Modern Equipment for Shared-use Biomedical Research Facilities: Advancing Research-Related Operations (R24 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)
Funding Agency:
- National Institutes of Health
The objective of this FOA is to support the acquisition of modern, technologically advanced equipment needed to improve or streamline operating processes and procedures in core laboratories, animal research facilities, or other shared-use research support space. Providing access to such equipment can also expand the capacity of essential support services for evolving and emerging research programs. This FOA does not support the acquisition of scientific research instruments that acquire experimental data or any other instrument directly involved in experimental processes that lead to data collection. Some examples of such excluded instruments include, but are not limited to, spectrometers, microscopes, biomedical imagers, cell analyzers, sequencers, PCR machines, chromatography equipment, and metabolic cages. Computer and data storage systems supporting scientific data collection, storage, and analysis are also not supported by this FOA. These instruments may be requested through ORIP’s shared instrumentation programs. The text below gives examples of equipment supported by this FOA.
Animal research facilities are one of the targeted research spaces of this FOA. Examples of supported equipment for animal facilities include, but are not limited to:
- Ventilated cages and/or cage racks for small animals
- Caging for large animals
- Isolators for small or large animals
- Aquatic animal systems equipped with water quality assessment sensors
- Automated feeding or watering systems to aid in consistency and accuracy of animal care
- Telemetry equipment to monitor cage conditions and/or animal well-being for purposes of animal husbandry (not experimental data collection)
- Environmental management devices that assist in the monitoring and customizing of environmental conditions, such as temperature, humidity, air flow, and lighting
- Cage, rack, bottle, and tunnel washers
- Autoclaves or other sterilizers
Other pieces of modern equipment that help ensure robust and reproducible experiments, an area of particular concern in animal research, may be responsive to this FOA.
Application budgets must reflect the actual needs of the proposed project. The maximum award budget is $350,000, direct costs only. Applications with a budget less than $50,000 will not be considered.
November 07, 2022
C. Ashley Barnes, PhD, Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP), Telephone: 301-435-0783, Email: ashley.barnes@nih.gov