Health Research
Health Research
NIA Alzheimer’s Disease Research: ‘A Wealth of New Opportunities’
In a recent National Institute on Aging (NIA) blog, Inside NIA: A Blog for Researchers, Director Richard Hodes highlighted the latest concept clearances approved by NIA’s advisory committee. Hodes also announced that the Institute expects to release a record number of new funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) over the next several months. He emphasized that the FOAs that are developed from the concept proposals will involve “every NIA division” and, in “a number of cases, two or more divisions will co-sponsor an FOA.” Hodes encourages researchers to examine the list of concepts and begin to think about submitting a grant proposal….
NIA Council Approves Continued Support of Health and Retirement Study and Other Research Programs
On September 28, the National Advisory Council on Aging of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) approved a concept clearance allowing the Institute to move forward with the next Health and Retirement Study (HRS) funding opportunity announcement. HRS, a longitudinal study, is the “leading source for information on the health and economic well-being of adults age 50 and older in the United States.” The Council also approved four other concept clearances related to behavioral and social research: development of socially assistive robots, pragmatic trials for dementia care, delirium and Alzheimer’s and Related Dementia, and multi-morbidity in Alzheimer’s impacts choice of ancillary treatments. Back…
National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease Updated; NIH Releases FY 2018 AD Bypass Budget
On August 1, the Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care, and Services under the auspices of the Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) discussed a draft of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease: 2016 Update. At that same meeting, National Institute on Aging (NIA) Director Richard Hodes presented the NIA’s fiscal year (FY) 2018 Alzheimer’s Disease (and related dementias) Bypass Budget, “Stopping Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias: Advancing Our Nation’s Research Agenda.”
NIFA Seeks Feedback on Childhood Obesity Prevention Scientific Priorities
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is seeking stakeholder input on the scientific priorities for its Integrated Approaches to Prevent Childhood Obesity programs. NIFA’s current childhood obesity prevention RFA is active and accepting applications through August 4. The feedback received will be considered as the agency develops future RFAs. The program’s current priorities are to “Generate new knowledge of the behavioral (not metabolic), social, cultural, and/or environmental factors, including the food and physical activity environment, that influence childhood obesity and use this information to develop and implement effective family, peer, community, early care and education settings, and/or school-based interventions…
PCORI Announces Commitments in Support for Cancer Moonshot Initiative
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has released its plans to support the Vice President’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative. PCORI’s National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet) has committed to (1) enhancing its national data network to facilitate large-scale cancer research; (2) creating data tables that describe characteristics of patient cohorts treated for the most common types of cancer; and (3) establishing a Cancer Collaborative Research Group within PCORnet to assist in identifying research questions, developing approaches to integrate big data in cancer prevention and treatment, and reducing disparities. More about PCORI’s support for the Cancer Moonshot is available on its website….
Maureen Goodenow Appointed NIH Associate Director for AIDS Research
On May 18, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins announced the selection of Maureen M. Goodenow as NIH Associate Director for AIDS Research and Director of the NIH Office of AIDS Research (OAR). Goodenow, currently at the University of Florida, Gainesville, is a professor of pathology, immunology, and laboratory medicine, and the Director of the Florida Center for AIDS Research. She is expected to join the agency in July. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
Office of AIDS Research Issues RFI on Trans-NIH Plan for HIV-Related Research
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of AIDS Research (OAR) in the Division of Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI) recently issued a request-for-information (RFI) (NOT-OD-16-089) seeking input on the fiscal year (FY) 2018 Trans-NIH Plan for HIV-Related Research. The 2018 Plan is “designed to identify and articulate possible future directions to maximize benefits of investments in HIV/AIDS research.” In August 2015, NIH issued “new overarching priorities” for the next three to five years for HIV/AIDS research in a Notice, NIH HIV/AIDS Research Priorities and Guidelines for Determining AIDS Funding (NOT-OD-15-137). The Notice also outlined guidelines the agency…
NIH Appears Before Senate Appropriations Subcommittee
On April 7, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins appeared before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-HHS), accompanied by five of the NIH’s 27 institute and center directors and/or acting directors. Attending were: Richard Hodes, National Institute on Aging (NIA); Doug Lowy, National Cancer Institute (NCI); Nora Volkow, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA); Walter Koroshetz, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS); and Christopher Austin, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS).
NIH Director Fills Vacancies for PMI Cohort and ECHO Programs
National Institute of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins recently announced the appointments of Eric Dishman as the Director of the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) Cohort Program and Matthew Gillman as the Program Director of the NIH Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO).
