NIH Collaborative Program Grant for Multidisciplinary Teams
Harvard University Area - Statement of Intent Deadline: October 23, 2019
Sponsor Deadline: January 25, 2020
Award Amount: $1.5M maximum direct costs per year. It is anticipated that most awards will be between $700,000-$900,000 direct costs. An additional $250,000 direct costs per year may be requested for optional exploratory pilot studies for ESIs.

This funding opportunity is designed to support highly integrated research teams of three to six PD/PIs that propose to conduct research to address complex and challenging biomedical problems, important for the mission of NIGMS, through deeply integrated, multidisciplinary research teams. Collaborative program teams are expected to accomplish goals that require considerable synergy and managed team interactions. Project goals should not be achievable with a collection of individual efforts or projects. Teams are encouraged to consider far-reaching objectives that will produce major advances in their fields. Applications should address critical issues and be sufficiently challenging, ambitious, and innovative that objectives could not be achieved by individual investigators.

To be successful, programs of this level of complexity are expected to require significant effort from all PD/PIs involved. The contact PD/PI is required to devote at least 30% of his/her time available for research to this award, while other PD/PIs are required to devote at least 25% of his/her time available for research to this award. The time available for research should be expressed in person-months and should not include time expended toward teaching, administration, and/or clinical duties.

NIGMS intends to fund a limited number of applications. Therefore, consultation with relevant staff is strongly encouraged. Once applicants have identified overall program objectives and PD/PI participants, NIGMS staff may be able to advise applicants whether the proposed research strategy meets the goals and mission of the Institute, whether it addresses one or more high priority research areas, and whether it is appropriate for a collaborative team program.

This is a limited submission opportunity and only one application may be put forward from the Harvard University Area (Cambridge campus) per review cycle. To determine if an internal competition is necessary, potential applicants from the University Area who wish to apply for the January 25, 2020 NIH deadline must first submit a very brief statement of intent to Erin Hale at erin_hale@fas.harvard.edu no later than October 23, 2019. Emails should include the proposal title, names of the PIs, and a very brief description of the proposed project.