Full Text HD-93-08 FAMILY AND CHILD WELLBEING RESEARCH NETWORK NIH GUIDE, Volume 21, Number 35, October 2, 1992 RFA: HD-93-08 P.T. 34, AA Keywords: Family Health/Planning/Safety Child/Maternal Health National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Application Receipt Date: December 18, 1992 PURPOSE The Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch of the Center for Population Research at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) invites applications for cooperative agreements (U01) to develop a research network to investigate the relationship of family factors to child wellbeing. The research network will conduct a systematic analysis of existing data to determine what can be learned about the relationship of family factors to child wellbeing using extant data. The research network will also examine the public policy implications of its work and systematically pursue research leads that show promise for informing public policy. Each investigator in the network will be expected to have demonstrated expertise and access to at least one data set relevant to the topic. Also, applicants must demonstrate that they have both the substantive and statistical expertise to function as part of an interdisciplinary research network. Each investigator will be given support to pursue his or her individual research agenda, but a large part of the available resources will be held in reserve to address cooperative research questions agreed upon by the network. Each investigator will propose both an individual research plan and a cooperative research plan in which they identify areas of research that they would be willing to cooperate in implementing. 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, Family and Child Wellbeing Research Network, is related to the priority areas of family planning, educational and community-based programs, and maternal and infant health. Potential applicants may obtain a copy of "Healthy People 2000" (Full Report: Stock No. 017-001-00474-0) or "Healthy People 2000" (Summary Report: Stock No. 017-001-00473-1) 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. Institutions may submit applications on behalf of more than one Principal Investigator (PI), but each PI must submit a separate application. MECHANISM OF SUPPORT The funding mechanism to be used to support the research network will be the cooperative agreement (U01). Cooperative agreements are assistance mechanisms but differ from research project grants in that there will be substantial programmatic involvement of the NICHD Project Coordinator above and beyond the levels required for traditional program management of grants. Specifically, the Project Coordinator will cooperate with the PI as a partner in the research network. All parties agree to accept the participatory and cooperative nature of the group process. This RFA is intended as a one time solicitation. The total project period for the research network is five years and applications submitted in response to the present RFA should not exceed five years. Should there be a sufficient continuing program need, the NICHD may reissue this RFA. The anticipated award date is July 1, 1993. FUNDS AVAILABLE It is anticipated that up to seven awards will be made. One million dollars of direct cost support have been set aside to support the network and this amount will increase by an inflation factor in subsequent years of the network. Approximately one half of the resources allocated for the network will be devoted to support cooperative research. Resources available for cooperative research will be very small in the first year of the network, but will increase progressively in the subsequent years of the network. The percentage of funding for cooperative research will increase according to the following schedule: 20 percent in FY 93, 35 percent in FY 94, 50 percent in FY 95, 65 percent in FY 96 and 80 percent in FY 97. The level of support is dependent on the receipt of a sufficient number of applications of high scientific merit. Although this program will be provided for in the financial plan of the NICHD, the award of grants pursuant to this RFA is also contingent on the availability of funds for this purpose. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES There is a heightened awareness in both public policy and research communities that the wellbeing of children is deteriorating and that family factors are important explanations of this phenomenon. Within public policy circles there is a growing frustration that basic information about family and child wellbeing is filled with gaps and is analyzed in an uneven manner. Within the research community there is a fundamental problem that family and child research is spread among a large number of disciplines, and these disciplines are so diverse in their research approaches that communication across fields is difficult. It is timely to create a systematic effort to both understand the relationship of family and child wellbeing from a multi-disciplinary point of view and address public policy concerns in a comprehensive and responsive manner. The NICHD wishes to assist the scientific community to mount a systematic attack using all sources of existing information. There are a large number of social problems that impinge on the wellbeing of children. Among them, poverty and the emergence of an underclass population with a growing dependence on public transfer programs are highly visible areas of concern. Moreover, family factors such as marital instability, out-of-wedlock childbearing, and changes in the demographic and economic structure of the family seem to be inextricably related to these and other problems affecting child wellbeing. It is important to describe fully these interconnections and to formulate and test models of the causes and consequences of these relationships. It is also important to elucidate the mechanisms of action by which family factors affect child wellbeing so that possible avenues of social intervention can be ascertained or existing interventions, such as child support enforcement or child care subsidies, can be evaluated. The American family has undergone considerable change in modern times. These changes are associated with changes in the way children are raised and with changes in familial support structures that sustain children and develop them into productive adults. It is the intent of this RFA to assist in measuring both family factors and child wellbeing very broadly to develop as comprehensive a picture as possible about the relationship between these considerations. It is also important to understand how family factors and socio-economic conditions combine to nurture children and help them develop into productive adults from both an individual and societal perspective. It is important to understand how the intergenerational structure of the family marshals resources to care for dependent children and how intergenerational family processes relate to public intervention to sustain and develop children. The research network is expected to confine its activity to secondary data analysis. This will enable the research community to exploit fully many of the sources of data that have