Research NewsletterIssue: ORN-2020-17

NIH POCTRN

Fast-Track Program for COVID-19 Test Development and Distribution
Innovative Technologies to Increase U.S. Capacity for COVID-19 Testing

NIH POCTRN is now accepting proposals for support on a rolling basis until further notice. The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) is urgently soliciting proposals and can provide up to $500M across multiple projects to rapidly produce innovative SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic tests that will assist the public’s safe return to normal activities.

Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx), is a fast-track technology development program that leverages the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Point-of-Care Technology Research Network (POCTRN). RADx will support novel solutions that build the U.S. capacity for SARS-CoV-2 testing up to 100-fold above what is achievable with standard approaches. RADx is structured to deliver innovative testing strategies to the public as soon as late summer 2020 and is an accelerated and comprehensive multi-pronged effort by NIH to make SARS-CoV-2 testing readily available to every American.

NIBIB is providing substantial support to accelerate the development, validation, and commercialization of innovative point-of-care and home-based tests, as well as improvements to clinical laboratory tests, that can directly detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. NIBIB will support the full range of product development including commercialization and product distribution.

To address the COVID-19 pandemic as quickly as possible, NIBIB is mobilizing and expanding the focus of POCTRN to encompass both point-of-care and more traditional laboratory-based approaches. NIBIB will consider innovations at all stages of readiness to circumvent current limitations to SARS-CoV-2 testing capacity, including:

• Early stage: transformative innovations based on novel testing strategies that have potential for major scale up
• Advanced stage: modification and optimization of existing SARS-CoV-2 testing approaches, including clinical laboratory tests, that can dramatically increase testing capacity

Design features might include technical innovations that:

• Improve analytical performance, e.g., sensitivity, specificity, dynamic range, limit of detection, reliability, accuracy, speed (time to test result) and throughput
• Enhance operational performance through, e.g., development of a patient- and user-friendly design, use of alternative sampling strategies (e.g., saliva, exhaled breath), integration with mobile-devices, designs for home-based use or strategies to overcome bottlenecks with current testing approaches
• Improve access and reduce the cost of testing

RADx will provide resources to support all phases of the product development pipeline from conceptualization and design to reduction-to-practice, performance evaluation, clinical validation, and scale-up of manufacturing.

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Research Continuity Plan Update

Guidance on Financial Management of Grants and Contracts

The Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum on 19 March 2020 (OMB 20-17) providing guidance on issues related to grant management during the COVID-19 disruption. This memorandum provides short term relief for administrative, financial management, and audit requirements under 2 CFR Part 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost principles and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards, for the management of grants and contracts from all federal and non-federal sources under the COVID-19 public health emergency without compromising federal financial assistance accountability requirements.

Funding agencies such as NSF and NIH are following the OMB guidance with respect to grant management during this disruption to university business and research. The OMB Memorandum M-20-17 with the important information on the financial management of the research grants and contracts is posted on the research website. Links to current notifications from federal agencies are provided below. Principal investigators should check with the websites of their specific funding agencies for more information.

COVID-19 Information for NSF applicants and award recipients FAQ is regularly updated on the website. COVID-19 Information for NIH applicants and recipients of NIH funding is regularly updated on the website . A multiple Funding Agencies Research Impact Guidance Matrix by the Council of Government Relationships is posted on the website COGR's Federal Agency Guidance Matrix (XLS).

Keywords and Areas Included in the Grant Opportunity Alert Section Below

NSF: Antarctic Research; Coastlines and People (CoPe); NSF Program on Fairness in Artificial Intelligence in Collaboration with Amazon (FAI); NSF Convergence Accelerator Phase I and II; Cybersecurity Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence; Opportunities for Promoting Understanding through Synthesis (OPUS); Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS)

NIH: Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Data Driven Research on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) (R21); Emergency Awards: Rapid Investigation of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) (R21); Superfund Research Program Occupational Health and Safety Education Programs on Emerging Technologies (R25); Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Networks for Clinical and Translational Research (IDeA-CTR) (U54); National Centers for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NCBIB) (P41); NIH Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) (R25); Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) regarding the Availability of Urgent Competitive Revisions for Research on the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)

