Approximately 15,000 Challenge Grant applications are working their way through the submission process. Applications submitted by the initial April 27 deadline have until Friday, May 8 to complete the submission process.

The Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) grants support small research projects conducted by faculty and students at institutions that have not been major recipients of NIH research grant funds. This program has long sought to strengthen the research environment at such institutions by supporting the meritorious research of investigators who will then be able to involve students in the research process. Thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, applicants to the AREA grants program may now request a maximum of $300,000 total direct costs plus applicable Facilities and Administrative (F&A)/ indirect costs for the entire project period of up to three years.

Over the years, there has been varying advice about the best type of grant with which to launch your career–R21, R03, R01? NIH recently issued a guide notice suggesting that you consider an R01 for a number of reasons. As you may know, New or Early Stage Investigator Status affords you special consideration during the peer review process for R01 grants.

BONUS!Check out these successful R01 applications from the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases.

Institutions must adhere to provisions of the PHS Policy, the Guide, and the commitments detailed in their Animal Welfare Assurance with OLAW. This includes advance planning for conditions that could arise as a result of a human pandemic (e.g., influenza) that could jeopardize the health and wellbeing of animals because of a lack of personnel to care for the animals and/or to conduct IACUC official business. Pandemic plans developed by institutions and IACUCs should include consideration of the following…

Finally, after the year-long study to assess NIH Peer Review, the first review meetings to use criterion scoring and the new 1 to 9 scoring scale are here! To help the extramural community prepare for these changes, we have created several sets of resources.

NIH will continue to receive applications through Grants.gov for all funding opportunities offered through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Some concerns have been noted regarding the ability of Grants.gov to handle the additional demand for grant information and application submission related to ARRA. NIH is working closely with Grants.gov and other federal entities to take all possible steps to meet the needs of the biomedical research community. We will moniter the systems for issues and make adjustments as necessary.

Should you experience problems with Grants.gov that threaten the timely submission of your application, please take the following steps to document your difficulties.

New funding opportunities available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 have been published and posted at http://grants.nih.gov/recovery. These include the NIH-wide initiative for research and research infrastructure support entitled the “Grand Opportunities,” a Biomedical Core Centers enhancement opportunity, and four initiatives through the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for research on the heterogeneity of Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The NIH recently unveiled the NIH Challenge Grants in Health and Science Research (RFA-OD-09-003 ), one of several funding opportunities available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The Challenge Grants program invites applications from domestic institutions and organizations proposing novel research in areas that address specific knowledge gaps, scientific opportunities, new technologies, data generation, or research methods that would benefit from an influx of funds to quickly advance the area in significant ways. The program is designed to support research in the “Challenge area” topics identified by NIH Institutes and Centers.

Budget data, award reports, and analyses of NIH funding activities for Fiscal Year 2008 are now available through RePORT. Here you can also find detailed funding information for 215 major research areas supported by NIH during the fiscal year of 2008.

Looking for funding opportunities through the Recovery Act? NIH has created a Web site that consolidates Recovery Act-specific initiatives for your convenience. These opportunities, also published on Grants.gov and in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts, can be easily identified by the titles that begin with “Recovery Act.” The following initiatives have already been published. More will be coming in the near future.