Full Text DC-93-003 NIDCD-NASA CENTER FOR VESTIBULAR RESEARCH NIH GUIDE, Volume 21, Number 37, October 16, 1992 RFA: DC-93-003 P.T. 34 Keywords: Aerospace Biomedicine Physiology, Human National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Letter of Intent Receipt Date: November 15, 1992 Application Receipt Date: December 22, 1992 PURPOSE The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in collaboration with the Life Sciences Division of the Office of Space Science and Applications, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), invites applications for the support of a ground-based research center to carry out research applicable to vestibular issues associated with space flight, and fundamental knowledge about the vestibular system. In addition to research, the Center will include a research training component. The Center will conduct a number of research projects in humans and/or animals integrated into a program and centered around the vestibular control of balance and posture and the regulation of locomotion and other volitional movements. HEALTHY PEOPLE 2000 The Public Health Service (PHS) is committed to achieving the health promotion and disease prevention objectives of "Healthy People 2000," a PHS-led national activity for setting priority areas. This RFA, NIDCD-NASA Center for Vestibular Research, is related to the priority areas of physical activity fitness, educational and community-based programs, unintentional injuries, occupational safety and health, diabetes and chronic disabling diseases, and clinical prevention services. Potential applicants may obtain a copy of "Healthy People 2000" (Full Report: Stock No. 017-001-11474-0) or "Healthy People 2000" (Summary Report: Stock No. 017-001-11473-1) through the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402-9325 (telephone 202-783-3238). ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS Applications may be submitted by domestic for-profit and non-profit organizations, public and private, such as universities, colleges, hospitals, laboratories, units of state and local governments, and eligible agencies of the Federal government. Applications from minority individuals and women are encouraged. MECHANISMS OF SUPPORT This RFA will use the NIH Comprehensive Center (P60) grant mechanism. The Application Guidelines for Program Project and Clinical Research Center Grants issued by the NIDCD (rev. Nov. 1991) applies to this solicitation and should be consulted by the applicant. In addition, certain provisions in the announcement on National Research Service Awards for Institutional Training Grants issued in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts (Vol. 21, No. 11, March 20, 1992) also apply to this solicitation. Responsibility for the planning, direction, and execution of the proposed project will be solely that of the applicant. The total project period for applications submitted in response to the present RFA must be five years. The anticipated award date will be July 1, 1993. This RFA is a one-time solicitation. At present, the NIDCD and NASA have made no commitment to continue support for the Center beyond five years. Applicants from institutions that have a General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) funded by the NIH National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) may wish to identify the GCRC as a resource for conducting the proposed research. In such a case, a letter of agreement from either the GCRC program director or Principal Investigator may be included with the application. FUNDS AVAILABLE One Center will be supported jointly by NIDCD and NASA at a level of up to $1 million total (direct plus indirect) costs per annum for a project period of five years. Budget increments after the first year will be limited to necessary cost-of-living increases. Although funds for stipends for research trainees will be provided from funds for the center, the stipend levels should be set at the level of the NIH National Research Service Award (NRSA) program. Although this Center is provided for in the financial plans of the NIDCD and NASA, awards pursuant to this RFA are contingent upon the availability of funds for this purpose. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES Background The importance of vestibular function in the motor performance of humans in both the terrestrial and aerospace environments has long been recognized. Vestibular-deficient individuals, including astronauts during flight and the early postflight period, show abnormalities in trunk and head coordination. Indeed, acute vestibulogenic changes, the effects of a lesion or the functional unloading of the otolithic gravity receptors in space result in dramatic symptoms of imbalance and disorientation, including reduced muscle tone, gait and postural ataxia, and illusory self-orientation and self-motion sensations. Typically, these symptoms abate as central nervous system motor programs for the reinterpretation of sensory inputs and coordination of muscle actions undergo adaptation. Postural control results from the integration of vestibular signals with input from the visual and somatosensory receptors and other motor control systems. These integrated inputs, in turn, generate complex activation patterns of arm, leg, trunk, and neck muscles resulting in stabilizing movements. To date, there has been little systematic study of the contributions of the vestibular system to balance control. Early studies have underscored the primacy of proprioceptive afferent signals from the lower leg muscles in postural control. Only when experimental manipulations render proprioception inaccurate will vestibular inputs acquire greater importance. It has, therefore, been suggested that