Full Text PAR-95-071

MENTORED RESEARCH SCIENTIST DEVELOPMENT AWARD-NURSING

NIH GUIDE, Volume 24, Number 2, June 16, 1995

PA NUMBER:  PAR-95-071

P.T. 34

Keywords: 
  Nursing 
  Biomedical Research, Multidiscipl 


National Institute of Nursing Research

Application Receipt Dates:  February 1, June 1, and October 1

PURPOSE

The Mentored Research Scientist Development Award- Nursing (MRSDA-N)
is for research scientists who need a period of sponsored research
experience as a way to gain expertise in a research area new to the
candidate or in an area that would demonstrably enhance the
candidate's scientific career.  It is expected that following this
experience, the candidate will be able to pursue an independent and
productive research career.  The MRSDA-N (K01) replaces the K07
Academic Investigator Award - Nursing (PA-91-57) and the K08 Clinical
Investigator Award - Nursing (PA-91-56).

HEALTHY PEOPLE 2000

The Public Health Service (PHS) is committed to achieving the health
promotion and disease prevention objectives of "Healthy People 2000,"
a PHS-led national activity for setting priority areas.  This PA,
Mentored Research Scientist Development Award-Nursing, is related to
the priority area of human resource development.  Potential
applicants may obtain a copy of "Healthy People 2000" (Full Report:
Stock No. 017-001-00474-0 or Summary Report:  Stock No.
017-001-00473-1) from the Superintendent of Documents, Government
Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402-9325 (telephone 202-783-3238).

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

The candidate must have a research or a health-professional doctorate
or its equivalent, and must have demonstrated the capacity or
potential for highly productive independent research in the period
after the doctorate.  The National Institute of Nursing Research
(NINR) is primarily interested in receiving applications from
Registered Nurses for this mechanism.  The candidate must identify a
mentor with extensive research experience, and must be willing to
spend a minimum of 75 percent of full-time professional effort
conducting research and research career development activities for
the period of the award.  The remaining 25 percent time should be
devoted to other research-related and/or teaching or clinical
pursuits consistent with the objectives of the award.

Applications may be submitted on behalf of candidates by domestic,
non-Federal organizations, public or private, such as universities,
colleges, hospitals, and laboratories. Minorities and women are
encouraged to apply.  Candidates must be U.S. citizens or noncitizen
nationals, or must have been lawfully admitted for permanent
residence and possess an Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-551) or
some other verification of legal admission as a permanent resident.
Noncitizen nationals, although not U.S. citizens, owe permanent
allegiance to the U.S.  They are usually born in lands that are not
states, but are under U.S. sovereignty, jurisdiction, or
administration.  Individuals on temporary or student visas are not
eligible.

Candidates may have been principal investigators on PHS research
grants and may have been supported by a research career award in the
past, provided the proposed research experience is a fundamentally
new field of study or there has been a significant hiatus in their
research career because of family or other personal obligations.
Current principal investigators on PHS research grants are not
eligible.

MECHANISM OF SUPPORT

Awards in response to this PA will use the K01 mechanism. Planning,
direction, and execution of the program will be the responsibility of
the candidate and her/his mentor on behalf of the applicant
institution.  The project period will be for three years and is not
renewable.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The Nursing Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01)
provides an intensive, supervised career development experience in
one of the biomedical, behavioral, or clinical sciences.  The
proposed experience should be in a research area new to the applicant
and/or one in which a supervised research experience will
demonstrably enhance the candidate's scientific career.  The
experiences should permit the application of novel or highly
promising interdisciplinary approaches to particular research
problems. Candidates must be able to provide a convincing case that
the proposed period of support will substantially enhance his/her
career and/or will allow the pursuit of a novel or promising approach
to a particular research problem.

Candidates who have interrupted their careers because of illness or
pressing family care commitments may apply if they can clearly
demonstrate the potential for productive independent research and the
need for an additional period of mentored research experience in
order to accomplish an effective scientific reentry.  Similarly,
faculty members at institutions with a substantial minority
enrollment, who wish to enhance their research skills through a
supervised research experience at a nearby research center, may also
apply, if they agree to remain at their parent institution after
completion of the award.

A.  Environment:  The institution must have a well- established
research and/or clinical research career development program(s) and
qualified faculty to serve as mentors unless a geographically distant
mentor is proposed. The institution must be able to demonstrate a
commitment to the development of the candidate as a productive,
independent investigator.  And, the candidate, mentor, and
institution must be able to describe a multi- disciplinary research
career development program that will maximize the use of relevant
research and educational resources.