been specially created for the research community by the NICHD and other agencies. These data sources include: The National Survey of Families and Households, The National Longitudinal Survey Youth Cohort and related Child Supplements, The June 1990 Marriage and Fertility Supplement of the Current Population Survey, The National Survey of Family Growth and others. In addition, there are many data resources of sub-national populations that should be fully analyzed. It is the intent of this RFA to utilize data containing a fair representation of women and minorities. In exceptional circumstances data confined to specialized populations may be used to enhance our understanding of selected dimensions of the research problem. The network will be assembled to achieve the broadest possible coverage in terms of research perspective, analytical technique, and sources of data. The focus of the network is the United States, but the use of foreign data may be justified if it provides an insight into the American condition. Investigators must demonstrate that they have a long-term research agenda that is addressing important questions relevant to the research goals of this RFA. In addition, they must describe the sources of data to which they have access and plan to use in their research plan. It is important to describe the extent to which the investigator has experience using these data. It is also important to outline the analytic plan of attack and to describe the statistical techniques that will be employed in each phase of the research plan. The PI must propose an individual research plan to accomplish his or her personal research agenda. The plan must have the same degree of specificity as an individual research grant (R01). A PI may request support for any type of research activity commonly available through research assistance mechanisms offered by the NICHD except the cost of collecting new data. It is anticipated that such support will be higher in the first year of the initial agreement than in subsequent years and will diminish progressively throughout the five years in which the network is in operation. The PI must also propose a cooperative research plan that will describe the proposed cooperative research effort that transcends his/her individual research programs. The cooperative research plan should propose questions of substantive and/or public policy significance that should be examined cooperatively and should indicate how their disciplinary and methodological perspectives could contribute to a cooperative research effort. Also, investigators should indicate which sources of data, with which they have familiarity and access, should be used in the cooperative research plan. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS Terms and Conditions Awardee Responsibilities Each PI will have primary responsibility to define objectives and approaches and to plan, conduct, analyze, and publish results, interpretations, and conclusions of his/her studies. Awardees will retain custody of, and primary rights to, their data developed under these award, subject to Government rights of access, consistent with current HHS, PHS, and NIH policies. A budget supporting the individual research programs will be negotiated with the NICHD based on the corresponding budget presented in the application. Each investigator will have the right to publish based on the work of their individual research programs. Each PI will also propose a cooperative research plan in which they will identify research questions, protocols, and data sets that they propose to work on cooperatively. The Steering Committee will formulate a research plan for cooperative research that will distill the several individual cooperative research plans into a coherent plan and will involve allocating resources among the participating cooperative agreements to implement it. The cooperative research plan will be agreed upon by majority vote of the Steering Committee, but each PI will have the right of approval for any aspect of the cooperative research plan involving them. Due publication credit will be given to all work done cooperatively. Steering Committee Responsibilities Planning and implementation of the cooperative aspects of the study will be done by a Steering Committee consisting of the PI from each participating awardee institution and the NICHD Project Coordinator. If necessary, the Steering Committee may invite outside, non-voting expert consultants to their meetings for advice as common protocols are developed. o Plan the design and implementation of the cooperative research protocols o Participate in decision-making regarding allocation of funds for cooperative research protocols o Publish results, conclusions and interpretations of the cooperative protocols o Formulate publication policy and appoint a Publication Subcommittee, as judged necessary by the Steering Committee o Agree to accept the coordinating role of the committee and the cooperative nature of the group process NICHD Responsibilities The NICHD Project Coordinator will be the Family Demography Coordinator of the Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch, NICHD. He will: o Assist in all functions of the Steering Committee o Assist with the development of common protocols o Assist the steering committee in reviewing and commenting on each stage of the program before subsequent stages are started o Assist the steering committee in exercising the options of adding, modifying, or terminating aspects of the program o Assist in the analysis, interpretation and reporting of findings in the scientific literature and other media to the community at large o Have the option to withhold support to a participating institution, if technical performance requirements such as compliance with the protocol are not met o Continuous review of all activities to ensure objectives are being met The above responsibilities are in addition to, not in lieu of, the levels of involvement normally required for program stewardship of grants. Arbitration Procedures When agreement between an awardee and NICHD staff cannot be reached on programmatic and scientific-technical issues that may arise after the award, an arbitration panel will be formed. The panel will consist of one person selected by the PIs, one person selected by the NICHD staff, and a third person selected by these two members. The decision of the arbitration panel, by majority vote, will be binding. These special arbitration procedures in no way affect the awardee's right to appeal an adverse action in accordance with PHS regulations at 42 CFR Part 50, Subpart D, and HHS regulations at 45 CFR Part 16. Cooperative agreements are assistance mechanisms and are subject to the same administrative requirements as grants. The above Terms of Award are in addition to, and not in lieu of, otherwise applicable OMB administrative guidelines, HHS grant administration regulation at 45 CFR Part 74, and other HHS, PHS, and NIH grant administration policies and procedures. Meetings Each investigator must budget for four meetings a year in the Washington, DC area. Each meeting will be approximately two days in length. During these meetings, the Steering Committee will decide