Many NIH components, including NIGMS, support research and training relevant to care in the emergency medical setting. To facilitate and coordinate its activities in this area, NIH has created an Office of Emergency Care Research (OECR) that is housed in NIGMS. Although OECR will not fund grants, it will serve as a focal point for basic, clinical and translational emergency care research and training across NIH. The office’s activities will include:

• Coordinating funding opportunities that involve multiple NIH institutes and centers.
• Working closely with the NIH Emergency Care Research Working Group, which includes representatives from many NIH institutes and centers.
• Organizing scientific meetings to identify new research and training opportunities in emergency settings.
• Catalyzing the development of new funding opportunities.
• Informing investigators about funding opportunities in their areas of interest.
• Fostering career development for trainees in emergency care research.
• Representing NIH in government-wide efforts to improve the nation's emergency care system.

OECR’s creation is a culmination of more than 5 years of discussions between NIH and the emergency medicine community. The initial impetus for these conversations was three Institute of Medicine reports on emergency care in 2006. While a search is being conducted for a permanent director, OECR is being led on an acting basis by Walter J. Koroshetz, M.D., deputy director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Assisting him is Alice M. Mascette, M.D., senior clinical science advisor in the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. You can learn more about OECR at http://www.nigms.nih.gov/About/Overview/OECR/.