The National Institutes of Health (NIH) highlighted a new funding opportunity under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that will support approximately $200 million in large-scale research projects that have a high likelihood of enabling growth and investment in biomedical research and development, public health and health care delivery.
The purpose of this new program, the Research and Research Infrastructure “Grand Opportunities” (GO), is to support high-impact ideas that lend themselves to short-term funding and may lay the foundation for new fields of scientific inquiry.
“With this new program, we will support large biomedical and biobehavioral research endeavors that will benefit from a significant two-year jumpstart in funds and are ready for immediate implementation,” said acting NIH Director Raynard Kington, M.D., Ph.D. “The goals are to fund high-impact research that will lead to growth and investment in these fields and stimulate the economy in the process.”
In responding to this opportunity, grant applicants may propose to address either a specific research question or the creation of a unique infrastructure/resource designed to accelerate scientific progress in the future.
The GO grants will support large-scale research projects that accelerate critical breakthroughs, early and applied research on cutting edge technologies, and new approaches to improve the synergy and interactions among multi and interdisciplinary research teams.
Each participating NIH Institute has indicated their priorities for the GO grants.
“The GO grants offer unique opportunity from NIH that could open the door for UNMC to propose a significant project, that if funded with stimulus funds, might lead to even further opportunities in the future,” said David Crouse, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at UNMC.
An example of the type of project that could be funded under this program is the identification and validation of biomarkers in human genetics and biology that indicate the risk for disease or that could serve as a marker of disease progression and/or responsiveness to treatment.
Validation of biomarkers could dramatically improve the detection, prevention and treatment of disease. Another priority is research on information technology that will enable physicians to share radiological images across health care institutions, which could result in reduced health care costs, as well as improved accuracy for medical decision-making.
For more information, see Recovery Act Limited Competition for NIH Grants: Research and Research Infrastructure “Grand Opportunities” (RC2).