Navigating NIH Funding: Tips for Success
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Presentation Transcript
NIH 101 Laurie Tompkins, PhD Acting Director, Division of Genetics and Developmental Biology NIGMS, NIH Swarthmore College May 14, 2012
Structure of NIH (one view) • Intramural (research labs at NIH) 10% • Extramural (administrators who deal with the biomedical research community outside of NIH) 90%
Structure of NIH (another view) • 28 Institutes, Centers, and Offices • Most but not all support biomedical research • Examples: • NCI (cancer) • NHLBI (heart, lung, and blood) • NIMH (mental health) • NIGMS (basic research) http://www.nih.gov/icd/
Most important point in talk! • Every grant-funding institute, center and office is different • Mission (topics of interest) • Types of awards • Grants, cooperative agreements, contracts • Special initiatives vs. investigator-initiated projects • Research grants vs. centers • Emphasis on training and workforce development • Types of awards (“mechanism”): R03, R21s not accepted by all institutes
Take-home message: • New to NIH? • Changing fields? • Figure out what institute(s) might be interested in funding what you want to do before you start working on the grant application • Is NIH interested? • If an institute is interested, what does it offer (special initiatives, types of awards)?
How? • http://www.nih.gov/icd/ • rePORTERhttp://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm • Discuss idea with program director • Email preferable to phone, to start discussion • Send description of what you want to do • Think about budget, term, scope of project before you contact program • Provide information (independent investigator, trainee, institution, contact info) • Inquiry may be referred to another person at NIH
Special initiatives (ask!) • RFA (institute interest, money set aside) • PA (institute interest, but no money set aside) • If there’s an RFA or PA for what you want to do, apply in response to the RFA or PA, even if it’s a little more work, you have to delay submitting an application, or the institute isn’t the one that has funded your projects in the past • Get in touch with scientific/program contact named in funding opportunity announcement (FOA) if you’re not sure
Applying for funding • All applications—special initiatives and “standard”—submitted in response to FOA • FOAs published in NIH Guide • http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/index.html • FOAs for “unsolicited” applications • http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/parent_announcements.htm • R01, R03, R15, R21, T32, F, common K
Funding to award cycle (6-9 months) • Most applications submitted electronically • Applications submitted to CSR (Center for Scientific Review) • Division of Receipt and Referral in CSR: two assignments, review and institute • Review: usually CSR study section • Institute advisory Council • Funding decision
Review • NIH administrator: Scientific Review Officer (SRO) • CSR review: study section or special emphasis panel (SEP) • Ca. 25% of applications reviewed by institute review staff: SROs • Research grant applications: ca. half discussed • Summary statement • If discussed, score, percentile (for some types of applications), summary of discussion, reviewers’ critiques, IRG notes (budget cuts, concerns) • If not discussed, reviewers’ critiques
Council • “Second level of review” • Deals with appeals and grievances (concerns about review or the outcome), special situations (applications from investigators with lots of other funding, foreign applications, etc.) • Provides advice about special initiatives and applications submitted in response to special initiatives • En bloc approval to consider applications for funding • Lots of variability among institutes
Post-Council • Institute (program) decides which applications to fund • Lots of differences among institutes in how funding decisions are made • New investigators typically get special consideration • Budget and/or term of award may be cut • Start date may be later than requested • Grants management specialist makes award
Why does receipt-to-award cycle take so long? • SROs need time to read applications, figure out what expertise is required to evaluate them, recruit/assign appropriate reviewers • Reviewers need time to read and evaluate applications • After review, SROs need time to write summary statements • Advisory Councils need time to complete assignments (read documents and make decisions)
Question or concern? Program director, SRO, or grants management? • Before submitting application: program (or if question is about a study section, SRO) • After submission, before review: SRO • After review, program (scientific issues) or grants management (budget or policy issues). General rule: institutional administrators talk to grants management, investigators talk to program. Just-in-time: grants management. PLEASE SUBMIT ASAP IF REQUESTED. • After award: program (scientific), grants management (budget or policy)