March 5, 2014, NIAID Funding Newsletter

Read this full issue online at http://www.niaid.nih.gov/researchfunding/newsletter/2014/Pages/0305.aspx

March 5, 2014

Feature Articles

Step Nine to a Winning Application: Nail Your Budget

Opportunities and Resources

In The News

Advice Corner

Have a Grant Application Submission Question? Ask a Help Desk
Reader Questions
- I have a clinical assistant supported by a K01. Can I use R01 funding to supplement their salary?
- Does NIAID restrict direct costs requests for R01 diversity supplements?

New Funding Opportunities

See the list

Step Nine to a Winning Application: Nail Your Budget

This article is the ninth in our Ten Steps to a Winning R01 Application series, which we are updating.

You want the budget for your R01 application to be in the Goldilocks zone—not too big and not too small, but just right. In this step, we show you how to reach that happy medium.

On the Mark

Hitting that "just right" sweet spot is critical for multiple reasons.

Let's start with the least obvious: your reviewers will use your budget request to gauge your understanding of how much your project will cost and what it takes to accomplish the proposed research.

The purpose of the budget and justification is to present and justify all expenses required to achieve project aims and objectives. You'll want to be realistic, request only what is necessary and reasonable, and justify everything, especially the unusual and "big ticket" items.

Reviewers don't use the budget to assess scientific merit. They discuss the budget after the application is scored. However, a poorly prepared budget request can influence their score.

Deliberately underbudgeting or padding the budget reflects naivety, which reviewers will recognize. A request that misses its mark will undermine their confidence not only in your money smarts but also in your ability to manage a major independent project.

Make sure to provide an adequate description of the expenses as well as the justification for why those expenses are needed in each project period of the grant. For example, the number of personnel could vary over the course of a five-year clinical research project as well as the level of effort for individual personnel.

Some reviewers might think that expenses should be lower in the last year of a clinical research project compared to the first since subject followup should be ending. However, if many of the samples are stored and tested in batch at the end of the study, there might be a high level of effort and expenses required in the last year. Be sure to not only describe the level of effort for a person for each year, but also explain the role(s) that person will be playing and the reason why that level of effort is required for a particular year. Otherwise, you risk reviewers making assumptions about your work and recommending budget cuts.

As for the best reason to create an appropriate budget: the success of your project depends on it.

The Iterative Approach to Application Planning we've been using can help you stay on track.

In the Loop

The best things in life may be free, but research isn't one of them.

You can plan only those experiments you can afford, and in this era of scarce resources, you want your budget to be as lean as possible, unless you have strong justification for why it needs to be larger.

For example, animal-intensive studies and studies involving human subjects tend to be more costly and require a full, detailed (itemized) budget.

For most people, lean means a modular budget of up to $250,000 in annual direct costs (excluding consortium facilities and administrative (F&A) costs). Modular budgets are applicable only to R01, R03, R15, R21, and R34 applications, except applications from foreign (non-U.S.) institutions.

For additional information on modular budgets, see NIH Modular Research Grant Applications.

Why go the modular route? You will have an easier time on several fronts.

Reviewers tend to recommend more budget cuts to larger projects, especially in a time of fiscal constraints when everyone is hurting.
Unlike with a detailed budget, reviewers have few details to consider when deciding whether to cut a modular budget.
This lack of detail means you have less to prepare for your application.

To plan your budget effectively, rely on our iterative process.

Start by calculating how much money each experiment will cost based on the personnel and resources needed to do the work.

If the numbers don't line up with your (no-flab) dollar target, go back and revise, always making sure that any new plans you make fit your Specific Aims.

And should those objectives change, be sure that your new aims are still significant to your field.

How Much Is Enough?

To gauge expenses, add up costs for personnel (the largest expense category), consultant services, travel, materials and supplies, reagents, animal costs, consortium agreements, and any requested equipment.

Coming up short will not further your cause—ask for enough money to perform your research and no more. Also, don't propose more work than can be reasonably done during the proposed project period.

Include your salary and that of other key personnel as well as consultants you need to hire. Keep in mind the legislatively mandated salary cap [see Salary Cap Summary (FY 1990-FY 2014)] when calculating the personnel salaries. Be sure to include the correct fringe benefit rate based on your institution's policy.

Carefully determine the number, qualifications, and amount of effort needed for the PI(s) and all personnel. It is not unusual for effort levels and staffing levels to fluctuate in the outyears.

If you propose a large-scale project and request $500,000 or more in direct costs for any year, you must get NIAID's agreement to accept assignment of your application at least six weeks before you submit it. For more information, read our Big Grants SOP, linked below.

If you are a new investigator, reviewers may be skeptical if you ask for a lot of money. Most new investigators should stick to a modular budget.

Here are some FY 2013 data on average grant costs for competing (new, not renewal) R01 applications you can use as a benchmark.

The average R01 received roughly $333,000 in annual direct costs. That does not include the institution's overhead or F&A costs.
About 65 percent of new investigators (including early-stage investigators) used a modular budget.
For non-new investigators, only about 40 percent went the modular route.

