Full Text RR-94-002

INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT AWARD (IDeA)

NIH GUIDE, Volume 22, Number 44, December 10, 1993

RFA:  RR-94-002

P.T. 14

Keywords: 
  Biomedical Research, Multidiscipl 
  Behavioral/Social Studies/Service 


National Center for Research Resources

Letter of Intent Receipt Date:  January 17, 1994
Application Receipt Date:  February 23, 1994

PURPOSE

The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) invites research
grant applications for the Institutional Development Award (IDeA)
program.  The NIH IDeA is a merit-based, peer reviewed program
initiated in response to Congressional intent to broaden the
geographical distribution of NIH funding for biomedical/behavioral
research.  Primary goals of the IDeA program are to (1) enhance the
competitiveness of research institutions in the IDeA eligible states
(see below) for NIH-funded grants and (2) increase the probability of
long-term growth of NIH-competitive funding to investigators at
institutions from these eligible states.  This Request For
Application (RFA) describes a two-year development program to
increase, strengthen, and sustain the biomedical/behavioral research
competitiveness of institutions within selected states.  It is
expected that institutional development goals will be proposed beyond
that period.  The program will be similar in some aspects to the
Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR)
initiated by the National Science Foundation (NSF).  For example,
EPSCoR-like committees are responsible for selecting the one
application that will be submitted by an institution on behalf of
that state.

In addition to the IDeA eligible states and in response to specific
Congressional intent, all accredited Schools of Chiropractic Medicine
are also invited to apply.

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,
IDeA, is related to all priority areas.  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

Eligibility is limited to institutions in IDeA eligible states, and
Schools of Chiropractic Medicine.

IDeA eligible states include all NSF-EPSCoR states and all those
states with a total funding level of less than $30 million from the
NIH in FY 1992.  Eligible institutions in those states include
domestic for-profit and non-profit organizations public and private,
such as universities, colleges, hospitals, research foundations, and
laboratories.  It is the responsibility of the State-EPSCoR
committees or comparable committees to select institutions in their
states that have limited NIH funding but for which both the states
and the institutions have a mutual agreement and commitment to the
development of the biomedical/behavioral research infrastructure.
Collaborative and cooperative programs between or among institutions
are allowable.  The applicant institution must perform a substantive
role in the conduct of the planned research project activities and
may not serve primarily as a conduit for the transmission of funds to
another party or multiple parties.  States which were awarded grants
under RFA RR-93-001 may also submit new applications from the same or
a different institution under this RFA; however, renewal applications
will not be accepted.  Only one application can be submitted per
state.  IDeA eligible states under these criteria are:

Alabama                Nebraska
Alaska                 Nevada
Arkansas               New Mexico
Delaware               North Dakota
Hawaii                 Oklahoma
Idaho                  Puerto Rico
Kansas                 South Carolina
Kentucky               South Dakota
Louisiana              Vermont
Maine                  West Virginia
Mississippi            Wyoming
Montana

Applications from Schools of Chiropractic Medicine do not have to be
reviewed at the state level but only one application can be submitted
per institution.  Eligible Schools of Chiropractic Medicine are
accredited by the Council on Chiropractic Education and include:

Cleveland Chiropractic College of Cleveland University - Los Angeles,
Los Angeles, CA
Cleveland Chiropractic College, Kansas City, MO
Life Chiropractic College, Marietta, GA
Life Chiropractic College - West, San Lorenzo, CA

Logan College of Chiropractic, Chesterfield, MO
Los Angeles College of Chiropractic, Whittier, CA
National College of Chiropractic, Lombard, IL
New York Chiropractic College, Seneca Falls, NY
Northwestern College of Chiropractic, Bloomington, MN
Palmer College of Chiropractic, Davenport, LA
Palmer College of Chiropractic - West, Sunnyvale, CA
Parker College of Chiropractic, Dallas, TX
Texas Chiropractic College, Pasadena, TX
Western States Chiropractic College, Portland, OR

Applications from institutions with significant minority enrollments
are especially encouraged.

