From: Berg, Jeremy (NIH/NIGMS) [E]Sent: Thursday, March 5, 2009 12:47 PMTo: NIGMS Principal Investigators and Recent ApplicantsSubject: Recovery Act Update
Dear NIGMS Grantees and Recent Applicants:
I am writing to give you an update on NIH and NIGMS activities related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. While many details remain to be worked out, NIH has already announced one new funding opportunity, and NIH and its institutes and centers have created Web pages where information will be posted as it becomes available.
The NIH Recovery Act information page is at http://www.nih.gov/recovery. The NIGMS page is at http://www.nigms.nih.gov/About/Recovery/. NIH will post Recovery Act funding opportunities at http://grants.nih.gov/recovery.
Yesterday, NIH issued a funding opportunity announcement for NIH Challenge Grants in Health and Science Research. This initiative will receive at least $200 million of Recovery Act funds to support 200 or more grants. Applications are due by April 27, 2009. The program will support research that focuses on specific knowledge gaps, scientific opportunities, new technologies, data generation, or research methods that would benefit from an influx of funds to quickly advance the area in significant ways. The announcement describes broad challenge areas and includes links to institute and center sites that contain descriptions of additional, mission-specific topics. The NIGMS topic areas document is at http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Research/Pages/ChallengeAreas.aspx.
NIH also issued a notice about the review criteria, scoring system, and suspension of the appeals process for Recovery Act applications. It is at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-09-054.html.
As you may know, the Recovery Act includes $300 million for shared instrumentation and other capital equipment, to be administered by the National Center for Research Resources. NCRR will provide information at its Recovery Act Web site, http://www.ncrr.nih.gov/the_american_recovery_and_reinvestment_act/, but you may wish to consult the current Shared Instrumentation Grant funding opportunity announcement for details about this program, which funds equipment costing between $100,000 and $500,000. The due date for applications is March 23, 2009. An announcement on high-end instrumentation is expected soon.
Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to the many people who have taken the time to share their thoughts with me about possible Recovery Act investment strategies. I value your input and continue to welcome your feedback.
Best,
Jeremy M. BergDirectorNational Institute of General Medical Sciencesbergj@mail.nih.gov
