The Support of Competitive Research (SCORE) program strives to increase the research competitiveness of faculty at institutions with a historical mission or demonstrated track record of training and graduating students from backgrounds underrepresented in biomedical research (see NIH’s Notice of Interest in Diversity). Funding opportunity announcements for the three SCORE mechanisms were just reissued:

In March, we released an NIH Guide notice informing the community of our intent to continue the Innovative Programs to Enhance Research Training (IPERT) R25. We’re now pleased to announce that the IPERT funding opportunity announcement (FOA) (PAR-19-383) has been reissued with minor changes. The goal of IPERT is to enable the scientific community to develop and implement innovative educational activities that equip diverse cohorts of participants with the skills required for careers in the biomedical research workforce. IPERT activities must integrate the required components of the Research Education Program Plan (REPP), including the following core elements:

We’re pleased to announce that the Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Awards (IRACDA) (K12) funding opportunity announcement (PAR-19-366) has been reissued with some minor changes. IRACDA combines a mentored postdoctoral research experience at a research-intensive institution with an opportunity to develop critical teaching and mentoring skills at a teaching-intensive partner institution that has a diverse student population. The primary goal of the program is to develop an inclusive pool of well-trained biomedical scientists who have the necessary knowledge and skills to pursue independent academic teaching and research careers. An additional goal of IRACDA is to benefit the teaching-intensive partner institutions by:

UPDATE: The slides from the IMSD Webinar have been posted.

Are you preparing an institutional Initiative
for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) (T32) grant application? If so, please join us for a webinar about the program and the opportunity to ask questions:

Monday, November 4, 1:00-3:00 p.m. ET

We’ve issued a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) PAR-19-367 to maintain continued support of our Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) program. Under this new FOA, investigators with an active NIGMS R35 grant (both early-stage and established investigator MIRA) can submit renewal MIRA applications, and investigators with a single-PI R01-equivalent NIGMS award (DP1, DP2, R01, R37, SC1) can submit new MIRA applications.

UPDATE: The webinar video and slides from the MOSAIC Webinar have been posted.

In March, we shared our plans to develop a new program as part of our efforts to enhance postdoctoral career transitions to promote faculty diversity in the biomedical research workforce. We’re pleased to announce that the Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers (MOSAIC) funding opportunity announcements have been published. MOSAIC is designed to facilitate the transition of promising postdoctoral researchers from diverse backgrounds, such as individuals from groups underrepresented in the biomedical research
workforce at the faculty level, into independent faculty careers at research-intensive institutions. The program has two components:

NIH has issued two funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) to advance the application of cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET), a powerful imaging method for directly visualizing macromolecular associations and organization in native cells. The first FOA, RFA-RM-19-009, will establish four service centers that will specialize in cryo-ET specimen preparation. The other FOA, RFA-RM-19-010, in addition to cryo-ET specimen preparation, will establish a network hub that will support these service centers and collect cryo-ET images for their users.

The Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program supports biomedical research and research capacity building in states and territories that historically have had low levels of NIH funding. The Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) are long-standing IDeA funding initiatives supporting thematic, multidisciplinary centers that establish and strengthen institutional biomedical research capacity via three sequential 5-year phases. Funding opportunity announcements for the first and second phases of COBRE were just reissued:

At the recent National Advisory General Medical Sciences (NAGMS) Council meeting, the Recommendations of the NAGMS Working Group on Sepsis were presented. As one of our first responses to the recommendations of this working group, NIGMS has published a Notice of Information on NIGMS Priorities for Sepsis Research.

The Notice of Information provides potential applicants with details of specific research topics that are of special interest to NIGMS as well as those that are considered to be of low priority for funding.

If you have any questions about NIGMS Priorities for Sepsis Research, please contact me.

If you’re considering applying for our Limited Competition: NIGMS National and Regional Resources (R24 – Clinical Trial Not Allowed) announcement (PAR-19-301) for the September 26 receipt date, don’t miss our upcoming webinar:

Monday, August 5, 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET