Slots: 1
Deadlines
Internal Deadline: Friday, April 21, 2023, 5pm PT
LOI: June 28, 2023
External Deadline: July 28, 2023
Award Information
Award Type: Grant
Estimated Number of Awards: 5
Anticipated Award Amount: $2,100,000
Who May Serve as PI: Standard NIH requirements.
Additional Eligibility Criteria: There are three additional eligibility criteria for applications responding to this NOFO:
Established Research Center. The applicant institution must have an established administrative unit (for example, a center or an institute) that administers or coordinates population dynamics research across the applicant institution, hereafter referred to as the “population research center.” Funds from this NOFO must be for this population research center and may not be used to establish a new population research center at the applicant institution. As used in this NOFO, an “established unit” has the following characteristics: the applicant institution has formally created the administrative unit; the unit has an administrative position and reporting structure within the applicant institution; the unit has dedicated space; the unit has a governance and organizational structure; the unit’s director has defined responsibilities and authority; and the unit has rules or guidelines for selecting or recruiting members/affiliates. The PD/PI must be the director of the applicant center. Changes in the PD/PI and Core Leads require prior approval. (See NIH Grants Policy Statement, 8.1.2 Prior Approval Requirements, https://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/nihgps/html5/section_8/8.1.2_prior_approval_requirements.htm.)
Active Scientists. Applicants must have at least five active scientists working in NICHD-relevant population dynamics research. Active population scientists must hold their primary affiliation with the applicant institution and this position (tenured or non-tenured) must be permanent; trainees, post-doctoral fellows, visiting professors, and scientists with primary appointments at other institutions are excluded. Active population dynamics scientists must meet both of the following criteria:
- Externally-funded population dynamics research grants or contracts within the two most recently completed Federal fiscal years 2021 and 2022; grants awarded in FY 2023 may also be included. Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30; for example, Federal fiscal year 2022 runs from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022. The designated active scientist must be the PD/PI, a Multiple Program Director/Principal Investigator (MPD/MPI), or Key/Senior Personnel on the qualifying grant or contract and must have received the grant or contract from a source outside the applicant institution. The Project Leads of subprojects on P01 grants also qualify.
- Population dynamics research publications in peer-reviewed journals during the two most recently completed Federal fiscal years; publications from FY 2023 may also be included.
Funding by the NICHD Population Dynamics Branch. Applicants must have at least one active scientist, as defined above, who has received a research grant or other significant funding from the Population Dynamics Branch within Federal fiscal years 2020, 2021, 2022, or 2023.. Receipt is defined as the issuing of an award for a competing application or annual non-competing renewal; awards in no cost extension status do not count for this purpose. The mechanisms that qualify are research project grants (e.g., R01, R03, R15, R21, R37, R00, U01, UH2/UH3); research program projects (P01); resource-related research project grants (R24, U24); individual career development awards for faculty (K01, K08, K23); institutional training grants (T32); education project grants (R25); and research contracts (N01, N02, N03, N44, Y01, Y02, Y03) that were funded or administered by the Population Dynamics Branch. Mechanisms that do not qualify are individual pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships (e.g., F30, F31, F32, K99), conference grants (e.g., R13, U13), and P2C grants funded through this Population Dynamics Centers Research Infrastructure program. Grants considered to be funded or administered by the Population Dynamics Branch have a grant number that includes the Institute/Center designation of “HD” and a program official who is a member of the Population Dynamics Branch staff.
Link to Award: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-HD-24-008.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 (0.5” margins; single-spaced; font type: Arial, Helvetica, 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#, Gender, and Ethnicity. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.
Purpose
The objectives of this initiative are to:
- Increase the scientific impact, innovation, and productivity of population dynamics research;
- Increase competitiveness for peer-reviewed external funding in population dynamics research;
- Support experiences for junior population dynamics scientists that will contribute to their research independence; and
- Maximize the efficiency of funding for population dynamics research by minimizing the financial and time burdens of providing administrative and other research support services associated with research projects.
Scope
This initiative will provide funding for infrastructure cores to support population dynamics research at already productive population dynamics research centers. Applicant centers are expected to have a recent record of high impact, innovative scientific publications and competitiveness for peer-reviewed external funding for research within the scientific mission of the NICHD Population Dynamics Branch (PDB)
Cores
Applications must include a minimum of two research infrastructure cores: a mandatory Administrative Core plus a Development Core and/or one or more Scientific/Technical Cores. A Development Core should support activities to develop junior-level center affiliates and advance new scientific research within the center. A Scientific/Technical Core is meant to provide scientific and technical services and resources to center affiliates to enhance their research capabilities.
With the exception of the Development Core, which should focus on new projects, the cores should provide support for both existing projects and the development of new projects. The proposed cores should be effective in promoting scientific impact, innovation, productivity, and competitiveness, but need not be innovative themselves. This NOFO encourages core activities promoting interdisciplinary collaborations and collaborations within and across institutions.
Enhancing Research Community Access to Shared Resources
The NICHD Strategic Plan 2020 recognizes the importance of research resources and infrastructure that help investigators advance fundamental knowledge. Appropriate scientific stewardship includes promoting an inclusive workforce, providing access to data and related resources, and collaborating outside one’s own organization.
This initiative also encourages these Strategic Plan goals for population dynamics research centers. Applicants must incorporate innovative approaches for access to P2C resources by population scientists with primary permanent appointments at institutions that are not award recipients through the NICHD Population Dynamics Centers Research Infrastructure Program (PDRIP). Plans for enhancing research community access will be part of each proposed Core. Examples of such activities may include facilitating the use of Research Data Centers (RDCs) or other scientific/technical resources; sharing bootcamps or working groups; hosting scholarly visits or scholars-in-residence; or providing mentors to population scientists outside the home institution. This list is only exemplary; other activities may fulfill this component of enhancing access by those outside the applicant organization. Proposed activities must be tied to specific programmatic activities within each Core for which NICHD funding is requested.
Population scientists from organizations that are not PDRIP awardees may be incorporated as individuals or collaborations may be developed at the institutional level. The selection process for outside affiliates should be based on the potential for impact on the field.
History, size, and institutional context of centers
This initiative invites applications from both recently founded and long-established population dynamics research centers. This initiative is not limited to population dynamics research centers that have received previous funding from the PDRIP. Funds issued through this initiative are meant to foster scientific impact, innovation, productivity, and competitiveness for peer-reviewed external funding for research within the scientific mission of PDB in the next five-year project period, not only as a reward for past performance. Competitiveness for external funding includes external funding for research within the PDB scientific mission from all sources, not solely funding from PDB. This initiative invites applications from population research centers of any size, from small to large. A center’s productivity, impact, and innovation will be assessed relative to the number of center scientists; a highly productive small center may have greater impact than a moderately productive medium-sized center, even if the latter has numerically more grants and publications. Because this initiative is expected to enhance competitiveness for funding from NIH and other external sources, the applicant institution is expected to show a strong commitment to the center by providing institutional support to the center.
Resources provided through this initiative are meant to augment existing administrative, scientific, and technical services and resources that are already available to the centers. These resources may not be used to offset or replace research infrastructure already provided by the applicant institution. Access to research infrastructure supported by this NOFO may not be limited to a single research project or research team. Resources provided through this initiative are not meant to be a substitute for research project (e.g., R01, R03, R21), training (e.g., T32, R25), individual fellowship (e.g., F31, F32), conference (e.g., R13), or data archiving (e.g., PAR-22-261: Archiving and Documenting Child Health and Human Development Data Sets (R03 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) (nih.gov)) grant funding. Centers wishing to conduct those types of activities should submit separate applications for support through the appropriate mechanisms.
Specific Areas of Research Interest
To be responsive to this initiative, the Primary Research Areas (PRAs) identified must be within the scientific scope of the NICHD Population Dynamics Branch (PDB). The PDB scientific mission is to support research, research training, and data collection in three areas:
- Demography: The scientific study of human populations, including fertility, pregnancy outcomes, mortality and morbidity (especially maternal, infant, child, adolescent, and young adult mortality and morbidity), migration, population distribution, population stratification (including disparities based on race, ethnicity, sex/gender, and age), nuptiality, family demography, population growth and decline, and the causes and consequences of demographic change;
- Population health: Research on how demographic, social, economic, institutional, geographic, and other factors influence human health, productivity, behavior, and development, with an emphasis on research using population-representative data and natural and policy experiments using methods addressing selection and other sources of bias. Research at multiple levels of analysis, involving interdisciplinary perspectives, incorporating social determinants of health, and elucidating mechanisms leading to health disparities are encouraged.
- Reproductive health: Behavioral and social science research on family planning, infertility, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS.
Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.