Department of Defense/US Army/DARPA/ONR: DoD, Breast Cancer, Innovator Award; DoD Multiple Sclerosis, Investigator- Initiated Research Award; Biological Technologies; Invisible Headlights (IH); PRMRP Investigator-Initiated Research Award for Emerging Viral Diseases and Respiratory Health; UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY Broad Agency Announcement; Department of Defense (DoD) – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Educational Outreach Programs; Newton Award for Transformative Ideas during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Department of Transportation: UTC PROGRAM TIER 1 COMPETITION 2020

Department of Agriculture: Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grants; Biotechnology Risk Assessment Grants Program; REAP-Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements

Department of Labor: Youth Apprenticeship Readiness Grant Program

EPA: Source Reduction Assistance Grant Program; National Environmental Education and Training Program

Department of Energy: Notice of Intent to Issue Funding Opportunity Announcement No. DE-FOA-0002252; Quantum Information Science Research for Fusion Energy Sciences; Scientific Machine Learning for Modeling and Simulations; Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support for Complex Systems; Novel Research and Development for the Direct Capture of Carbon Dioxide from the Atmosphere

NASA: ROSES 2020: The New (Early Career) Investigator Program in Earth Science; Early Stage Innovations (ESI); National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program: Program-Level Independent Evaluation Opportunity; Advanced Component Technology; Living With a Star Science; ROSES 2020: Space Weather Science Application Operations-to-Research; Heliophysics Supporting Research; HELIOPHYSICS - Early Career Investigator Program; Astrophysics Research and Analysis

National Endowment of Humanities: Research and Development; Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities; Fellowships

Private Foundations: Brain Health Foundation: 2021 Scientific Innovations Award Facebook: Facebook Research
 

National and Federal News Related to Research Funding and Grant Opportunities

DOD Basic Research: Prepared testimony submitted by the Coalition for National Security Research says the Pentagon's FY 2021 budget "harms DoD’s ability to build capacity in its research programs and workforce by proposing to eliminate funding for efforts such as Defense Established Programs to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR)." The CNSR document also says "University Research Initiatives (URIs) would be absolutely devastated from funding levels proposed in the FY 2021 budget." Within the URI programs, the budget "proposes to fund the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program and Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) below FY 2010 levels in real dollars."

Supplements for Undergrad Research: The National Science Foundation's Computer and Information Science and Engineering directorate is making two exceptions to its prior guidance (NSF 20-016) on Research Experiences for Undergraduates supplemental funding for grantees: "(i) CISE will accept REU supplemental funding requests to active CISE awards through July 1, 2020; and (ii) CISE will also consider requests for an additional number of students per active project beyond the limitations specified in NSF 20-016, at a funding level of $8,000 per REU student. For example, for single-investigator projects, CISE will consider requests in excess of two students per project for this summer. Proposers who received REU supplements earlier this year are also eligible to apply for additional supplements if they are able to identify opportunities to mentor additional REU students. CISE will prioritize REU supplemental funding requests most responsive to the mitigation of adverse undergraduate employment and education circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic."

$484 Billion CAREA Act Relief Measure: Stimulus 3.5 will replenish small business loan funds authorized in the $1.8 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act that were swiftly depleted. But at Democrats' insistence, it also contains $75 billion for financially drained medical centers and $25 billion for testing. The CARES Act is posted on the website.

Universities Seek Additional $46.6 Billion Funding Congress: The American Council on Education and 40 other groups urge that this sum be included in the next congressional spending package. It would be "equally divided between students and institutions" and allocated and distributed according to the same formula used in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, ACE says. Schools expect student need for financial aid to skyrocket, requiring an additional $12 billion. They also project that "enrollment for the next academic year will drop by15 percent, including a projected decline of 25 percent for international students, resulting in a revenue loss for institutions of $23 billion." The Association of Public and Land Grant Universities says in a letter: "Many institutions are providing significant refunds of expenses such as on-campus housing and meal plans. At the same time, institutions are incurring additional costs to move instruction online." The new requested sum would be in addition to the $14 billion that higher education received in the CARES Act. More information and letter is posted on the APLU website.

How can I add another investigator or my research ambassador to my proposal in order to help on budget preparation and edit proposal details?