Note that though you will stay within the limits of a modular budget, your expenses may vary over time. For example, your personnel costs may be lower in the first year since you may be able to hold off recruiting some of your people until later, but you may need to spend more on equipment up front.

Speaking of equipment, requesting funds for a big purchase is likely a one-time request and will not recur in subsequent budget years. We discussed the ins and outs of buying equipment in Step Seven to a Winning Application—Build Your Team.

You can find more information about application budgets and get more advice in the links below. Also, see examples of budgets from successful investigators at Sample Applications and Summary Statements.

Related Links

Big Grants SOP

Strategy for NIH Funding

Part 2. Pick and Design a Project
- Strategy to Design a Project
- Keep Your Budget In Check in Design a Project
Part 3. Write Your Application
- Complete the Forms
  - Plan Your Budget
  - Create a Modular Budget

Networking Opportunity: Contribute to Immune Profiling Data Network

Recent advances in immune profiling technologies offer new opportunities to use comprehensive data sets to help develop new vaccines, predict antimicrobial and antiviral drug responsiveness, and unravel the molecular mechanisms that regulate human immune responses.

In pursuit of these goals, NIAID has reissued an opportunity for investigators to produce new immune profiling data and join a network of human immunology research groups focused on systems biology approaches.

PIs will generate comprehensive molecular response profiles from primary immune cells obtained from human volunteers. Areas of research interest include:

Measuring dynamic changes in immune profiles following vaccination or infection that correlate with clinical outcome.
Comparing longitudinal immune profiles among ethnically diverse or special populations after infection, vaccination, or adjuvant treatment.
Identifying immune profiles that correlate with vaccine efficacy or surrogates of efficacy.
Comparing immune profiles in vaccinated populations to populations with naturally acquired infections.
Identifying immune profiles that correlate with adjuvant function or antigen/adjuvant formulation, administration regimen, and/or route of delivery.

In coordination with the Human Immunology Project Consortium (HIPC), awardees will develop common resources and data standards to accelerate the discovery of immune response profiles that correlate with infection or vaccination outcomes. They will rapidly share collected data publicly through two online resources:

ImmPort—an integrated online data warehouse for HIPC-generated data that provides public access to a variety of immunological studies, including data from current HIPC studies.
ImmuneSpace—a prototype HIPC Web portal, currently under development, that will provide public access to data from human immune profiling studies with associated clinical data, together with compiled results and analytical tools.

Investigators should propose two to four multidisciplinary research projects organized around a central scientific theme. Each U19 application must include an Administrative Core, a Data Management Core, and an Infrastructure and Opportunities Fund Management Core.

For advice on writing and submitting a multiproject application, see Guidance for Preparing a Multiproject Research Application.

Optional letters of intent are due August 18, 2014. The application deadline is September 18, 2014.

For complete details, including a full list of special research areas, see the February 3, 2014, Guide notice.

Overcoming Obstacles to Infectious Diseases Research Abroad

Investigators at eligible foreign institutions can gain NIAID grant support through a recent R01 funding opportunity announcement (FOA): International Research in Infectious Diseases, Including AIDS.

Before you read on, you might want to make sure you're eligible. You cannot be the PI of a current NIH-funded grant or contract, and you must be at an institution located in a resource-constrained country, i.e., one that the World Bank defines as having a low-income, lower-middle-income, or upper-middle-income economy. To see if your institution qualifies, go to World Bank List of Economies

Now, more about the FOA.

It will support infectious diseases research (excluding clinical trials) by increasing local scientific expertise around the globe. Topics of interest include emerging infections—for example, tuberculosis, malaria, influenza, and HIV/AIDS—that are of public health significance within the applicant country. If you plan to conduct AIDS-related research, it must address priorities described in the NIAID Strategic Plan 2013.

We strongly encourage establishing multi-institutional collaborations, particularly with U.S. investigators, but having a U.S. partner is not required. Include in your research plan collaborative activities such as sharing core resources as well as transferring technologies and research methods. If you plan to collaborate with NIH intramural scientists, read How does an intramural scientist get approval for collaboration?

Note that AIDS and non-AIDS applications have different due dates. The first of three deadlines is May 22, 2014, for non-AIDS and August 22, 2014, for AIDS.

Submit optional letters of intent 30 days before the application due date.

Find complete details in the January 30, 2014, Guide notice.

Get the Latest on New Funding Opportunities for Big Data Projects

As part of our continuing coverage of NIH's Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) program, check out a new funding opportunity announcement (FOA) and three Guide notices that herald future funding opportunities for big data training projects.

U01 for Big Data Software and Analysis Methods

This cooperative agreement FOA may be up your alley if you can develop new software tools and analysis for big data, or propose significant adaptations of existing software tools and analysis.

For this FOA, think big and target the toughest problems. Your application should show some proof-of-concept for a novel approach to a seemingly intractable problem with using big data for biomedical research.

You won't have to produce a final, fully-hardened solution, though you may get there at the end of your project period.

