AGENCY: Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)/National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

PROGRAM: NINDS Institutional Center Core Grants to Support Neuroscience Research (P30)

OBJECTIVES: This program provides funding for Center Core Grants to support neuroscience research. The purpose of this program is to advance the NINDS mission to promote understanding and treatment of neurological disorders by providing core research facilities that are not otherwise available. This support, by providing more accessible resources, is expected to assure a greater productivity than would be possible from the separate projects. NINDS Center Core Grants will support centralized resources and facilities shared by investigators with existing NINDS-funded research projects. Each Center will be composed of one or more research cores, each of which will enrich the effectiveness of ongoing research, and promote new research directions. A Center Core Grant will support individual neuroscience research projects by providing necessary resources and performing required services that would be difficult or impractical to provide in individual labs. Center Core Grants will foster a cooperative and interactive research environment through which multidisciplinary approaches to neuroscience problems and joint research efforts will be stimulated. The NINDS Center Core Grants program is intended to support research infrastructure cores. The program will not provide support for cores that support clinical trials, provide patients services, or conduct pilot projects.

The following areas may be appropriate for individual research cores within a NINDS Center.  This list is not all-inclusive; applicants may propose other types of research cores: Animal models (general, phenotyping, transgenic); Animal surgery; Assay development; Cell culture; Cell repository; Computer/IT; DNA sequencing; Drug screening; Electrophysiology; Flow cytommetry; Gene vector development and production; Histochemistry (immunocytochemistry, autoradiography, in situ hybridization); Imaging (MRI, PET, MEG, NIRS); Informatics; Machine shop; Mass spectrometry; Microarrays; Microscopy (light, electron, confocal, laser capture); Molecular biology; Monoclonal antibody production; Neuropathology (animal and human); Neurotoxicology; NMR; Protein analysis (proteomics); Protein crystallography/X-ray structure determination; Radiochemistry (PET, tracers); Statistics/data analysis.

ELIGIBILITY RESTRICTIONS: NINDS will not consider more than one application simultaneously from an applicant organization. For the purposes of this program, NINDS considers Boston University Charles River Campus and Boston University Medical Campus to be separate applicant organizations.

Institutions eligible for NINDS Center Core Grants will have, on the date of application submission, at least five qualifying research projects all of which will use the Center, and the usage level proposed for the qualifying projects must be sufficient to justify the size and scope of the Center requested.  Qualifying research projects include only NINDS-funded Research Project (R01), Research Project Cooperative Agreements (U01), Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) Award (R37), Program Project (P01), Specialized Center (P50), and Specialized Center Cooperative Agreements (U54) awards provided that there is no overlap between the requested Center and existing cores associated with the P01, P50, or U54 awards.  Each P01, P50 or U54 award will count as one qualifying research project. Up to two of the qualifying NINDS-funded projects can be held by institutions other than the applicant institution, provided that the PIs on those projects will have access to the core facilities through consortium agreements established with the applicant institution and included in the application budget.  There should be no overlap between the requested Center core facilities and other pre-existing core facilities at the institutions holding the qualifying projects. 

DEADLINES:    
Internal BU Deadlines: May 8; August 7; December 8
Agency Deadlines: May 25; September 25; January 25 until 2011

FUNDING INFORMATION: This program will use the NIH Center Core Grants (P30) award mechanism. Applicants may request up to $500,000 per year in direct costs.  The total project period for an application submitted in response to this program may not exceed 5 years.

AGENCY CONTACT:
Thomas Miller, Ph.D.
Technology Development
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 2139
Bethesda, MD  20892
Telephone:  301-496-1779
FAX:  301-402-1501
Email:  tm208y@nih.gov
Web: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-08-116.html

INTERNAL REVIEW PROCESS: To screen potential proposals for this competition, an internal deadline has been established. Principal Investigators (PIs) interested in submitting an application should provide the following proposal information to their Associate Dean by May 8, 2008 (for the May 25th NIH deadline), August 7, 2008 (for the September 25th NIH deadline), or December 8, 2008 (for the January 25th NIH deadline) for internal review purposes:

1.  Project description (maximum length 4 pages) should include items a – e:

(a) identify the five qualifying research project that will use the Center;
(b) describe the proposed research core(s) and the way in which the core(s) will contribute to the overall effectiveness of the Center;
(c) address plans for the coordination of ongoing research among the qualifying research projects; and
(d) provide a management plan for the Center.

2. Budget, and budget justification (2 pages).

3. Biographical sketches: include NIH format biographical sketch for PI and Senior/Key Personnel.

4. Review comments from any previous P30 submission related to neuroscience research.

Following the Dean’s assessment of the internal application, it will be forwarded to Associate Provost Joan Kirkendall for review and then to the Office of the VP for Research for final selection.  PIs will be informed if their proposal is selected for submission and advised of institutional cost-sharing commitments in time to complete and process their proposal for final review.