upon the operating policies of the network, discuss ongoing research, formulate the collaborative research plan, and discuss the implications of their research with interested parties outside of the network who may be invited by the Steering Committee as the occasion warrants. If more meetings are necessary, as may be the case especially in the first year of the network, or if project personnel other than the PI are invited to the meetings, individual awards will be supplemented with appropriate funds. These meetings will be coordinated by the Project Coordinator. Communications There will be a much greater level of communication among network members than is normal for individual research project grants. Individual PIs must budget appropriately for greater telephone usage, more copies of research papers, and greater mailing costs than in a research grant (R01). The use of BITNET will also be encouraged. Expectation of Cooperation There will be high expectations of the members of the research network to interact with other members of the network, share research insights, cooperate in the design and implementation of a cooperative research plan, be responsive to needs of the cooperative work of the network, and be sensitive to the public policy significance of it all. Applicants must indicate their willingness to participate in these stated aspects of the network. The statement of willingness to cooperate should be included under Consortium/Collaborators, section C-8 of the Research Plan in the PHS 398 application. APPLICATION PROCEDURES The grant application form PHS 398 (rev. 9/91) is to be used in applying for this grant. The RFA label available in the form PHS 398 must be affixed to the bottom of the face page. 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 the 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. The PHS 398 is available from most business offices or grants/contracts offices at most institutions and can also be obtained from the Office of Grants Inquiries, Division of Research Grants, National Institutes of Health, 5333 Westbard Avenue, Room 449, Bethesda, MD 20892, telephone (301) 496-7441. The research plan section of the application must conform to the guidelines of form PHS 398. The individual research plan should be presented first and should follow steps 1-4, i.e., Specific Aims, Background and Significance, Progress Report/Preliminary Studies, and Research Design and Methods, of the standard research plan section. The budget for the application must be predicated on the requirements of the individual research plan and on the cooperative research plan that the investigator is proposing to work on cooperatively. Since these applications will in fact be proposing two research plans, the individual and the collaborative, the standard 25-page limitation will not apply. However, applicants are encouraged not to exceed 40 pages. The budget instructions provided in the application form PHS 398 must be followed, and budget presentations must include budgets for the collaborative group efforts suggested in the application. Indirect costs will be provided. Budgets will be reviewed on the basis of appropriateness for the work proposed. Allowable costs and policies governing the research grant program of the NIH will prevail. In preparing the budget section of the application, each applicant must submit detailed budgets for his/her own research plans only. Applicants are encouraged to be mindful of the declining allocation of funds for individual protocols in future years. Budgets must be proposed accordingly. 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: Laurance S. Johnston, Ph.D. Acting Deputy Director Division of Scientific Review National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Executive Plaza North, Room 520 Bethesda, MD 20892 Applications must be received at the Division of Research Grants by December 18, 1992. If an application is received after that date, it will be returned to the applicant. REVIEW CONSIDERATIONS Upon receipt, applications will be reviewed by DRG staff for completeness and NICHD staff for responsiveness. Incomplete applications will be returned to the applicant without further consideration. If the application is not responsive to the RFA, NICHD staff will return the application to the applicant. Applications may be triaged by an NICHD peer review group on the basis of relative competitiveness. The NICHD will withdraw from further competition those applications judged to be non-competitive for award and notify the applicant PI and institutional official. Those applications judged to be competitive will undergo further scientific merit review. Those applications that are complete, responsive, and competitive will be evaluated in accordance with the criteria stated below for scientific/technical merit by a special review committee convened by the NICHD. The second level of review will be provided by the National Child Health and Human Development Advisory Council. The review criteria for the individual research plans of the network are: o Scientific and technical significance and originality of proposed research; o Appropriateness and adequacy of the research approach and methodology proposed to carry out the research; o Qualifications and research experience of the PI and staff, particularly, but not exclusively, in the area of the proposed research; o Availability of resources necessary to perform the research; o Appropriateness of the proposed budget and duration in relation to the proposed research; o Access to and experience with sources of existing data suitable for the purposes of the research network. AWARD CRITERIA The anticipated date of award is July 1, 1993. An attempt will be made to balance the network so that it will have a multi-disciplinary composition, a diversity of research issues and broad coverage of extant data sources. Awards will be made on the basis of the scientific merit of the research application and the need to create a balanced network. INQUIRIES Written and telephone inquiries concerning this RFA are encouraged. The opportunity to clarify any issues or questions from potential applicants is welcome. Direct inquiries regarding programmatic issues to: V. Jeffery Evans, Ph.D., J.D. Family Demography Coordinator Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch Center for Population Research National Institute of Child Health and Human Development 6100 Executive Boulevard, Room 8B13 Bethesda, MD 20892 Telephone: (301) 496-1174 FAX: (301) 496-0962 BITNET: EVANSJ@NIHHD01.BITNET Direct inquiries regarding fiscal matters to: Ms. Melinda Nelson Office of Grants and Contracts National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Executive Plaza North Building, Room 505 Bethesda, MD 20892 Telephone: (301) 496-5481 FAX: (301) 402-0915 AUTHORITY AND REGULATIONS This program is described in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance No. 93.864. 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, 42 CFR Part 52 and 45 CFR Part 74. This program is not subject to the intergovernmental review requirements of Executive Order 12372, or to Health Systems Agency review. .
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