MECHANISM OF SUPPORT

This RFA will use the for exploratory grants (P20) mechanism.
Applicants will be responsible for the planning, direction, and
content of the proposed programs.  Except as otherwise stated in this
RFA, awards will be administered under PHS grants policy as stated in
the Public Health Service Grants Policy Statement.

The total project period for applications submitted in response to
this RFA may not exceed two years.

FUNDS AVAILABLE

This RFA is a one-time solicitation.  Approximately $785,000 will be
available from NCRR in FY 1994 to support this initiative.  Subject
to the receipt of a sufficient number of meritorious applications, it
is anticipated that approximately six to eight awards will be made.
Total direct costs requested by the applicant institution, including
the direct and indirect costs required for the third party
participants, may not exceed $100,000 for each year.  Indirect costs
will be provided.

This initiative is provided for in the FY 1994 NCRR appropriation.
The anticipated award date is September 1, 1994.

Matching Requirement

To ensure that adequate resources are available, IDeA awards require
a minimum of one-to-one non-Federal match.  Each dollar of NIH
support requested including both direct and indirect costs, must be
matched by at least one dollar from state, institutional, or private
sector sources.  In-kind contributions of faculty or technical
support salaries, facilities and equipment supporting existing
biomedical/behavioral activities may not be used to satisfy the
one-to-one matching funds requirement.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

Background

The mission of the NIH is to expand fundamental knowledge about the
nature and behavior of living systems, to apply that knowledge to
extend the health of human lives, and to reduce the burdens resulting
from disease and disability.  Through its institutes and centers,
each with its own research mission, the NIH provides funds for
research and research training activities to institutions.  Each
funding unit makes awards on a competitive basis after applications
are assessed for technical and scientific merit and program relevance
through a two-stage process of peer-review.

For many years, the NIH has made a special effort to stimulate
research in educational institutions that traditionally have not
received significant levels of funding through the NIH.  For example,
the purpose of the Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA)
program, initiated in 1985, is to enhance the research environment at
such institutions by providing support to individual faculty at
domestic institutions offering baccalaureate or advanced degrees in
the health-related sciences.

Research Goals

The IDeA program will address objectives similar to those of the AREA
program, but on institutional and state-wide levels.  NCRR
acknowledges that, due to variability among potential applications,
the size and scope of the IDeA program will depend in large part upon
the current size and extent of the biomedical/behavioral research
environment of the applicant institutions.  It is recommended that,
in order to achieve maximum impact of the available funds,
institutions propose innovative research activities that will
stimulate sustainable improvements in the capacities of institutions
in eligible states to compete successfully for NIH funds and to
enhance the research competitiveness of the institutions in future
years.

Examples of activities include:

o  development of infrastructure necessary for multidisciplinary
approaches for conducting broad-based research;
o  faculty development;
o  mentoring of junior faculty as they participate in research
projects.

In general, the applicant institution should provide evidence that an
IDeA award is necessary to enhance its capability for health-related
research and that there are state/institutional or other private
resources committed to improve and sustain their programs.

The research plan should provide sufficient information to allow the
reviewers to assess the program in terms of the stated Review
Criteria.

The narrative portion should provide:

(a) comprehensive information about the institution's current
involvement in biomedical and health-related behavioral research;
(b) a description of the long-range institutional research
development goals to be achieved;
(c) a complete description of the specific activities to achieve the
goals of the program, including an evaluation plan to measure the
progress of the program and the procedures to sustain the
achievements obtained with IDeA funds after termination of the award;
(d) a description of the administrative mechanisms to organize and
oversee implementation of the plan;
(e) evidence of the institution's commitment to achievement of the
program goals; and
(f) letters of commitment from those persons whose cooperation is
critical to the success of the program including a statement from the
institution's highest ranking administrative authority explaining how
the IDeA application is consistent with the institution's (and/or the
state's) long-range objectives to enhance the biomedical/behavioral
research infrastructure and to achieve research competitiveness at
the national level.

