Research Support Newsletter

Revised NSF Guide to Programs, Effective November 21, 2003
The new edition of the Guide to Programs is now available on the web. The 2004 Guide to Programs is a compilation of funding opportunities offered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) for research and education in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology. The Guide includes broad, general descriptions of programs and activities for each NSF Directorate. It also offers links to other information sources, including NSF Directorate home pages; to related publications such as program announcements and solicitations that contain additional proposal or eligibility information; and to the E-Bulletin for deadline and target-date information.

Some of the programs contained in this guide are new for fiscal year 2004 (FY04) and were created with the intention of being supported by the FY04 budget, once it takes effect. At this time however, the NSF is operating under a continuing resolution at FY03 funding levels. Therefore, there is no budget to initiate these new programs until the FY04 VA/HUD and Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill becomes law. If you are interested in one of these new programs, you are encouraged to contact the office indicated for further information pertaining to this situation.

NIH Loan Repayment Programs Increase Awards by 66 Percent
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reported on November 10, 2003, that it awarded loan repayment contracts totaling $63.3 million to 1,200 researchers across the nation in FY 2003.

This represents a 66 percent increase in the number of awards over FY 2002, the first year NIH implemented the loan repayment programs nationwide. Loan repayment contracts are competitively awarded to health professionals who commit to engage in qualifying research.

NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs) can repay up to $35,000 a year of qualified educational debt for health professionals (including clinical researchers from disadvantaged backgrounds) pursuing careers in clinical, pediatric, contraception and infertility, or health-disparities research. NIH also provides tax reimbursements to participants who document additional federal, state’ or local tax liabilities attributable to loan repayment or tax payment income.

To learn more about the eligibility requirements for NIH loan repayment programs, visit www.lrp.nih.gov or call 866-849-4047.

Revised RFA Designators For NIH Roadmap Initiatives
In order to underscore the trans-NIH nature and increase the visibility of initiatives issued under the National Institutes of Health’s Roadmap, the Requests for Application (RFA) number of several announcements will be changed to incorporate the Roadmap designator (RM). All future RFAs issued under the NIH Roadmap will include this designator.

All applications responding to Roadmap RFAs must cite the new Roadmap RFA number in Item 2 on the face page of their applications (see http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/fp1.pdf ). Applications that have already been received in response to the first RFA listed below (Development of High Resolution Probes for Cellular Imaging) will be recoded by the NIH.

Change in NIH Policy Concerning Mentored Career Development Awards
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently modified its policy on mentored career-development awards (K Awards) to allow award recipients to hold concurrent support from their career award and a competing research grant when recognized as a principal investigator or subproject director.

Effective for competing applications submitted for February 1, 2004 and beyond, mentored career award recipients in the last two years of career-award support are encouraged to obtain funding from NIH either as principal investigator on a competing research-grant award or cooperative agreement or as project leader on a competing multiproject award.

This policy permits those candidates who are ready to apply for and receive NIH research support to continue to benefit from the period of protected time offered by the career-development award.

New AIR/NPEC Focused Grants on Student Success
The Association for Institutional Research (AIR) and the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative (NPEC) are initiating a new focused-grant program. The program funds research to increase the understanding and knowledge of a specific issue area identified by the NPEC Executive Committee as critically important to the postsecondary-education community. This year the focus is student success at all levels of postsecondary education.

During the next three years, in addition to the collaborative focused-grant program, NPEC is planning several activities that will lead to a better understanding of student success in postsecondary education. These activities will culminate in a national conference on student success in 2005 or 2006. Click here for more information about NPEC and NPEC activities, and to see the AIR/NPEC Focused Grant guidelines.

FNIH & Gates Foundation Announce Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative
The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced the first scientific challenges that will be the focus of the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative. The identified challenges fall into seven broad goals: improving childhood vaccines, creating new vaccines, controlling insects that transmit agents of disease, improving nutrition to promote health, improving drug treatment of infectious diseases, curing latent and chronic infections, and measuring disease and health status accurately and economically in developing countries. The FNIH seeks grant proposals for research on these critical scientific and technological problems that, if solved, could lead to important advances against diseases of the developing world. For more information about the 14 specific Grand Challenges within the broad goals, see the full announcement on the FNIH web site.

As a partner in this new initiative, the NIH also will identify activities that are appropriate for government funding. Possibilities include the parallel release of announcements to fund joint or associated projects, funding shared resources and training, and announcing funding opportunities for follow-up grants that complement the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative.

Through the initiative, grants will be awarded for up to a total of $20 million for a maximum five-year period. To apply for a research grant, investigators must first submit a letter of intent; those that show the most promising and innovative research approaches will be invited to submit a formal grant proposal. For more detailed information on the Grand Challenges initiative, including the full texts of the Grand Challenges and instructions on the grant submission process, visit www.grandchallengesgh.org.

Department of Education Paving the Way for E-Grants
The Department of Education is seeking comments about plans to amend regulations governing the process for submitting discretionary-grant applications by permitting electronic as well as paper submission of applications. The revisions will also clarify that only applicants submitting paper applications are required to submit one original and two copies of their application. Click here for more information.

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