Grants & You December 2015

Grants & You Readership Survey Brings Change in 2016

  The Grants & You newsletter will be changing in 2016 to increase focus on faculty granstmanship. In future issues we intend to expand content related to proposal development, grants management, and spotlights on scholarly activity being advanced at ATSU through grant funding.

  In September, Sponsored Programs conducted a brief readership survey to help guide the content, format, and frequency of the newsletter. As a result of your feedback, ATSU Sponsored Programs will shift to email distribution of extramural funding opportunity announcements, such as NIH and AHRQ updates, relevant Federal grant notices, and upcoming deadline reminders from targeted funders. The initial distribution of the Extramural Funding Update will go to all ATSU faculty and will include instructions for those who wish to opt out of distribution.

Featured Items

SparkTank Ignites Innovative Ideas

  SparkTank, an ATSU Teaching and Learning Center initiative, is a Creative Teaching and Learning Grant that invites faculty, students, and staff to pitch brilliant teaching and learning ideas for a chance to win $5,000 in project funding. ATSU’s inaugural SparkTank competition was held on the Kirksville campus in November. Winning proposals at the Kirksville event were:

   
• “Let Food be thy Medicine” Presenters: Jess Roland, OMS I; Patricia S. Sexton, DHEd, MS, FNAOME, ’08, associate dean for curriculum
 
• “3D Printing and Medical Education” Presenters: Seth McIntire, OMS I; Shannon McAllister, OMS I; Jean Sidwell, MALS, library branch director
 
• “Making Waves: Integrating 3D/4D Ultrasound Technology into Medical Education” Presenters: Seth McIntire, OMS I; Shannon McAllister, OMS I; Tatyana Kondrashova, MD, PhD, assistant professor, department of family medicine

  You can read more about the SparkTank event on iconnect.

  Arizona’s SparkTank competition will heat up in 2016. Mesa campus pre-proposals are due February 8, with SparkTank presentations and judging slated for February 24.

Phased Innovation Award for Mechanistic Studies to Optimize Mind and Body Interventions in NCCIH High Priority Research Topics:

  NCCIH has recently published two requests for applications (RFAs) for Phased Innovation Award for Mechanistic Studies to Optimize Mind and Body Interventions in NCCIH High Priority Research Topics (R61/R33) and (R33). These RFAs represent NCCIH’s new funding mechanisms to direct research attention toward investigating the mechanisms by which mind and body interventions might work, as well as strategies to optimize these interventions. Such interventions typically include meditation, spinal manipulation, massage, yoga, tai chi, hypnosis, and acupuncture. A pre-application webinar summarized the NCCIH framework for this research, provided an overview of both RFAs, and supplied guidance on choosing the right RFA for your research.

CME/CE Opportunity: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research

  Looking for ways to earn continuing medical education/continuing education credit while learning more about patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR)? Then take a look at a new PCORI-funded CME/CE activity, “The Role of Patient-Centered Outcomes Research in the Current Healthcare Landscape: Setting the Stage.” This program focuses on teaching clinicians about the benefits and process surrounding PCOR and features a discussion led by PCORI’s executive director. Additional CME/CE programs available to the healthcare community at no cost include:

   
• Osteomyelitis in Children
 
• PCORI Methodology Standards

  PCORI’s CME/CE activities are designed for clinicians in areas pertinent to patient-centered outcomes research and clinical knowledge.

Interacting with Your NIH Scientific Review Officer

  Scientific Review Officers (SROs) are scientists, mostly former faculty members and NIH grantees, who manage the first level of peer review, commonly known as the study section. SROs are the people who take the first thorough look at your application, determine the expertise required for the review, recruit the external scientists to match that expertise, manage the study section meeting where the application is discussed and scored, and prepare the summary statement for your application.

New Updates to NIH Grants Policy Statement

  In November 2015, NIH released a new version of the NIH Grants Policy Statement applicable to all NIH grants and cooperative agreements with budget periods beginning on or after October 1, 2015. The revision supersedes in its entirety the March 2015 version. A Summary of Significant Changes included in the updated policy statement helps clarify the revisions you need to know when pursuing NIH grants.