Biographical data for participating scientists and chief
administrative personnel and a detailed budget explaining and
justifying the support requested should be prepared according to the
form PHS 398 (rev. 9/91) format.

Requests to develop institutional research infrastructure should be
made in sufficient detail to assess the potential impact on
investigators and/or departments.

If support for research projects is requested, up to a maximum of
four research projects may be included and must be described in
sufficient detail to permit evaluation of the scientific merit of
each project.

This information is necessary to justify an IDeA award and to provide
evidence that the research that will result from the award will be of
high quality and be likely to compete successfully for future Federal
funding.  A separate detailed budget must be provided for each of
these activities.

Budget Considerations

Allowable Costs

In general, the direct costs listed in the PHS Grants Policy
Statement as allowable for research grants are also allowable for the
IDeA.  Funds requested for the IDeA program may be used to support
the following:

o  central shared equipment and other research resources
o  recruitment of faculty and other research personnel
o  development of research data to be included in research grant
applications submitted to NIH for support through established support
mechanisms
o  development of research skills by investigators
o  research salary support of key investigators
o  consultants
o  establishment of research laboratories
o  grant related support personnel
o  other direct costs of development of institutional research
capability

Costs Not Allowable

o  training
o  construction
o  salary for teaching and other non-research activities
o  institutional grants and contract office, central accounting, and
similar activities
o  research project support for established investigators unless
necessary for temporary start-up costs as in recruitment, or
relocation or initiation of new research directions.

Support provided through the IDeA program may not replace existing
state, institutional or Federal research support.  IDeA support may
not be used to maintain current biomedical/behavioral activities, but
must be used to develop innovative ways to enhance the quality and
competitiveness of the state institutional biomedical/behavioral
research base.

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 applications 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
(rev. 9/91) 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 trails.

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 question(s) addressed and the justification for the
selected study population is inadequate, it will be considered a
scientific weakness of 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 January 17, 1994, a
letter of intent that includes a descriptive title of the proposed
program, the name, address, and telephone number of the Principal
Investigator, 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
contained is helpful in planning for the review of applications.  It
allows NCRR staff to estimate the potential review workload and to
avoid possible conflict of interest in the review.

The letter of intent is to be sent to Dr. Marjorie A. Tingle at the
address listed under INQUIRIES.

APPLICATION PROCEDURES

Applications are to be submitted using form PHS 398 (rev. 9/91).
These forms are available in most institutional offices of sponsored
research and may be obtained from the Office of Grants Information,
Division of Research Grants, National Institutes of Health, 5333
Westbard Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20892, telephone (301) 710-0267.

Applicants must follow the instructions provided in the PHS 398 and
clarifying instructions, below.  There is a 25-page limitation for
the "Research Plan".  Note that the appendix is not to be used to
circumvent the page limitations in the Research Plan (see page 24 of
form PHS 398 for specific instructions in using an appendix).
Applications that do not follow all of the instructions for the form
PHS 398 will be returned.

A mini workshop will be held in the Washington, DC area in early
February to provide technical assistance in the preparation of
applications and to assist in the development and implementation of
such plans.

Additional instructions for application face page and budget:

The RFA label in the PHS 398 kit 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 number
and title must be typed on line 2a of the face page form, the "YES"
box must be checked, and "P20" typed in item 2b.

Items 4 and 5 on the face page of the application must be completed.
Where appropriate, IRB (Institutional Review Board) or IACUC
(Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) approval must be
obtained for each research project for which NIH support is
requested.

Item 6 - Dates of Entire Proposed Project Period.  The total proposed
project period should begin on September 1, 1994, and may not exceed
two years in length.

Item 7 - Costs Requested for Initial Budget Period.  In 7a. enter the
Total Direct Costs for Initial Budget Period as requested on (Form
Page 4).  In 7b. enter the Total Costs Requested for Initial Budget
Period.  This is the total of the direct costs from (Form Page 4) and
the indirect costs for the initial budget period (3a) from the
Checklist.

