NIGMS Director’s Report Slides [PDF 3.7MB]
NIGMS Director Dr. Jon R. Lorsch thanked the NAGMS Council and NIGMS staff for accommodating a first-ever all-virtual meeting and welcomed new Council members. Dr. Lorsch also acknowledged NIGMS staff departures, new hires, and promotions, including the reassignment of Dr. Darren Sledjeski as deputy director, Division of Extramural Activities, who oversees Council meeting preparations. Dr. Lorsch announced the recent hiring of Dr. John Ngai as director of NIH’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. He next described NIH and NIGMS responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. These include accommodations for grantees to pay trainees and staff while in stay-at-home status and enabling grantees to donate personal protective equipment and other supplies. NIH/NIGMS is accepting late applications for NIGMS-specific FOAs with due dates in May 2020 and extending early-stage investigator (ESI) eligibilities. NIGMS is also funding competitive revision administrative supplements for COVID-19 research (such as infectious disease modeling research and repurposing developmental therapeutics or diagnostics originally targeted for other indications). Dr. Lorsch pointed to a critical need for modeling research in general, to improve access to data and to inform development and testing of modeling techniques. He highlighted the NIGMS-funded MIDAS Coordination Center as central to considering and managing many of these issues. Dr. Lorsch noted the Institute’s online offerings, including a new webinar series for the training community, resources for scientists at all career levels, and various virtual learning STEM educational resources. He reported that the FY 2019 NIGMS research project grant success rate was over 30%, with a record number of ESIs funded, prompting Council’s suggestions to continue to assess qualitative and quantitative measures related to this population’s career progression over time.
Contact: Dr. Jon Lorsch, jon.lorsch@nih.gov
2020 represents the fifth and final year of the current NIGMS Strategic Plan, and the Institute has begun the process of developing a strategic plan for 2021-2025. Council reviewed the draft framework of broad goals and objectives:
At the January NAGMS Council meeting, a working group of Council presented their evaluation of the SCORE program. In response, Dr. Ming Lei, director of the Institute’s Division for Research Capacity Building, presented a plan to implement the working group’s recommendations. Going forward, NIGMS intends to highlight institutional research capacity building and student participation in quality research as important program objectives. Dr. Lei noted a key activity planned is a rebranding/renaming of the program to the Develop Academic Research Excellence (DARE) Award, to align with the program’s revised focus on developing research excellence: a shift from its current emphasis on competitiveness. NIGMS will redesign the current SCORE funding mechanisms as well as support a resource center to expand participation by eligible institutions and develop an evaluation plan.
Contact: Dr. Ming Lei, leim@mail.nih.gov
U-RISE is an institutional student development program. It is limited to applications from training programs at research-active institutions (i.e., those with a 3-year average of NIH research project grant funding less than $7.5 million total costs per year). This reissued concept clearance is for a revised U-RISE funding announcement containing minor administrative changes and an increased emphasis on promoting safety in the research training environment and teaching to the highest practices in biomedical research. Council voted and unanimously approved the concept.
Contact: Dr. Alison Gammie, alison.gammie@nih.gov
NIGMS has a longstanding commitment to developing the next generation of biomedical scientists through a variety of institutional training and diversity-enhancing programs including MARC, an institutional student development program that currently provides support to train undergraduates. This program is limited to applications from training programs at research-intensive institutions (i.e., those with a 3-year average of NIH research project grant funding equal to or above $7.5 million total costs per year). In FY 2019, NIGMS supported 569 undergraduate students at 54 institutions. This reissue of a revised MARC funding announcement contains minor administrative changes and an increased emphasis on promoting safety in the research training environment and teaching to the highest practices in biomedical research. Council voted and unanimously approved the concept.
The longstanding joint program between NIGMS and the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) on mathematical biology (aka, the BioMath program) supports research projects where mathematics and statistics play essential roles in advancing the biological and biomedical sciences. Both DMS and NIGMS recognize and agree that when programmatic goals are compatible, coordinated management and funding of a program can have a synergistic effect on the level and scope of research, thereby leveraging the investments of both federal agencies. This reissue is a revised solicitation for the productive BioMath program, which will continue to support and promote research at the interface between mathematical and life sciences. Council voted and unanimously approved the concept.
Contact: (not available)
NIH has a longstanding commitment to stimulate research at educational institutions that provide degrees for a significant number of the nation’s research scientists, but that have not been major recipients of NIH support. The goals of the AREA program are to i) support small-scale research grants at institutions that do not receive substantial funding from NIH, ii) provide active biomedical research experiences primarily for undergraduate students, and iii) enhance the research environment at applicant institutions. AREA eligibility is limited to faculty with a primary appointment at a non-health professional school or college and to institutions that award baccalaureate science degrees and have received no more than $6 million per year of NIH support (total costs) in 4 of the last 7 fiscal years. This a reissue of a revised AREA funding announcement with no significant changes. Council voted and unanimously approved the concept.
Contact: Dr. Alexandra Ainsztein, alexandra.ainsztein@nih.gov
Dr. Erika Shugart, executive director of the American Society for Cell Biology, submitted written comments to NIGMS [PDF]
