This exploratory/development grant (R21) program stimulates the development of instrumentation that can be used by a wide range of biomedical or clinical researchers and is not limited to a specific organ or disease. High-risk applications are encouraged. Preliminary data generated by an R21 award can be used to support a future application for an R01 or small business grant from NIGMS or another NIH component.
An application for an R21 grant is expected to encompass work at the edge of a new frontier or the limits of understanding of a biomedical research problem. Since the R21 mechanism is designed to support applications with few or no preliminary findings, investigators with substantial preliminary data should submit proposals under a different mechanism.
Examples of new tools and techniques that are supported by this program include optical spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, electrophoresis and other separation techniques, flow cytometry, microscopy, lasers and optics, X-ray tools, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, bioreactors, centrifugation, proteomic and genomic tools, and microarrays. This list is not exhaustive, but investigators with topics outside of these areas are strongly encouraged to contact program staff to ensure that their applications are responsive.
For more information about NIGMS support of instrument development for biomedical applications, see NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts, July 27, 2012 (RFA-GM-13-010), or contact:
Fred K. Friedman, Ph.D.
Division of Biomedical Technology, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology
National Institute of General Medical Sciences
National Institutes of Health
45 Center Drive MSC 6200
Bethesda, MD 20892-6200
Tel: 301-451-6446