stabilizing reactions may be triggered or gated by proprioceptive inputs and then amplitude-modulated by vestibulo-spinal inputs. Somatosensory input from the limbs may be of greater importance to terrestrial balance control than vision. In the weightlessness of space, however, vision is of primary importance in maintaining a spatial reference for self-orientation. Several lines of evidence support the contemporary view that both the vestibular and somatosensory systems play a direct and prominent role in terrestrial balance control, although the specific role of each in triggering and coordinating postural corrections in response to mechanical perturbations of the support surface, the head and the trunk, remain to be elucidated. There is convincing anatomic and physiologic evidence of the convergence and interaction of the vestibular and somatosensory systems at multiple levels throughout the neuroaxis, at both the sensory input and motor output stages. Furthermore, there is experimental evidence of a sensory substitution process following the loss of either vestibular or somatosensory inputs. Both visual and vestibular inputs have been implicated in the control of head stabilizing mechanisms during natural motion. The otolithic organ-dependent response of the lower extremity postural reflexes have been shown to be reduced in humans during parabolic flight and space orbit in response to sudden "falls." In addition, patients with vestibular loss have been shown to exhibit alterations in the magnitude, timing and adaptation of stabilizing reactions to mechanical support surface perturbations. Scope The challenge of this initiative is to define the contributions of the vestibular system to the control of balance and posture and the regulation of locomotion and other volitional movements. Such knowledge will provide a solid empirical basis for the improved rehabilitation of patients with balance disorders and for management of the sensorimotor and perceptual difficulties associated with space travel. Our understanding of postural adaptation to microgravity is limited, but clearly predicated on an understanding of normal function in the terrestrial gravito-inertial environment. Hence the need for ground-based studies. While the neural pathways subserving the gaze-stabilizing reflexes are well-understood, we have a very rudimentary understanding of the neuronal substrates of the postural reflexes. Mathematical modeling of reflex behavior has proven to be an important method for relating reflex behavior to its neural substrates. To date, the dynamic three-dimensional spatial transformations associated with the vestibulo-ocular and vestibulo-collic reflexes have been modeled. The major research objective of this RFA is to characterize the relative roles of the semicircular canal, otolithic organ and canal-otolithic organ interactive inputs to the vestibulo-spinal reflexes and the balance motor control systems. A requisite component of this research effort includes the development of a computational model of the sensory-to-motor transformation relating the vestibular balance control system to its neural substrates. This model should be driven and validated by experimental data generated by this project. The Center is intended to support a team of investigators pursuing basic and applied studies at the systems and neuronal substrate levels to conduct an integrated, multidisciplinary inquiry into the vestibular bases of balance control. The purpose of the research training component of the Center is to develop opportunities for training individuals to conduct research in the vestibular sciences. The research training program will provide multidisciplinary training for physicians, predoctoral trainees and postdoctoral trainees in the areas of vestibular science that are encompassed by the application. The research training component of the Center must provide opportunities for individuals with varying levels of research experience. Program directors are expected to select postdoctoral trainees who are genuinely interested in a career in research. Plans for recruitment of underrepresented minorities, women, and persons with disabilities must be included within this component of the application (see the announcement in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts, Vol. 18, No. 20, June 9, 1989). The Center will be established exclusively for ground-based research and analysis; budgets of the approved center will not support space flight experiments. Center investigators wishing to propose space experiments should submit appropriate applications in response to formal NASA solicitations open for general competition. It is required that a description of the institution's plan to provide instruction on the responsible conduct of research be included in the application (see the announcement in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts, Vol. 19, No. 30, August 17, 1990). SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS The program director and one additional investigator of the Center will meet annually in the Washington, DC area with the scientific program staffs of the Division of Communication Sciences and Disorders, NIDCD, and the Life Sciences Division, NASA, to review the progress of the Center in the areas of research and research training. Budget requests for travel must reflect the costs associated with this meeting. In addition, applicants should state their willingness to participate in this meeting. STUDY POPULATIONS SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS TO APPLICANTS REGARDING IMPLEMENTATION OF NIH POLICIES CONCERNING INCLUSION OF WOMEN AND MINORITIES IN CLINICAL RESEARCH STUDY POPULATIONS NIH policy is that applicants for NIH clinical research