Interagency Committee Releases National Nutrition Research Roadmap
The federal Interagency Committee on Human Nutrition Research (ICHNR) has released a five-year nutrition research plan, the National Nutrition Research Roadmap 2016-2021: Advancing Nutrition Research to Improve and Sustain Health. The Roadmap will help coordinate the nutrition research efforts funded by agencies across the federal government, as well as workforce development and training programs in support of nutrition research. The ICHNR is made up of representatives from agencies across the federal government, including the Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) within the Department of Agriculture, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and…
NIA Requests Input on Alzheimer’s Disease Bypass Budget Implementation
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking input into the development of the fiscal year (FY) 2018 NIH Alzheimer’s Disease Bypass Budget (ADBB). Annual updates to the ADBB are Congressionally mandated (see Update, November 3, 2015). NIA seeks comments and suggestions from the public “on the current state of the science, the highest priorities for future research, and potential conceptual or technical barriers to overcome.” According to the recently released Notice (NOT-AG-16-017), the FY 2018 ADBB will be consistent with the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease and include Alzheimer’s disease and…
COSSA Joins the Call for OAR Working Group on HIV/Substance Use Disorders Research
COSSA joined organizations representing the “range of scientific, professional, and patient organizations committed to the elimination of substance use disorders and addiction through education, advocacy, and the promotion of broad public and private support for HIV/AIDS and substance use research agendas of the National Institutes of Health [NIH]” on a letter to Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in response to the fiscal year (FY) 2016 Trans-NIH Plan for HIV-Related Research. The letter expresses concern “that the priorities overall and those specific to behavioral and social sciences, in particular, downplay the critical importance of reducing…
White House Announces National Cancer Moonshot Task Force
On February 1, the White House announced a new $1 billion initiative to jumpstart the new national “moonshot” initiative announced by President Obama in his 2016 State of the Union Address. The President established the White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force via a presidential memorandum, which will be led by Vice President Biden. The goal of the initiative is “to eliminate cancer as we know it.” The Task Force’s membership will include the leadership of the Departments of Defense (DOD), Commerce (DOC), Health and Human Services (HHS), Energy (DOE), Veterans Affairs (VA), and the Office of Management and Budget, National…
NIA Director Expresses Appreciation for NIH and NIA FY 2016 Budgets
National Institute on Aging (NIA) director Richard Hodes acknowledged “exciting news” reflected in the FY 2016 budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and specifically for NIA in a January 6 blog post. Noting the $2 billion (6.6 percent) increase for the NIH for FY 2016, Hodes underscored that the increase provided a boost of approximately 33 percent for NIA, including the $350 million in funding allocated for research on Alzheimer’s disease (see COSSA’s omnibus analysis). Notwithstanding the resources dedicated to Alzheimer’s research, NIA’s FY 2016 budget provides a 4.2 percent increase to the institute, “the largest increase to…
NIH Strategic Plan, PMI Cohort, HIV/AIDS, and Big Data Discussed at NIH Advisory Committee Meeting
The December 10-11 meeting of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) included an update on the progress of several high-profile initiatives NIH is developing, including the Congressionally-mandated NIH-Wide Strategic Plan, the President’s proposed Precision Medicine Cohort Program, assessment of the NIH HIV/AIDS Research Priorities, and the NIH Big Data to Knowledge (BD2k) program.
NIH Issues Funding Opportunity to Support the PMI Cohort Program Direct Volunteer Pilot Studies
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking proposals for pilot studies and “the needed information technology support for the development of the Direct Volunteer component of the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) Cohort Program.” The agency plans to build a “national research cohort of one million or more volunteers who are engaged as partners in a longitudinal, long-term effort to identify the molecular, environmental and behavioral factors that contribute to diverse diseases, to facilitate the development and testing of novel therapies and prevention approaches, and to pioneer mHealth [mobile health] strategies for improving the efficacy of health care.” To that…
NIH Seeks Input for Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementia 2016 Plan
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institute on Aging (NIA), and the Office of Disease Prevention (ODP) within the National Institutes of Health recently released a time-sensitive request–for-information (RFI) (NOT-NS-15-045) seeking the input of the scientific and broader community regarding the “most important needs and promising opportunities for research” on Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementia (ADRD). The information received will be used to update the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, which is congressionally mandated to be updated annually (see Update, August 10, 2015). Additionally, the RFI announces a March 29-30, 2016 ADRD 2016 Summit sponsored by NINDS…
NIDA Announces New Challenge: “Addiction Research: There’s an App for that”
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced a new Challenge/Prize Competition, “Addiction Research: There’s an App for that.” The objective for the challenge is to “promote the development of innovative mobile applications (apps) for future addiction studies.” According to the notice, three prizes may be awarded: $50,000 (first place); $30,000 (second place); and $20,000 (third place). The NIDA Challenge is enabled by the DHHS IDEA Lab program. Challenge partners include U.S. General Services Administration; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Sage Bionetworks;…
NIA Director Reports on the Progress of Alzheimer’s Research and Funding
On October 26, Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH), provided a progress report on the development of a bypass budget to the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care, and Services. The “bypass” or “professional judgment” budget is transmitted directly from NIA to the President and Congress without being revised through the traditional Federal budget process. Hodes explained that a series of meetings between 2012 and 2015 provided the basis for the comprehensive set of priorities, milestones and budget estimates included in the congressionally-mandated bypass…
NIA Releases 10 Funding Opportunity Announcements Focused on Alzheimer’s Disease Research
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently released 10 funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) in anticipation of a substantial increase in its budget for Alzheimer’s disease research. The topics of the FOAs are in the areas of health disparities, caregiving, epidemiology, diagnosis and prediction, molecular and cellular mechanism, brain aging, and clinical trials. Funding for the FOAs is available beginning in FY 2016. These FOAs have set-aside funds associated with them; as long as funds are available, they will be supported in FY 2016 through FY 2019. NIA director Richard Hodes provided additional details…