NIH
PCAST Hears Interim Report on Precision Medicine Initiative
On May 15, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) received an interim report on the President’s proposed Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI). Opening the meeting, PCAST co-chair and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) John Holdren discussed the ongoing budget process and the challenges associated with the FY 2016 budget. Despite these challenges, Holdren noted, there are a number of exciting initiatives in progress, including the Precision Medicine Initiative.
NIH Appears Before Senate Appropriations Subcommittee
On April 30, National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Francis Collins made his annual appearance before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) to discuss the President’s proposed FY 2016 budget request for the agency. The NIH director was accompanied by several institute directors: Anthony Fauci, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Douglas Lowy, National Cancer Institute (NCI), Gary Gibbons, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), Jon Lorsch, National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), and Tom Insel, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Subcommittee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-MO)…
House Energy and Commerce Committee Releases Second Version of 21st Century Cures Draft
On April 29, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations released the second iteration of the Committee’s 21st Century Cures bill (see Update, February 24, 2015). The latest draft is a collaborative effort by Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Ranking Member Diana DeGette (D-CO), Energy and Commerce full committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Health Subcommittee Chairman Joe Pitts (R-PA), and Health Subcommittee Ranking Member Gene Green (D-TX). The new version of the discussion draft would authorize the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for three years (FY 2016 through FY 2018), and increase its funding level by…
Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable Named Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities
On April 28, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis S. Collins announced the selection of Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, M.D. as Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). He is expected to join NIH in September. Currently at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), Pérez-Stable is a professor of medicine, chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, and director of the Center for Aging in Diverse Communities. He is also director of the UCSF Medical Effectiveness Research Center for Diverse Populations, which is addressing issues for African Americans, Asians, and Latinos in the…
NIH: NIMHD Seeking Input for Health Disparities Science Vision
The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) serves as the focal point for the agency’s conduct of research, research training, capacity-building, and outreach dissemination of minority health and health disparities. NIMHD recently initiated a scientific planning process in collaboration with the NIH institutes and centers designed to define a vision that will guide the development of “the science of health disparities research for the next decade and identify key research areas that should be given high priority because knowledge in those areas might inform translational efforts that could have a…
NIH: Input Sought on Precision Medicine Cohort
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking feedback from the scientific community via a Request for Information (RFI): NIH Precision Medicine Cohort (NOT-OD-15-096) to guide it in creating a longitudinal cohort of one million or more Americans who have volunteered to participate in research as part of the President’s proposed Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) (see Update, April 21, 2015). Specifically, the agency is seeking information on characteristics, purpose, or other overall aspects in the development and implementation of a large U.S. precision medicine cohort. As participants in PMI, individuals will be asked to give consent for extensive characterization of…
NIH: Collaborative Innovation Award, Clinical and Translational Science Award Program
The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is inviting applications to stimulate innovative collaborative research in the NCATS Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) consortium. Because translating biomedical discoveries into clinical applications is essential to improving health and at the same time a complex process with high costs and substantial failure rates, the CTSA hubs are designed to promote advances in translational research and training at participating medical research institutions. NCATS recently released a funding opportunity announcement (FOA), Collaborative Innovation Award, Clinical and Translational Science Award Program (PAR-15-172), to enable collaboration among…
NIH Appoints Working Group for Precision Medicine Initiative
In March, National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Francis Collins appointed a team of individuals to serve on the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director (ACD) Working Group on the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI). The Working Group is expected to host public meetings to seek public input into the development of President Obama’s proposed Precision Medicine Initiative. This group will help the NIH define “what can be learned from a study of this scale and scope, what issues will need to be addressed and considered as part of the study design, and what success would look like five and ten…
RFI: Optimizing Funding Policies and Other Strategies to Improve the Impact and Sustainability of Biomedical Research
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has issued a Request for Information (RFI), Optimizing Funding Policies and Other Strategies to Improve the Impact and Sustainability of Biomedical Research, soliciting input from the scientific community regarding the possible development of new policies and other strategies to improve the impact and sustainability of the NIH-funded biomedical research enterprise.
RFI: Proposed Funding Priorities for Neuroscience Research, Input on High Impact and Cross-Cutting Opportunities
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Blueprint for Neuroscience Research is seeking input from the scientific community on how the Blueprint might best accelerate discovery in neuroscience research. Specifically, the request for information (RFI), Proposed Funding Priorities for Neuroscience Research, Input on High Impact and Cross-Cutting Opportunities (NOT-NS-15-020), is seeking suggestions regarding how future Blueprint investments can have a broad impact on neuroscience and serve the interests of the 15 participating NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices that support research on the nervous system.
