AGENCY: Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)/National Institutes of Health (NIH)/ National Institutes of Health (NIH)/ National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

PROGRAM: Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award (ONES) (R01)

OBJECTIVES: This program provides funding for outstanding scientists who are in the early, formative stages of their careers and who intend to make a long term career commitment to research in the mission areas of the NIEHS. This program is intended for researchers who have not yet received their first R01 research grant. It is designed to be highly competitive, and only a limited number will be awarded per year.

Research projects proposed in response to this program will be expected to have a defined impact on the environmental health sciences and be responsive to the mission of the NIEHS, which is distinguished from that of other Institutes by its focus on research programs seeking to link the effects of environmental exposures to the cause, mechanisms, moderation, or prevention of a human disease or disorder or relevant pathophysiologic process. For purposes of this program, all applications must focus on a specific human disease, dysfunction, pathophysiologic condition, or relevant human biologic process and propose to study a specific environmentally relevant toxicant. Examples of environmentally relevant toxicants include industrial chemicals or manufacturing byproducts, metals, pesticides, herbicides, air pollutants and other inhaled toxicants, particulates or fibers, fungal, and bacterial or biologically derived toxins. Agents considered non-responsive to this announcement include, but are not limited to: alcohol, chemotherapeutic agents, radiation which is not a result of an ambient environmental exposure, smoking, except when considered as a secondary smoke exposure as a component in the indoor environment (particularly in children),  drugs of abuse, pharmaceuticals, dietary nutrients, and infectious or parasitic agents, except when these are disease co-factors to an environmental toxicant exposure to produce the biological effect. Applications which propose to study only model compounds must provide a clear, reasonable and specific description as to how research on the model compound will lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in responses to specific environmental agents which are included in the mission responsibility of the NIEHS. 

ELIGIBILITY RESTRICTIONS: Only one application per school or college within a university will be accepted.

Applicants must have faculty appointments which are tenure track or equivalent, generally at the level of Assistant Professor, Research Assistant Professor, or equivalent, have a research or health professional doctoral level degree with fewer than eight years of postdoctoral level experience at the time of submission of the application, and have demonstrated outstanding abilities in the basic, clinical or population-based research. Individuals must show they have established research independence from a mentor, and have dedicated, independent laboratory and research resources available to conduct the research proposed in the grant application. Relevant postdoctoral experience includes all postdoctoral experience in any environment (academic, industry, government) since receiving a doctoral level research degree. In other words, researchers who received their doctoral degree prior to 2000 are not eligible for this award. However, years of clinical training will not count against the limitation.

Ineligible individuals include current and former Principal Investigators on NIH research project (R01), sub-projects of program project (P01) or Center Grants with research components (P50), and equivalent research grant awards. Individuals who have been Principal Investigators on R03, R21, and Career Development Awards (K-series) remain eligible. Applicants may not simultaneously submit identical/essentially identical applications under both this and another HHS competition.

DEADLINES:
BU Internal Deadline: August 22, 2008
Letters of Intent (optional): October 1, 2008
Application:  October 31, 2008

FUNDING INFORMATION: NIEHS intends to commit up to 2.4 million dollars in direct costs ($3.6 million in total costs) in FY 2009 to fund 6 new grants in support of this program. An applicant may request a project period of up to 5 years and a budget for direct costs up to $400,000 dollars in the first and second years and $275,000 in years 3-5.

AGENCY CONTACT:
Carol Shreffler, PhD
Division of Extramural Research and Training
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Building 4401, Room 3411
P.O. Box 12233, EC-23,
111 T.W. Alexander Drive
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
Telephone: (919) 541-1445
FAX: (919) 541-5064
Email: shreffl1@niehs.nih.gov
Web: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-ES-08-003.html    

INTERNAL REVIEW PROCESS: Only one application per school or college within a university will be accepted. 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 Friday, August 22, 2008 for internal review purposes:

1.  Project description (maximum length 3 pages) should include items a – c:

(a) describe the proposed research and its relationship to the mission of the NIEHS;
(b) identify the specific human disease, dysfunction, pathophysiologic condition, or
    relevant human biologic process as well as the specific environmentally relevant
    toxicant that will be the focus of the research;
(c) provide a statement of your career goals in environmental health sciences.

2. Budget and budget justification (two pages).

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

4. Review comments from any previous ONES submission.

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 in time to complete and process their proposal for final review.

REMARKS: NIH requires that applications to this program be submitted electronically through Grants.gov (http://www.grants.gov). After submission via Grants.gov, applications will be retrieved and processed by the NIH Commons system (https://commons.era.nih.gov/commons/index.jsp). In order to prepare a responsive application, PIs should download both the complete program guidelines (RFA-ES-08-003) and the corresponding application package from Grants.gov as well as the NIH Grants.gov Application Guide (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/424/index.htm). PIs must also be registered Commons users. For more information about Grants.gov and the NIH Commons, or to register as a Commons user, please contact either Kathleen Foster (kfoster@bu.edu) or Eleanor Greene (ergreene@bu.edu) in the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) at x3-4365. In addition, please contact the OSP Assistant Director assigned to your school or department as soon as possible to coordinate submission through the Grants.gov system.