NIH & AHRQ Announce Changes to Policies, Instructions, and Forms for 2016 Grant Applications

  Planned changes focus on rigor and transparency in research, vertebrate animals, inclusion reporting, data safety monitoring, research training, appendices, font requirements, and biosketch clarifications. Implementation of the policy and guidance changes will be in two phases. Phase 1 implements a subset of the policy changes using existing forms (FORMS-C) and will impact due dates on or after January 25, 2016. Phase 2 completes the implementation with introduction of new forms (FORMS-D) and will impact due dates on or after May 25, 2016. Examples of changes include:

   
• Inclusion of Children in Clinical Research: Change in NIH Definition/Age The age of a child will now be defined as individuals under the age of 18, rather than under the age of 21. Applicants will still be expected to justify the age range of participants in their clinical research, with particular attention paid to the inclusion/exclusion of children; however, that threshold now applies to only to individuals under the age of 18. This change goes into effect on proposals due January 25, 2016, or after.
 
• Simplification of the Vertebrate Animals Section of NIH Grant Applications and Contract Proposals Requirements of the Vertebrate Animals Section (VAS) are being changed, effective January 25, 2016, to remove redundancy with Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee review while meeting the requirements of the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. VAS criteria are simplified by the following changes: 1) a description of veterinary care is no longer required, 2) justification for the number of animals has been eliminated, and 3) a description of the method of euthanasia is required only if the method is not consistent with AVMA guidelines.
 
• New Form for PHS Awarding Component and Peer Review Requests Applicants who want to communicate requests pertinent to the assignment and initial peer review of applications must use a new PHS Assignment Request Form beginning with applications for due dates on or after May 25, 2016. Use of this form will ensure applicant requests are effectively communicated to agency staff and may be used to expedite processing and assignment of applications. The PHS Assignment Request Form complements the Cover Letter Attachment on the SF 424 (R&R) form. Although NIH will no longer check the Cover Letter Attachment for requests pertinent to the assignment and review of applications, the Cover Letter Attachment still may be used to communicate a variety of other issues, as specified in application guides.

Request for Information: Strategies to Enhance Diversity in the Physician-Scientist Workforce

  NIH is seeking information that may be useful to support initiatives on enhancing diversity in the physician-scientist workforce. Anonymous input is specifically requested in the following areas: Educational Pathways, Institutional and Programmatic Characteristics of Degree Programs (e.g., dual degrees and other alternatives to gain research experience without PhD/equivalent degrees), Career Decision Points and Pathways, and other novel insights on strategies to enhance the diversity of the physician-scientist workforce. Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically by December 28, 2015 (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/rfi/rfi.cfm?ID=52).

Experts Summarize Key Considerations for Electronic Grant Submission

   
• Mistakes Are Meant for Learning, Not Repeating – Biosketch Compliance
 
• Eyeballs Catch Stuff Systems Don’t – Manual Checks Being Done by the Office of Extramural Research
 
• New Year, New Forms – For Deadlines of May 25, 2016, and after

AHRQ Announces Research Priorities & Clarifies Comparative Effectiveness Research Interest

  The AHRQ mission is to produce evidence to make healthcare safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable, and to work with HHS and other partners to make sure that the evidence is understood and used. Specific AHRQ research priorities are to:

   
• Improve health care quality by accelerating implementation of Patient Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR).
 
• Make healthcare safer.
 
• Increase accessibility by evaluating expansions of insurance coverage.
 
• Improve healthcare affordability, efficiency and cost transparency.

  AHRQ has reiterated its priorities for comparative effectiveness research (CER), which it clarifies as research that compares and evaluates the benefits and risks of two or more healthcare options. CER projects that seek to compare different ways of organizing and delivering healthcare are a priority for AHRQ. These studies may consider health outcomes, patient and family experience, staff satisfaction, and healthcare utilization among other research outcomes. CER proposals that seek to compare the clinical effectiveness of specific medications and treatments, diagnostic tools, technologies, procedures, surgeries and other specific preventive, diagnostic, or therapeutic services are not a priority of AHRQ.