients for the project, although specific tasks and activities may be shared among the recipients and NIH as defined below.
The PD(s)/PI(s) will have the primary responsibility of:
NIH staff have substantial programmatic involvement that is above and beyond the normal stewardship role in awards, as described below:
Areas of Joint Responsibility include:
Dispute Resolution
Any disagreements that may arise in scientific or programmatic matters (within the scope of the award) between award recipients and NIH may be brought to Dispute Resolution. A Dispute Resolution Panel composed of three members will be convened. It will have three members: a designee of the Steering Committee chosen without NIH staff voting, one NIH designee, and a third designee with expertise in the relevant area who is chosen by the other two; in the case of individual disagreement, the first member may be chosen by the individual recipient. This special dispute resolution procedure does not alter the recipient's right to appeal an adverse action that is otherwise appealable in accordance with PHS regulation 42 CFR Part 50, Subpart D and DHHS regulation 45 CFR Part 16.
A final RPPR, invention statement, and the expenditure data portion of the Federal Financial Report are required for closeout of an award, as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.
The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Transparency Act), includes a requirement for awardees of Federal grants to report information about first-tier subawards and executive compensation under Federal assistance awards issued in FY2011 or later. All awardees of applicable NIH grants and cooperative agreements are required to report to the Federal Subaward Reporting System (FSRS) available at www.fsrs.gov on all subawards over $25,000. See the NIH Grants Policy Statement for additional information on this reporting requirement.
In accordance with the regulatory requirements provided at 45 CFR 75.113 and Appendix XII to 45 CFR Part 75, recipients that have currently active Federal grants, cooperative agreements, and procurement contracts from all Federal awarding agencies with a cumulative total value greater than $10,000,000 for any period of time during the period of performance of a Federal award, must report and maintain the currency of information reported in the System for Award Management (SAM) about civil, criminal, and administrative proceedings in connection with the award or performance of a Federal award that reached final disposition within the most recent five-year period. The recipient must also make semiannual disclosures regarding such proceedings. Proceedings information will be made publicly available in the designated integrity and performance system (currently FAPIIS). This is a statutory requirement under section 872 of Public Law 110-417, as amended (41 U.S.C. 2313). As required by section 3010 of Public Law 111-212, all information posted in the designated integrity and performance system on or after April 15, 2011, except past performance reviews required for Federal procurement contracts, will be publicly available. Full reporting requirements and procedures are found in Appendix XII to 45 CFR Part 75 Award Term and Conditions for Recipient Integrity and Performance Matters.
We encourage inquiries concerning this funding opportunity and welcome the opportunity to answer questions from potential applicants.
eRA Service Desk (Questions regarding ASSIST, eRA Commons, application errors and warnings, documenting system problems that threaten submission by the due date, and post-submission issues)
Finding Help Online: http://grants.nih.gov/support/ (preferred method of contact)
Telephone: 301-402-7469 or 866-504-9552 (Toll Free)
General Grants Information (Questions regarding application instructions, application processes, and NIH grant resources)
Email: [email protected] (preferred method of contact)
Telephone: 301-945-7573
Grants.gov Customer Support (Questions regarding Grants.gov registration and Workspace)
Contact Center Telephone: 800-518-4726
Email: [email protected]
John W.R. Phillips, Ph.D.
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Telephone: 301-496-3136
Email: [email protected]
Erica Spotts, Ph.D.
Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)
Telephone: 301-594-2105
Email: [email protected]
Partha Bhattacharyya, Ph.D.
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Telephone: 301-496-3136
Email: [email protected]
Ramesh Vemuri, Ph.D.
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Telephone: 301-496-9666
Email: [email protected]
Traci Lafferty
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Telephone: 301-496-8987
Email: [email protected]
Recently issued trans-NIH policy notices may affect your application submission. A full list of policy notices published by NIH is provided in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts. All awards are subject to the terms and conditions, cost principles, and other considerations described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.
Awards are made under the authorization of Sections 301 and 405 of the Public Health Service Act as amended (42 USC 241 and 284) and under Federal Regulations 42 CFR Part 52 and 45 CFR Part 75.