NIH All About Grants Podcast: Bridge Funding

May 6, 2022

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Narrator: from the national institutes of health in Bethesda, Maryland. This is all about grants

Kosub >> hello and welcome to another edition of NIH�s all about grants podcast. I�m� your host David Kosub with the NIH�s office of extramural research. and today we're going to be talking about everything you need to know about bridge awards. And we have with us two program staff from the national institutes of health, Dr. Lakshmi Ramachandra. She's with the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases and we also have DR. Bonnie Burgess-Beusse, who is with the national institute of diabetes and digestive and kidney diseases. I welcome you all both to the show.

Ramachandra >> thank you for having us.

Burgess-Beusse >> Thank you, I�m� excited to talk about this topic. �

Kosub >> Great well let's jump right in. What's the purpose of a bridge award? what makes these unique?

Burgess-Beusse >> The unique award is for high priority short term project awards and it uses the r56 activity code. And �these are based off of r01 applications only, so what it is a year or two of funding that's directed at high priority new or competing renewal r01 applications, and it provides limited interim research support based on the merit of a pending application

Kosub >> Ah thanks for that. And so let's be turning to you now Lakshmi, um who's likely to be getting one of these awards

Ramachandra >> so the bridge award can be given to an investigator at any stage of their career. So we could support early career stage scientists who are trying to establish their research careers, or it can be given to experienced scientists who've just missed getting funded. And some of the ICs also give special considerations to new investigators, so it can vary. And the kind of signs that we're trying to support at is addressing a gap in scientific knowledge. It could be something that's very important to the IC, like an emerging health threat, or it could be science that is fostering kind of an innovative approach. Or it may be generating a very important resource that could really serve the community. So these are all the things that we consider about who should be receiving a bridge award.

Kosub >> Thank you for that. Now i guess jumping back to you bonnie, we talked about kind of like who might be getting one. Can an institution actually apply for a bridge award?

Burgess-Beusse >> No, that's not how this type of award works. And one of the special things about the r56 is that investigators and institutions cannot directly apply for one of these. So NIH staff are the ones who bring these forward for consideration, and they take into account the peer reviewers and Council opinions. And NIH staff nominate creative innovative and meritorious r01 applications that usually fall just beyond the established pay line for conversion to an r56. Now i should note that this is restricted to domestic applicants only and foreign applications, and even foreign components are not considered for this type of an award.

Kosub >> So thanks for those considerations. I guess building on that, love to hear some more about like the criteria that an institute or center may be thinking about when they're you know considering a bridge funding. And I should mention that you know we're talking generally about, you know, bridge awards across NIH. But you know, for the listeners it's important to note that not every institute and center at NIH funds bridge awards. So you know hearing from y'all's perspective, that your, you know, institutes would be helpful. And you know maybe Lakshmi you can start?

Ramachandra >> So when the program staff is considering which applications to nominate for bridge funding, they first uh sort of think about you know should the pi just revise and resubmit. The reason being that bridge funds are actually quite limited, and as well and not every pi can actually benefit from one to two years of funding. So these are some of the considerations other things that uh staff will consider is you know what potentially could be lost by not providing some funding. Now could it be momentum? Could it be you know loss of some very important resource? Then we also look into what is the relevance of what is being supported to the IC mission the institute's mission. Is it addressing something of high scientific priority? We also as i mentioned previously, we do give some consideration, many ICs give special considerations for new investigators. Does the PI have a well-defined scientific plan or goal that the bridge award can you know address? �And uh often we find that the study section will suggest that the pi you know produce or you know some more you know data to make their r1 application more competitive? And so you know a bridge award could perhaps support you know generation of more data, and sometimes the bridge award we look at it as can it help sustain a lab that may or may not have future funding. And often another criteria is if a pi has already been supported with the bridge award in the last few years, we often you know exclude them from consideration. And then maybe Bonnie has a few more things to add.

Burgess-Beusse >> Sure thank you Lakshmi. You know everything you said you made some very excellent points. I think the only other point i would make is that sometimes we consider for competing renewal applications, you know, abridged funds can be used to help preserve essential research resources allowing the investigator time to revise and resubmit their application.

Kosub >> So you all mentioned the kind of the support for these investigators. How much would we actually provide? What would be the budget that be allowed?

