We’re hosting a webinar for students and fellows interested in the Postdoctoral Research Associate Training (PRAT) program for the October 4, 2021, receipt date:

Tuesday, June 22, 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET

PRAT is a competitive 3-year fellowship program that prepares trainees for leadership positions in biomedical careers. Training includes a mentored laboratory research experience and intensive career and leadership development activities. PRAT fellows conduct research in laboratories in the NIH Intramural Research Program (IRP) in basic biomedical research areas within the NIGMS mission. These areas include, but are not limited to, biological chemistry, biophysics, bioinformatics, cellular and molecular biology, computational biosciences, developmental biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience, pharmacology, physiology, and technology development.

I’m pleased to share that the Academic Research Enhancement Award for Undergraduate-Focused Institutions (R15) funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) have been reissued (PAR-21-155 and PAR-21-154). The FOAs continue NIH efforts to support small-scale research grants at institutions that do not receive substantial funding from NIH. The grants emphasize providing biomedical research experiences for undergraduate students and enhancing the research environment at grantee institutions. Eligible institutions must award baccalaureate degrees in biomedical sciences, have a greater undergraduate student enrollment than graduate student enrollment, and must not have received more than $6 million per year of NIH support (total costs) in 4 of the last 7 fiscal years. Health professional schools are not eligible for this FOA and are not included in the $6 million eligibility calculation. There is another series of FOAs focused on health professional schools and graduate schools (PAR-19-134 and PAR-19-135).

We’re pleased to announce a new notice of special interest (NOSI) (NOT-GM-21-050) to address the urgent need for documenting COVID-19-related outcomes of patients, including those suffering from health disparities, which helps foster COVID-19-related clinical research. Competitive revisions to active IDeA-CTR (U54) awards will be considered for the purpose of sustaining and strengthening the IDeA state COVID-19 patient registry, a component of the National COVID Cohort Collaborative.

Applications are due by June 18, 2021. If you have any questions about this NOSI, please contact Hongwei Gao.

I’m pleased to announce a new funding opportunity for a Support for Research Excellence (SuRE) U24 resource center (PAR-21-227) to broaden participation in the new SuRE R16 programs announced earlier this month, which replace the Support of Competitive Research (SCORE) program. The SuRE resource center will assist eligible institutions in building research capacity and training their professional staff and faculty.

Applicants to the SuRE resource center funding opportunity announcement are expected to have prior experience in managing multi-institutional endeavors and conducting outreach to a geographically diverse pool of applicants. Nonprofit institutions with a national reach (e.g., professional societies) are among those eligible to apply. 

NIGMS and other institutes and centers across NIH are partnering with the Office of Data Science Strategy to promote the development of a workforce with skills at the interface of information sciences, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), and biomedical sciences. As part of these efforts, we invite eligible institutions with NIGMS training (T32, T34), certain research education (R25), or institutional career development (K12) awards to apply for administrative supplements through NOT-OD-21-079. This funding opportunity supports the development and implementation of curricular or training activities that provide individuals with the skills to make biomedical data FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and AI/ML-ready.

Grantees should consider the following before applying:

NIGMS is pleased to announce our participation in Phase II of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics for Underserved Populations (RADx-UP), a $500 million NIH-wide initiative to understand and reduce morbidity and mortality disparities for vulnerable and underserved populations disproportionately affected by COVID-19. The initiative funds a national coordination center and a network of projects across the United States aimed at improving COVID-19 testing and understanding COVID-19 health disparities.

Four new RADx-UP Phase II funding opportunity announcements have been published:

We’re pleased to announce that two funding opportunities for the new Support for Research Excellence (SuRE) program, which replaces our Support of Competitive Research (SCORE) program, have been issued. SuRE R16 awards support investigator-initiated research projects in all NIH mission areas and are open to faculty at institutions that award science degrees (bachelor and/or graduate degrees), receive limited NIH research support, and serve students from groups underrepresented in biomedical research. Faculty with prior experience in leading independent research who aren’t currently program directors/principal investigators of active NIH research project grants may apply for a SuRE Award (PAR-21-169). Faculty who haven’t had any prior independent research grant support are encouraged to apply for the SuRE-First Award (PAR-21-173).

We’re pleased to announce a new notice of special interest (NOSI) calling for applications developing training modules for creating safe, inclusive, and supportive research environments (NOT-GM-20-047). The proposed modules should impact individuals from a broad range of scientific disciplines and career stages and cover material not typically taught as part of current institutional coursework. The modules can take many different formats and approaches and should be timely, informative, engaging, easily accessible, and free to everyone. Applications must address how the modules will catalyze either of the following:

UPDATE: The video from this webinar is now available.

We’re pleased to announce the reissuance of funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) for the Undergraduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement (U-RISE) (PAR-21-146) and the Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) (PAR-21-147) T34 programs. The FOAs continue the shared goal to develop a diverse pool of undergraduates who complete their baccalaureate degree, and transition into and complete biomedical, research-focused higher degree programs (e.g., Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D.).

The first application due date for these FOAs is May 26, 2021, and the earliest start date for both programs is April 2022.

We’re pleased to announce our Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) (T32) funding opportunity announcement (FOA) has been reissued (PAR-21-189). This FOA continues our efforts toward changes in integrated medical and graduate research training to keep pace with the rapidly evolving research environment that’s increasingly complex, interdisciplinary, quantitative, and collaborative. This program provides support to eligible domestic institutions to develop and implement effective, evidence-informed approaches to integrated dual-degree training leading to the award of both clinical degrees (e.g., M.D., D.O., D.V.M., D.D.S., and Pharm.D.), and research doctorate degrees (Ph.D.).