Participating Organization:
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Funding Opportunity Title:
Support of NIGMS Program Project Grants (P01)
Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA):
Anticipated Number of Awards:
Award Budget
Up to $6.5M direct:
Award Project Period:
Up to 5 years
Letters of Intent Receipt Dates:
Not required but recommended
Application Receipt Dates:
Jan 25, 2016; May 25, 2016
Scientific Merit Review Dates:
Jun-Jul; Oct-Nov
Advisory Council Dates:
Aug or Oct; Jan
Earliest Start Dates:
Sep or Dec; Apr
Funding Opportunity Description / Research Objectives:
This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) issued by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences encourages innovative, interactive Program Project grant applications from institutions/organizations that propose to conduct research which aims to solve a significant biological problem, important for the mission of NIGMS, through a collaborative approach involving outstanding scientists. NIGMS supports research in the broad areas of Cell Biology and Biophysics; Genetics and Developmental Biology; Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biological Chemistry; and Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. The Program Project grant is designed to support research in which the funding of several interdependent projects offers significant scientific advantages over support of these same projects as individual regular research grants. Program project grants are investigator initiated, but are restricted to areas of special interest to the individual divisions within NIGMS (see http://www.nigms.nih.gov/About/overview for scientific areas of interests). The individual projects must be clearly interrelated and synergistic so that the research ideas, efforts, and outcomes of the program as a whole will offer a distinct advantage over pursuing the individual projects separately; the exact synergy and added value to be obtained by using the Program Project grant approach must be clearly articulated in the application.
Successful Program Projects generally bring together scientists to apply complementary approaches to work on an important well-defined problem. In addition to individual research projects, applicants may propose one or more Research Cores if needed for the proposed research. Each Research Core must provide support and enhance the productivity, cost-effectiveness, and/or research outcome of at least two of the proposed research projects. New cores may be proposed and/or existing cores may be augmented to support the proposed research. In this way the Program Project can facilitate the support of essential shared core facilities, e.g., major equipment, although the need of a group of investigators for a major piece of equipment or a core facility does not in itself justify a Program Project grant. Administrative cores are required. The Administrative Core should be organized to ensure accomplishment of the following: coordinate the research mission, monitor timeline for achieving research milestones; coordinate and integrate Program Project activities; implement a plan for regular evaluation of scientific progress; interact with advisory groups (as appropriate). There should be a clear, detailed plan for managing the Program Project’s research and administration, ensuring appropriate prioritization of research, needed course corrections and problem identification and resolution, and effective sharing of resources, that conveys a high likelihood of effective, productive management of the Program Project as a whole. It is expected that successful Program Projects will establish effective collaborations, particularly in emerging areas of research that will extend beyond the life of the Program Project grant itself. Hence, a Program Project generally has a finite lifetime.
Normally, a Program Project consists of three to five individual, interdependent research projects from different investigators. Each P01 program project application must include a minimum of three individual (albeit connected) research projects each of which is pertinent to the central goal of the Program Project. All of the projects must be relevant to the common unifying central research question, focus, and overall objective of the entire Program Project. Each individual project should reflect a distinct, separate, scientifically meritorious research effort led by an independent investigator. Each of the collaborating scientists responsible for the individual projects will be independent investigators. The program director/principal investigator (PD/PI) of the Program Project should be an established research scientist who has the experience, ability, and time commitment to ensure quality control, effective administration, and integration of all components of the Program Project. This person should be an investigator with a strong track record (which includes peer-reviewed research publications) in one or more research areas directly relevant to the focus of the proposed Program Project, as well as a strong record of successful leadership of large research enterprises. In addition, each of the Project Leads for an individual project must commit to a significant effort on the part of the participating scientists and be distinct from their other funded efforts.
The Application:
The application should consist of the components below, and the Research Strategy / Program Plan for each of the component types must abide by the indicated page limits:
- Overall – Required: 6 pages
- Administrative Core – Required: 6 pages
- Core – One or More Optional: 6 pages
- Project – Minimum of 3 Required: 12 pages
