DBP2:Selection

Motivations and Procedure

The original RFA specified the following:

• In core 3, an investigator will propose 2-4 collaborations with NIH funded biomedical or behavioral researchers to address a biomedical/behavioral question using computational approaches. It is not essential that the biomedical researchers have expertise in computational biology, but they should have a question that will drive the fundamental computational research in cores 1 and 2. The purpose of this core is to ensure that the research carried out in cores 1 and 2 has direct relevance to biomedical or behavioral research. It may be useful for these Driving Biological Projects (DPB's) to have a focus on a particular disease or organ, but that sort of focus might not be appropriate for all NIH NCBCs. It is expected that many of the biomedical researchers in core 3 will not be at the same institution as the parent NIH NCBC. In such cases, convincing plans for collaboration at a distance must be presented in the proposal.

• An individual DBP will last for at most three years. If the problem addressed by the DBP is not going to be completely solved in a 3 year period, the principal investigator and collaborating researchers must present plans to compete for independent funding for continuation of the work. Plans must also be presented to recruit and select additional DBPs after collaborations with the initial "founding" DBPs under the NIH NCBC have been completed.

NIH approved the following procedure for NA-MIC during a tcon with Program Officer, Grace Peng and Lead Science Officer, Karen Skinner on 11/10/2005:

1. Solicitation of nominations from core 1 and 2 members. Candidates have to have existing NIH funding (or equivalent) and joint publications with at least one Core 1 or Core 2 member.
2. Core 1 and 2 PI's, and the PI will select 3-4 candidates and invite them to submit a four-page proposal, including a plan how they will adopt the NA-MIC kit. The PI will consult with the NIH team.
3. Core 1 and Core 2 PI's and the PI solicit input from the NA-MIC team, based on the document and additional discussions with the candidates. We will then choose the "winner/s" and invite them to submit a RO1 style proposal to the NA-MIC leadership.

Second Round: Final Selections announced on April 11 2006

• Funding start date: August 1. 2007
• Using the procedure outlined above, the following 4 DBPs were selected:
  • Harvard
  • JHU
  • The Mind Institute
  • UNC

First Round of Selection process: Solicitation

Prerequisites

• Candidates have to have existing NIH funding as PI or co-investigator
• Joint publications with at least one Core 1 or Core 2 member.
• Willingness to adopt the NA-MIC kit
• Willingness to use DBP funds to hire at least one computer science person into the DBP to help translational efforts

Spring 2006: First stage proposal, deadline March 1

We intend to minimize the effort for both the candidates and the decision makers. For your convenience, you can refer potential DBP candidates to our short NA-MIC overview. We are looking for a short text description from each candidate that addresses the following points:

• Abstract from the qualifying NIH grant (or comparable short description of the driving project), grant # and program officer
• What is the history with the core 1 or core 2 "sponsor" (1 paragraph)
• What is the benefit to the DBP applicant (1 paragraph)
• What is the benefit to NA-MIC (1 paragraph)