June 2017 Tipping Points

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TIPPING POINTS: RESEARCH NEWS AND TIPS

1. Grant Writing Services Offered by the Research Office: The Research Office offers grant support to help investigators to submit their external and internal grant applications. Resources include assistance with biosketches, facilities and resources, authentication plans, letters of support, formatting of proposals, and all non-scientific parts of the application. Also we offer support for review of the scientific parts of the application, and any other miscellaneous grant support needed. Please contact sthil001@umn.edu for more details.

2. Federal RePORTER: Supports searching over 800,000 projects across 17 Federal research agencies, with trans-agency data updated annually. You can quickly drill down to projects funded by a certain agency or projects occurring in a particular state. Find collaborators, get to know the research interests of federal science-funding agencies, understand your institution’s sources of support, and prepare your applications and research plan equipped with additional knowledge. Please visit Federal RePORTER to explore this tool.

3. New Tutorials on Preparing and Submitting Your NIH Grant Application: Would you like a step-by-step guide on how to apply for a NIH grant? On NIH's How to Apply page, you will find four new interactive tutorials on the basics of preparing, writing, and submitting your application. Tutorials take between 4 to 11 minutes each to listen through, and you can easily jump ahead to chapters of interest, or navigate back to review something you’ve missed. These tutorials link to additional resources and transcripts.

4. New IRB Training Requirement: Effective July 1, 2017, all biomedical researchers and research staff involved in the conduct of human research must complete Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training regardless of the level of risk or funding source. Refer to the training page of the IRB website for more information about this new requirement.

Until next month, be well!

NIH's Loan Repayment Program (LRP):

NIH's Loan Repayment Program (LRP): a new network - The Ambassador Program - connects potential LRP applicants with former and current LRP awardees.  LRP ambassadors serve as a personalized link/connection between the programs and potential applicants at their home institutions, providing advice and encouragement regarding the LRP application process.  For more information visit https://www.lrp.nih.gov/ambassador-program

Changes to NIH clinical trial applications in 2017

Changes to NIH clinical trial applications in 2017 - The new policy is targeted to apply to applications submitted for due dates on or after September 27, 2017. All clinical trial applications will need to contain key clinical trial-specific elements, such as protocol information. This change will mean that you will no longer be able to submit an application requesting support for a clinical trial on one of NIH's parent announcements. You will need to identify an FOA that clearly invites clinical trial applications. Please see the links below for additional information: 
https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-16-147.html 
https://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2016/09/16/clinical-trials-stewardship-and-transparency/ 
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/summary-hhs-nih-initiatives-enhance-availability-clinical-trial-information 
https://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2016/09/16/visibility-of-clinical-trial-activities-and-results/ 
https://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2016/12/ 

Are you trying to decide whether to submit a NIH R01 vs. a R21 application?

Are you trying to decide whether to submit a NIH R01 vs. a R21 application? This information from NIH may help. Visit NIH Nexus R01 and R21

NIH summarizes the information as shown below:

• The R21 mechanism is increasingly popular – we are seeing many more applications and awards, with growth rates exceeding those of R01 grants – but also highly competitive.
• Most R21 applicants and awardees have previously received some NIH funding; only 34% of R21 awardees were new NIH investigators.
• Over 15% of R21 awards are followed by at least one similar R01 application, but fewer than 5% of R21 awards are followed by at least one similar funded R01 project.

New video for NIH Basic Research Applicants and Reviewers

New video for NIH Basic Research Applicants and Reviewers: to help those who submit and review basic research grant applications to do their best. Videos and webinars can be viewed at: https://public.csr.nih.gov/Pages/csrwebinar.aspx

NIH-NINDS Fellowship grants

NIH-NINDS Fellowship grants: The National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke has changed its approach to supporting post-doctoral fellows. As of December 8, 2016 receipt date, NINDS is no longer participating in the NIH-wide F32 funding mechanism. Instead, applications will only be accepted from candidates who have not yet joined the postdoc lab, or are within the first 12 months after starting in the lab. The inclusion of preliminary data in F32 applications is discouraged in order to encourage earlier submissions. Applicants will neither benefit nor be penalized if preliminary data are included. NIH-NINDS F32

NIH/AHRQ/NIOSH have new policies on application appendices and post-submission materials

NIH/AHRQ/NIOSH have new policies on application appendices and post-submission materials: Effective on January 25, 2017 a new appendix policy will be implemented to clarify the rules and to decrease the withdrawal of applications for noncompliance.

• Not allowed: Accepted manuscripts and non-publicly available papers (or publications of any kind) will no longer be allowed in an appendix, but news of an article accepted for publication since submission of the application will be allowed as post-submission materials. 

• Allowed items: Informed consent/assent forms and blank surveys, forms, and other data collection instruments (as appropriate). In addition, applications containing clinical trials may include the clinical trial protocol and Investigator’s Brochure from an IND application, as appropriate — unless alternate instructions are provided in the funding opportunity announcement (FOA).

• Unless a FOA requires certain information to be included in the appendix, reviewers are not required to consider the material in their review.

NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs)

NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs):  Applications are accepted from September 1 to November 15, 2017.  US citizens and permanent residents are eligible to apply. Five categories are available. Qualified health professional must agree to engage in NIH mission-relevant research for at least 20 hours per week at a nonprofit institution. Visit  NIH Loan repayment program for more details.

NIH establishes single IRB policy

NIH establishes single IRB policy: 

In an era of multi-site research the traditional approach of
having each site apply to its own institutional review board (IRB) is seen as counterproductive.
To support multi-site research and its promise of increased efficiency and knowledge
development, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will now approve applications that are
approved by a single IRB. Any site will still be required to adhere to the ethical principles and
protections for subjects in any non-exempt research, but the single IRB will speed the process
by reducing the number of IRB requests to one. The new NIH policy will be in force for
competitive grants and contracts on or after May 25, 2017.

Details of the policy may be found at:

http://osp.od.nih.gov/sites/default/files/NIH_sIRB_Policy_Multi_site_Research_UPDATED2016.pdf

NIH changes to biosketches effective after May 25th 2016

NIH changes to biosketches effective after May 25th 2016: please see the attached document for details of the new changes.