Item 8 - Costs Requested for Entire Proposed Project Period. In 8a.
enter the Total Direct Costs for Entire Project Period as requested
on (Form Page 5).  In 8b. enter the Total Costs Requested for Entire
Proposed Project Period.  This is the sum of the total direct costs
from (Form Page 5) and the indirect costs for the entire proposed
project period (3b) from the Checklist.

Item 9 - Performance Sites.  Indicate names and addresses of all
sites where work described in the Research Plan will be conducted.
(See also page 14 in Form PHS 398.)

(Form Page 4) - Detailed Budget for Initial Budget Period

This budget must detail only the funds being requested from NIH for
the first year.  Matching funds from the institution or third-parties
are to be described (or detailed on a budget page) separately.

A separate detailed budget page must be submitted for each consortium
institution.  (See also page 18 in Form PHS 398.)

If funds are being requested for more than one project, then a
detailed budget for each project must be submitted.

(Form Page 5) - Budget for Entire Proposed Project Period.

This page must detail only the funds being requested from NIH for the
two-year project period.

The signed, typewritten original of the application, including the
Checklist, and three exact photocopies of the signed application must
be submitted 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. Marjorie A. Tingle at the address listed
under INQUIRIES.

Applications must be submitted by February 23, 1994.  Applications
submitted after this date will be returned to the applicant.

REVIEW CONSIDERATIONS

Review of IDeA applications for scientific and technical merit will
be performed by an ad hoc review committee convened by the Office of
Review, NCRR.  Applications will undergo a second level of review by
the National Advisory Research Resources Council.

Criteria for review of the overall application include, but are not
limited to, the following:

1.  Merit of the research development goals to be achieved by the
institution and described in sufficient detail within the IDeA
application;

2.  Merit of the plan proposed to achieve the research development
goals; and,

3.  Quality of the research for which support is requested from NIH.
Criteria for review of infrastructure and research projects include:

o  Relevance of proposed project to institutional plan for expansion
of biomedical/behavioral research capacity;
o  Significance and relevance of the proposed research problem and
potential for publishable results and continued future funding;
o  The technical merit and appropriateness of the research plan,
including specific aims, experimental design, methodology,
consideration of alternatives, data analysis, scope and timetable;
o  Adequacy of resources, including background and training of the
principal investigator and other personnel and availability and
suitability of specialized facilities and equipment;

4.  Research qualifications of existing and proposed personnel
related to the IDeA award;

5.  Overall administrative strengths of the program;

6.  Evidence of the commitment of the applicant institution and the
state to achieve the research development goals and to sustain those
achievements; and,

7.  Probability that the research development goals will be achieved
and sustained, and that high quality health research will result.

Special emphasis will be placed on the impact of the proposed program
on the institution(s) and the state and its potential to obtain
additional NIH research support to continue and expand its
activities.

AWARD CRITERIA

In making funding decisions, NCRR will give consideration to ensure
program balance among the various types of programs and/or geographic
distribution.  Consideration will also be given to focus on reaching
minority, rural, and other underserved and disadvantaged individuals.

INQUIRIES

Written and telephone inquiries concerning this RFA are encouraged.
The opportunity to clarify any issues or questions from potential
applicants is welcome.  Prospective applicants are advised to
communicate with NCRR program and grants management staff who are
available to assist applicants to ensure that the objectives,
structure and budget format for the application are acceptable.

Direct inquiries regarding programmatic issues and address the letter
of intent to:

Dr. Marjorie A. Tingle
Biomedical Research Support Program
National Center for Research Resources
Westwood Building, Room 848
Bethesda, MD  20892
Telephone:  (301) 594-7947

Direct inquiries regarding fiscal matters to:

Ms. Mary V. Niemiec
Office of Grants and Contracts Management
National Center for Research Resources
Westwood Building, Room 849
Bethesda, MD  20892
Telephone:  (301) 594-7955

AUTHORITY AND REGULATIONS

Awards will be made under authorization of the Public Health Service
Act, Title III, Part A (Public Law 78-410, as amended, 42 USC 241)
and administered under PHS grants policies and Federal Regulations 42
CFR 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.

.

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