Slots: 1
Deadlines
Internal Deadline: Friday, September 13, 2024, 5pm PT Contact RII.
LOI: October 14, 2024
External Deadline: November 14, 2024
Award Information
Award Type: Cooperative Agreement
Estimated Number of Awards: 1
Anticipated Award Amount: $1.1 million
Who May Serve as PI: The Central Coordinating Site Director is required to have experience relevant to the oversight and outreach functions described in this NOFO but is not required to have a background in PKD research. An applicant without expertise in PKD research should include a co-investigator (or any other justified title) in the PKD field as Associate Director. The Central Coordinating Site Director is expected to work closely with the PKD Core Centers and the NIDDK, including through participation on the PKD RRC Steering Committee, regular teleconference calls, and at relevant meetings and workshops supporting the PKD RRC goals. An Associate Director may be named, if adequately justified.
Link to Award: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-DK-25-015.html
Process for Limited Submissions
PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) Application Portal: https://rii.usc.edu/oor-portal/. Use the template provided here: RII Limited Submission Applicant Template
Materials to submit include:
- (1) Two-Page Proposal Summary (1” margins; single-spaced; standard font type, e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 2-page limit will be excluded from review. You must use the template linked above.
- (2) CV – (5 pages maximum)
Note: The portal requires information about the PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.
Purpose
Background
Understanding and ameliorating autosomal dominant PKD and autosomal recessive PKD are central to the mission of NIDDK. The clinical course of these diseases is highly variable: some patients develop only a modest number of renal cysts, while others develop a massive number of renal cysts and renal failure at an early age. The diseases have extra-renal manifestations, including liver and systemic vasculature, with variable penetrance. Despite important advances in elucidating causative genetic defects, many challenges remain in determining the mechanisms of cyst development and enlargement, and the progressive loss of renal function in PKD that could potentially be targeted for therapeutic interventions.
In 2020, a national PKD Research Resource Consortium (PKD RRC, https://www.pkd-rrc.org) was established with NIDDK funding with the goal of creating a framework for collaboration that develops and broadly shares research resources, core services and expertise to support innovation in research related to PKD. At present the PKD RRC consists of three national Research and Translation Core Centers and a Central Coordinating Site that collaborate to offer research resources, including cell and animal models, antibodies, and human PKD biological samples to the broader research community upon request. The PKD RRC has also developed a multi-center, longitudinal observational cohort of adults and children with PKD with linked biospecimens. In addition, the PKD RRC has developed a Genome browser which serves as a repository of variants across the exomes and targeted panel sequencing of individuals with PKD. These resources are available to the broader research community upon request. Through this NOFO, NIDDK aims to continue to support the development and sharing of existing resources while encouraging innovation of new and valuable resources to the PKD research community.
The present NOFO is issued to support a Central Coordinating Site to provide centralized administrative support to the PKD Core Centers. Applicants for the PKD Core Centers (requested through RFA-DK-25-016) are expected to work collaboratively with the Central Coordinating Site as part of the PKD RRC.
The expected outcome from this next phase of the PKD RRC will be:
- A broad-based effort to advance PKD research.
- Successful sharing of unique and relevant resources, data, tools, technologies, services, and expertise that address fundamental challenges in PKD research.
- A lowering of barriers to entry for new investigators and those who are from fields not traditionally involved in PKD research.
- Identification of emerging areas of science and anticipation of how these areas can be useful to PKD research.
- Periodic evaluation of the usefulness of shared resources and emphasis/deemphasis as appropriate.
- A broadening of the PKD research workforce to include more diverse perspectives.
- Incorporation of PKD patient perspectives into the work of the PKD RRC.
NIDDK recognizes that diverse teams working together and capitalizing on innovative ideas and distinct perspectives outperform homogeneous teams. There are many benefits that flow from a diverse scientific workforce, including: fostering scientific innovation, enhancing global competitiveness, contributing to robust learning environments, improving the quality of the research, advancing the likelihood that underserved populations participate in, and benefit from research, and enhancing public trust. NIDDK recognizes that many investigators share these values and endeavor to incorporate diverse perspectives into their projects and change the culture in science.
Objectives and Scope
The overall goal of the Central Coordinating Site is to organize and facilitate the activities of the PKD RRC, under the direction of the PKD RRC Steering Committee, to achieve the following objectives:
- Facilitate sharing of resources and data within the PKD RRC and with the wider PKD research community.
- Develop and implement multipronged outreach strategies and communication plans for disseminating information about the research resources and methods offered through the PKD Core Centers to the wider PKD research community. As part of the outreach strategy, the Central Coordinating Site is expected to plan and support an annual scientific symposium that brings together the PKD research community as a whole and highlights the resources offered by the PKD RRC. The symposium may be held either in person, virtually or a hybrid format.
- Plan and support an annual in-person Steering Committee meeting of the PKD RRC.
- Manage (or subcontract for the management of) a database of longitudinal clinical characteristics and imaging to allow sharing of de-identified data from patient participants from the PKD Core Centers and other willing institutions.
- Manage (or subcontract for the management of) other databases developed and contributed to by the PKD Core Centers (e.g. clinical database, Genome browser).
- Convene standing scientific working groups to discuss opportunities and emerging needs in PKD research, as well as metrics and benchmarking approaches to evaluate existing and potential novel technologies. As needed, the Central Coordinating Site may establish working groups (standing or ad hoc) around topics of interest to the PKD field as identified by program recipients or the wider research community, in consultation with NIDDK staff.
- Coordinate with the PKD Core Centers to solicit and incorporate PKD patient perspectives into the work of the PKD RRC.
- Manage and administer a Pilot and Feasibility Award Program to support early and innovative pilot projects in priority areas aligned with the goals of the PKD RRC. These may include early-stage, proof-of-principle studies that could generate preliminary data for larger studies; activities to advance dissemination of methods or tools; or the development and validation of standard processes and materials that may aid new technology evaluation. The program may enable new partnerships by encouraging collaborative projects. Funds for this program will be provided as part of the Central Coordinating Site and disbursed to successful applicants through a process jointly overseen by the PKD RRC Steering Committee and NIDDK.
- Develop, support, manage, and continually enhance a well-organized, user-friendly, intuitive, interactive PKD RRC website for internal and external communication.
- Plan, organize and support at least one annual face-to-face Steering Committee meeting for the PKD RRC investigator to be held in the Bethesda area or a location decided by the PKD RRC Steering Committee.
- Provide centralized administrative support, including coordination of Material Transfer Agreements and Data Use Agreements across the Consortium and with outside users,
- Schedule and coordinate web-based conference calls and webinars.
- Develop and implement a consortium-wide Plan for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives (PEDP).
Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.