Feel free to submit more than one application, but keep in mind that each application must focus on only one of the following four topic areas:

Data Compression and Reduction
Data Visualization
Data Provenance
Data Wrangling

For definitions and descriptions of those topic areas, as well as application instructions and examples of responsive topics, read the February 19, 2014, Guide notice.

Coming Soon: Funding for Big Data Training Programs

Look out for three new FOAs slated to be published soon.

All three aim to develop a new cohort of scientists who have the knowledge and skills to develop "big data" tools and methods.

You might be counting down the days until NIH publishes the FOAs, so we're using the "countdown" motif to highlight some key features of these forthcoming funding opportunities.

Three

For each opportunity, your project will combine three disciplines: computer science (and informatics), biomedical research, and statistics.

Two

Two of the funding opportunities are revisions (formerly called competing supplements) of T15 and T32 training awards—meaning, you must already have an active T15 or T32 grant for which you'll expand the scope to include a separate track that encompasses big data elements described in the notices.

If you're not PI on a T15 or T32 training grant, don't be discouraged.

While NIAID doesn't fund T15s, we do support almost 200 T32 grants (and NIH supports over 1,800 T32 and T15 grants).

So, chances are your institution has somebody who is eligible to apply. Reach out to your colleagues and business office to find out, then see if you can join them in an application.

Also, one of the new opportunities will allow your institution to apply for a new T32 award. For that opportunity, you would not need an existing grant to establish your big data training program.

One

Your institution's best bet is to submit only one application.

All three opportunities serve one primary goal, with limited funds to do so.

By combining your efforts on one application that includes the best of what your institution has to offer, you're more likely to stand apart from the other applications competing for funding.

Go?

We expect NIH to release FOAs within the next few months. While that means you don't need to start writing your application immediately, you can build the foundation for your team and assess potential projects.

Use this time to network, brainstorm, build connections, and identify partners. We expect that in many cases, you'll be working with people you've never worked with before.

For more information, read the following Guide notices:

Scavenger Receptor Biology and Nomenclature Workshops

"Standardizing Scavenger Receptor Nomenclature

," an article in the March issue of the Journal of Immunology , summarizes proposed nomenclature for scavenger receptors based on a recent NIAID-sponsored workshop. NIAID will host follow-up sessions to solicit feedback at the following national meetings:

Experimental Biology 2014 on April 29, 2014.
IMMUNOLOGY 2014 on May 4, 2014.
FOCIS 2014 on June 24, 2014.

Before the meetings, investigators are invited to share their thoughts on the proposed nomenclature at NIAID's Scavenger Receptor Nomenclature Web site.

News Briefs

Upcoming NIH SBIR/STTR Webinar. NIH is hosting a Webinar to discuss updates to the registration and submission process for the SBIR and STTR programs, including eligibility requirements and common submission errors. The Webinar is on March 6, 2014. You can register online

Program Funding and Grants Administration Seminar. Registration is now open for the 2014 NIH Regional Seminar on Program Funding and Grants Administration in Baltimore, Maryland, from June 25 to 27, 2014. For more, read the February 20, 2014, Guidenotice.

Have a Grant Application Submission Question? Ask a Help Desk

When you encounter technical difficulties while electronically submitting a grant application, you should know where to turn for help. Your program officer is not a source of tech support, nor does he or she have the authority to accept your application while technical difficulties are being resolved.

Instead, you should always contact the appropriate help desk when you have submission problems. Depending on which system in the submission process is the source of trouble, you may need to contact:

Your business office or system provider if your institution uses a system-to-system process.
Grants.gov Contact Center for Grants.gov support.
eRA Commons Helpdesk for eRA Commons support.

To ensure that you are not unfairly penalized, document system issues according to Guidelines for Applicants Experiencing System Issues.

To avoid last-minute problems, be sure to begin your submission process early. Aim to submit well before your application deadline. Always read the entire funding opportunity announcement and follow the SF 424 instructions carefully. See Get Ready Now to Apply Electronically for more information.

Feel free to send us a question at deaweb@niaid.nih.gov. After responding to you, we may include your question in the newsletter, incorporate it into the NIAID Research Funding site, or both.

"I have a clinical assistant supported by a K01. Can I use R01 funding to supplement their salary?"—anonymous reader

Yes. You may pay for part of a clinical assistant's salary with funds from an R01 grant. However, work performed for the R01 project must be distinct from work performed for the K01, and the total effort for all support must not exceed 12 calendar months.

This is different from the PI requirements. As a PI on a K01 award, you must devote a minimum of 75 percent effort and receive no more than $75,000 plus fringe benefits each year. If your salary is such that $75,000 doesn’t cover 75 percent effort, your institution may supplement the NIH contribution using non-NIH, non-PHS funding. K01 research expenses for technical personnel cannot exceed $25,000.

"Does NIAID restrict direct costs requests for R01 diversity supplements?"—anonymous reader

Yes. Budget caps vary by career level.

For guidance, go to Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research.