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Strategic Visioning Initiative Seeks Scientific Community’s Input
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking the scientific community’s input in its Strategic Visioning Initiative. To help determine NHLBI’s future direction, the Institute is seeking the community’s participation in an “ongoing process that will inform its priority setting, decision making, and resource allocation.” The purpose of the Initiative is to develop the Institute’s priorities for the next decade. In the video launching the initiative, NHLBI director Gary H. Gibbons explained that he is asking the NHLBI community to help identify the most compelling questions and critical challenges that the…
Let Out Your Inner Behavioral & Social Scientist – OBSSR Issues Call for Videos
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2015. The celebration includes a call to social and behavioral scientists to submit videos that showcase their research. The best videos will be featured at the OBSSR 20th Anniversary Research Symposium on June 25, at the NIH William H. Natcher Conference Center and on the OBSSR’s website throughout 2015. A letter of intent to submit a video is required by April 15, 2015. The deadline for submission is May 15, 2015.
NIMH Releases Strategic Plan for Research
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently released its Strategic Plan for Research which will guide the Institute’s research priorities over the next five years, from basic science of the brain and behavior, to public health impact. This plan updates the objectives of the 2008 strategic plan. Its aim is to balance the need for long-term investments in basic research with urgent medical health needs.
COSSA Joins Coalitions Requesting Strong FY 2016 Appropriations
As Congress begins to consider funding for fiscal year (FY) 2016, COSSA has joined dozens of other organizations and coalitions on letters to appropriators in support of strong levels of funding for the federal agencies that support social and behavioral science research. Check our website for the most updated list of letters COSSA has joined. February 25: $1.5 billion for the Census Bureau – House/Senate (Census Project) February 27: $29 million for the Bureau of Transportation Statistics March 3: $32 billion for the National Institutes of Health (Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research) March 6: $703.6 million for the Institute…
NIGMS Releases 2015-2020 Strategic Plan
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) recently released its 2015 -2020 strategic plan. According to NIGMS director Jon Lorsch, the plan outlines the Institute’s priorities and activities, including “the goals, objectives and implementation strategies that the Institute—in partnership with the scientific community at universities, professional societies and other federal agencies—will engage in over the next five years.” Additionally, the plan provides “snapshots” of specific institute priorities and achievements. In his director’s message, Lorsch emphasizes that the Institute continues to place “great emphasis on supporting investigator-initiated research grants” and highlights NIGMS emphasis on “the…
COSSA/CPR Sponsor “NIH 101” Congressional Briefing
On February 27, the COSSA-led Coalition to Promote Research (CPR) organized a Congressional briefing designed to provide an overview of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) peer review process and the types of grants funded by the agency. The briefing’s speaker, Keith Yamamoto, vice chancellor for research and executive vice dean of the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, is a leading molecular biologist and has served on the NIH’s Center for Scientific Review’s advisory committee, as well as other NIH advisory panels and peer review committees. Using contemporary biology, Yamamoto discussed the NIH priority-setting process…
NIH: Research Education Program Funding Opportunities
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Education Program (R25) supports research educational activities that complement other formal training programs in the mission areas of the NIH institutes and centers. Additionally, the program goals include an effort to enhance the biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research workforce; recruit individuals with specific specialty or disciplinary backgrounds to research careers in biomedical, behavioral, and clinical sciences; and foster a better understanding of this research and its implications. Several of the institutes recently released funding opportunity announcement seeking applications for activities related to their research domains. NIMH Research Education Mentoring Program for HIV/AIDS Researchers…
House Funding Panel Discusses NIH Budget
On March 3, National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Francis Collins and five of the NIH’s 27 Institute and Center directors made their first appearance before the new chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS), Tom Cole (R-OK). Full Appropriations Committee chair Harold Rogers (R-KY) was also in attendance.
Senate HELP Committee Examines “U.S. Leadership in Medical Innovation”
On March 10, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held its first in a series of anticipated hearings on “U.S. Leadership in Medical Innovation.” Opening the hearing, HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) announced that he and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) intend to focus on three major actions over the next two years: (1) “fixing” the No Child Left Behind Act; (2) simplifying and reauthorizing the federal government’s supervision of higher education in America; and (3) dealing with the “exciting new era of medicine.” Regarding the latter, Alexander noted that the House is moving on a…
NIH: Mobilizing Research – A Research Resource to Enhance mHealth
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR), the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NBIB), and the National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) have released a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) designed to support the development of Mobilizing Research, a research resource that would allow researchers to more efficiently and rapidly evaluate mobile and wireless (mHealth) technologies. Mobile and wireless health technologies offer the potential to transform and advance research, prevent disease, improve diagnosis, treatment, and…