grants and cooperative agreements are required to include minorities and women in study populations so that research findings can be of benefit to all persons at risk of the disease, disorder or condition under study; special emphasis must be placed on the need for inclusion of minorities and women in studies of diseases, disorders and conditions which disproportionately affect them. This policy is intended to apply to males and females of all ages. If women or minorities are excluded or inadequately represented in clinical research, particularly in proposed population-based studies, a clear compelling rationale must be provided. The composition of the proposed study population must be described in terms of gender and racial/ethnic group. In addition, gender and racial/ethnic issues must be addressed in developing a research design and sample size appropriate for the scientific objectives of the study. This information must be included in the form PHS 398 in Sections 1-4 of the Research Plan AND summarized in Section 5, Human Subjects. Applicants are urged to assess carefully the feasibility of including the broadest possible representation of minority groups. However, NIH recognizes that it may not be feasible or appropriate in all research projects to include representation of the full array of United States racial/ethnic minority populations (i.e., Native Americans [including American Indians or Alaskan Natives], Asian/Pacific Islanders, Blacks, Hispanics). The rationale for studies on single minority population groups should be provided. For the purpose of this policy, clinical research is defined as human biomedical and behavioral studies of etiology, epidemiology, prevention (and preventive strategies), diagnosis, or treatment of diseases, disorders or conditions, including but not limited to clinical trials. The usual NIH policies concerning research on human subjects also apply. Basic research or clinical studies in which human tissues cannot be identified or linked to individuals are excluded. However, every effort should be made to include human tissues from women and racial/ethnic minorities when it is important to apply the results of the study broadly, and this should be addressed by applicants. If the required information is not contained within the application, the application will be returned. Peer reviewers will address specifically whether the research plan in the application conforms to these policies. If the representation of women or minorities in a study design is inadequate to answer the scientific questions(s) addressed AND the justification for the selected study population is inadequate, it will be considered a scientific weakness or deficiency in the study design and reflected in assigning the priority score to the application. All applications for clinical research submitted to NIH are required to address these policies. NIH funding components will not award grants or cooperative agreements that do not comply with these policies. LETTER OF INTENT Prospective applicants are asked to submit, by November 15, 1992, a letter of intent that includes a descriptive title of the proposed research, the name, address, and telephone number of the Center director, the identities of other key personnel and participating institutions, and the number and title of the RFA in response to which the application may be submitted. Although a letter of intent is not required, is not binding, and does not enter into the review of subsequent applications, the information that it contains is helpful in planning for the review of applications. It allows NIDCD staff to estimate the potential review workload and to avoid conflict of interest in the review. The letter of intent is to be sent to -- Earleen Elkins, Ph.D. Chief, Scientific Review Branch National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Room 400-B, Executive Plaza South 6120 Executive Boulevard Rockville, MD 20892 APPLICATION PROCEDURES The research grant application form PHS 398 (rev. 9/91) is to be used in applying for these grants. These forms are available at most institutional business offices; from the Office of Grants Inquiries, Division of Research Grants, National Institutes of Health, 5333 Westbard Avenue, Room 449, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, telephone 301/496-7441; and from the NIH program administrator named below. The RFA label available in the PHS 398 application form must be affixed to the bottom of the face page of the application. Failure to use this label could result in delayed processing of the application such that it may not reach the review committee in time for review. In addition, the RFA title and number must be typed on line 2a of the face page of the application form and the YES box must be marked. Submit a signed, typewritten original of the application, including the Checklist, and three signed photocopies, in one package to -- Division of Research Grants National Institutes of Health Westwood Building, Room 240 Bethesda, MD 20892** At the time of submission, two additional copies of the application must also be sent to Dr. Earleen Elkins at the address listed under LETTER OF INTENT. Applications must be received by December 15, 1992. If an application is received after that date, it will be returned to the applicant. The Division of Research Grants (DRG) will not accept any application in response to this announcement that is essentially the same as one currently pending initial review, unless the applicant withdraws the pending application. The DRG will not accept any application that is essentially the same as one already reviewed. This does not preclude the submission of substantial revisions of applications already reviewed, but such applications must