Burgess-Beusse >> Well the budget can be actually quite variable and it can go all the way up to what was recommended by the scientific review group. But generally speaking oftentimes it's intended more to support a more limited budget to support a very well-defined scientific activity that can be reasonably performed one to two years using a pare-down budget. And the reason for this, is that many NIH institutes and centers do not have a large pool of funds set aside to make bridge awards. And by making smaller sized awards, it allows that money to go further than it would if everyone just got their full budget. So that's why a number of times the budget is targeted to be much smaller than initially requested.

Kosub >> Yeah i definitely can see that. You know we mentioned institutions can't apply to these, but you know if like the institution or the researcher you know is interested in knowing more about bridge awards or might you know have some questions about them, or maybe like you know want to touch base with someone, you know, is it appropriate for� them to reach out to program staff, you know, to kind of hear them out? Maybe both y'all could take this from your different vantage points?

Ramachandra >> Sure, so while the POs or the program staff recommends applications to be supported by bridges, you know, we find that investigators often who've just missed the pay line do contact program staff and ask you know what is the possibility of getting a bridge award? And sometimes the program staff will also reach out to the investigator if they need some additional information to perhaps support a bridge award nomination. And so it goes you know we do have conversations going both ways. But you know just to reiterate uh bridge funding can be highly unpredictable at any IC, and so what we say is you know despite what the program officer may be doing, maybe they'll be putting forward a bridge, you know, nomination for a PI. The pi should still always go ahead revise and resubmit, or resubmit a new application, that is the safest course.

Burgess-Beusse >>� Indeed Lakshmi, that is the safest course. So particularly given that you know the timing of bridge support funding decisions can be variable. And it may vary each fiscal year depending on the budget situation of a given NIH institute or center. And sometimes these decisions are only made once a year so it's really important not to rely on this source of funding. And I�d also like to mention that it can be helpful for program officials to know if you know, say you received a score that was close to the pay line but you missed being funded but you have extenuating circumstances in your laboratory. And say for example you might be in danger of losing your position or losing your lab, that's something that can be helpful for program officials to know, because that can also factor into their decisions. So you know you can feel free to contact your po to let them know kind of what's going on with you and what your situation is.

Kosub >> Well, I�m definitely glad to hear that are you know recommending reaching out to your program staff, because that's definitely a theme for our podcast, is reach out early and often to your program staff, because they're a valued resource here. So what about in the situation when say someone had or an institution has a bridge award and they apply for an r01 later, and they actually get it, it competed successfully. What happens to the bridge in that case?

Ramachandra >> So if a revised competing application is funded while a bridge award is active, then the institute will actually end the bridge award. And then fund the uh r01.

Kosub >> Cool, thank you for that. And before we close, i always like to give our guests an opportunity for any final thoughts. Anything that we haven't hit on or something that needs to be reiterated about bridge awards. And y'all are both welcome to add something, and please go ahead.

Ramachandra >> so, the bridge award is really an opportunity for the institutes in the NIH to help investigators who have just usually just missed their pay line. And we often have investigators sort of write back to us and tell us that their bridge award allowed them to you know do that little that extra experiment that they needed uh to make their r1 more competitive and improve it. And often they've gone ahead and submitted either reason you know done a resubmission or submitted a new application and gotten funded. And there are times when we've heard stories where you know it managed to the bridge award helped to retain staff and you know sort of support the research, which was very important for the institute moving forward. So you know we always try to think of creative and innovative approaches to trying to support uh investigators and we hope that the bridge awards is one of them.

Burgess-Beusse >> The bridge awards can certainly be very helpful for a variety of reasons, and i just want to reiterate again, you know, don't hesitate to reach out and contact your po to discuss your application and the potential of, you know, what the options are for you in your particular scenario. You know it might be the case that a bridge award just doesn't make sense for you but your po can really help you try to decide on what the next best steps are for you going forward.

Kosub >> Well, wonderful, thank you very much Lakshmi and bonnie. This has been a great opportunity to learn more about bridge awards. For those interested please do check out we have a dedicated page on bridge funding and bridge awards on the NIH grants site, so check it out. This has been David Kosub with all about grants. Thank you