Laurie Tompkins, PhD Acting Director, Division of Genetics and Developmental Biology NIGMS, NIH Swarthmore College May 14, 2012 NIH 101

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)

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? rePORTER Discuss idea with program director 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 FOAs for “unsolicited” applications nnouncements.htm nnouncements.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)