include an introduction addressing the previous critique. REVIEW CONSIDERATIONS Upon receipt, applications will be reviewed by NIH staff for completeness and responsiveness. Incomplete applications will be returned to the applicant without further consideration. If the application is not responsive to the RFA, NIDCD staff will return the application to the applicant. If the number of applications is large, the NIDCD may conduct a preliminary scientific peer review to eliminate those applications that are clearly not competitive. The NIDCD will withdraw from further competition those applications judged to be noncompetitive and notify the applicant and institutional official. Those applications judged to be competitive will undergo further scientific merit review and a site visit or applicant interview in the Washington, DC area. Those applications that are complete and responsive will be evaluated in accordance with the criteria stated below for scientific/technical merit by an appropriate peer review group convened by the NIDCD and NASA. The second level of review will be provided by the National Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Advisory Council and the NASA Life Sciences Division. The Special Review Committee will use the following criteria in evaluating applications: a. The criteria for reviewing the Center as an integrated effort are: o the integration of the multidisciplinary enterprise with adequate plans for interaction and communication of information among the collaborating investigators; o the coordination and interrelationship among the individual research projects and cores and the relationship of the project objectives to the common theme; o leadership ability and scientific stature of the Center director and his/her commitment of sufficient time and effort for effective leadership; o participation of a suitable number of responsible, experienced investigators; o an organizational and administrative structure appropriate for effective attainment of program objectives; o arrangements for internal quality control of ongoing research, the allocation of funds, day-to-day management, collaborative arrangements with other institutions, if any; o the adequacy of facilities to support the components of the Center; o institutional commitment to the requirements of the Center; o appropriateness of the overall budget for the proposed program; and o the technical merit and justification of each core unit; the appropriateness of each research project's use of core services; and the cost effectiveness and quality control of core units. b. The criteria for reviewing individual research components are: o approach and adherence to the scientific requirements of the RFA; o the scientific merit of each project; o qualifications, experience, and commitment of the investigators and their ability to devote the required time and effort to the program; o the appropriateness of the budget for each research project; o adequacy of the means proposed for protecting against risks to human subjects, animals and the environment; and o the inclusion of minorities and women in study populations, whenever feasible and appropriate. c. The criteria for reviewing the research training component are: o the proposed research training objectives and program design; o qualifications and research experience of the participating faculty in the proposed areas of research training; o adequacy of the training environment, including laboratory and clinical facilities; o the previous training record of the research program; and o the plan to provide instruction to trainees on ethics and scientific integrity in research. In addition, the research training component must include an affirmative plan for the recruitment of underrepresented minorities, women, and disabled individuals. AWARD CRITERIA The anticipated date of award is July 1993. Selection will be made jointly by the NIDCD and NASA on the basis of assessment of the applications by peer review, considerations of programmatic balance, and the appropriation of allocated funds for this RFA. INQUIRIES Written and telephone inquiries concerning this RFA are encouraged. The opportunity to clarify any issues and questions from potential applicants is welcome. Direct inquiries regarding programmatic issues to -- Daniel A. Sklare, Ph.D. Division of Communication Sciences and Disorders National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Executive Plaza South, Room 400-B 6120 Executive Boulevard Rockville, MD 20892 Telephone: (301) 402-3461 FAX: (301) 402-6251 Direct inquiries regarding fiscal matters to -- Sharon Hunt Grants Management Branch Division of Extramural Activities National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Executive Plaza South, Room 400-B 6120 Executive Boulevard Rockville, MD 20892 Telephone: (301) 402-0909 FAX: (301) 402-1758 AUTHORITY AND REGULATIONS This program is described in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance No. 93.173 . Awards are made under authorization of the Public Health Service Act, Title IV, Part A (Public Law 78-410, as amended by Public Law 99-158, 42 USC 241 and 285) and administered under PHS grants policies and Federal Regulations 42CFR 52 and 45 CFR Part 74. This program is not subject to the intergovernmental review requirements of Executive Order 12372 or Health Systems Agency review. .
Return to NIH Guide Main Index
![]() |
Office of Extramural Research (OER) |
![]() |
National Institutes of Health (NIH) 9000 Rockville Pike Bethesda, Maryland 20892 |
![]() |
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) |
![]() |
||||
Note: For help accessing PDF, RTF, MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Audio or Video files, see Help Downloading Files. |