B.  Program:  The award provides three consecutive 12 month
appointments.  At least 75 percent of the recipient's full-time
professional effort must be devoted to the program and the remainder
devoted to other research-related and/or teaching or clinical
pursuits consistent with the objectives of the award.  The program
consists of both a research plan and a research career development
plan that will develop knowledge and research skills in scientific
areas relevant to the career development goals of the applicant.

C.  Mentor(s):  The recipient must receive appropriate mentoring
throughout the three year program.  Where feasible, women and
minority mentors should be involved as role models.  If the mentor
(and/or a co-mentor, if desired) is geographically distant from the
candidate, detailed rationale must be provided to document the
mentor-candidate relationship and level of commitment for the
successful implementation and completion of the proposed research and
career development program.

D.  Allowable Costs:

1.  Salary:  The NINR will provide up to $50,000 salary plus fringe
benefits for the K01 award recipient.

The institution may supplement the NIH contribution up to a level
that is consistent with the institution's salary scale; however,
supplementation may not be from Federal funds unless specifically
authorized by the Federal program from which such funds are derived.
In no case, may PHS funds be used for salary supplementation.
Institutional supplementation of salary must not require extra duties
or responsibilities that would interfere with the purpose of the
MRSDA.  Under expanded authorities, however, institutions may
rebudget funds within the total costs awarded to cover salaries
consistent with the institution's salary scale.

The total salary requested must be based on a full-time, 12- month
staff appointment.  It must be consistent both with the established
salary structure at the institution and with salaries actually
provided by the institution from its own funds to other staff members
of equivalent qualifications, rank, and responsibilities in the
department concerned.  If full-time, 12-month salaries are not
currently paid to comparable staff members, the salary proposed must
be appropriately related to the existing salary structure.

2.  Research Development Support:  Up to $20,000 per year will be
allowed for the following expenses: (a) tuition, fees, and books
related to career development; (b) research expenses, such as
supplies, equipment, and technical personnel; (c) travel to research
meetings or training; (d) statistical services including personnel
and computer time.

3.  Ancillary Personnel Support:  Salary for mentors, secretarial and
administrative assistance, etc., is not allowed.

4.  Indirect costs:  Indirect costs will be reimbursed at eight
percent of modified total direct costs, or at the actual indirect
cost rate, whichever is less.

F.  Evaluation:  In carrying out its stewardship of human resource
related programs, the NIH may begin requesting information essential
to an assessment of the effectiveness of this program.  Accordingly,
recipients are hereby notified that they may be contacted after the
completion of this award for periodic updates on various aspects of
their employment history, publications, support from research grants
or contracts, honors and awards, professional activities, and other
information helpful in evaluating the impact of the program.

G.  Other Income:  Fees resulting from clinical practice,
professional consultation, or other comparable activities required by
the research and research-related activities of this award may not be
retained by the career award recipient.  Such fees must be assigned
to the grantee institution for disposition by any of the following
methods:

The funds may be expended by the grantee institution in accordance
with the NIH policy on supplementation of career award salaries and
to provide fringe benefits in proportion to such supplementation.
Such salary supplementation and fringe benefit payments must be
within the established policies of the grantee institution.

The funds may be used for health-related research purposes.

The funds may be paid to miscellaneous receipts of the U.S. Treasury.
Checks must be made payable to the Department of Health and Human
Services, NIH and forwarded to the Director, Division of Financial
Management, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.  Checks must identify the
relevant award account and reason for the payment.

Awardees may retain royalties and fees for activities such as
scholarly writing, service on advisory groups, or honoraria from
other institutions for lectures or seminars, provided these
activities remain incidental and provided that the retention of such
pay is consistent with the policies and practices of the grantee
institution.

Usually, funds budgeted in an NIH supported research or research
training grant for the salaries or fringe benefits of individuals,
but freed as a result of a career award, may not be rebudgeted.  The
awarding component will give consideration to approval for the use of
released funds only under unusual circumstances.  Any proposed
retention of funds released as a result of a career award must
receive prior written approval of the NIH awarding component.

H.  Special Leave:  Leave to another institution, including a foreign
laboratory, may be permitted if directly related to the purpose of
the award.  Only local, institutional approval is required if such
leave does not exceed three months.  For longer periods, prior
written approval of the NIH funding component is required.  To obtain
prior approval, the award recipient must submit a letter to the NIH
describing the plan, countersigned by his or her department head and
the appropriate institutional official.  A copy of a letter or other
evidence from the institution where the leave is to be taken must be
submitted to assure that satisfactory arrangements have been made.
Support from the career award will continue during such leave.

Leave without award support may not exceed 12 months. Such leave
requires the prior written approval of the NIH funding component and
will be granted only in unusual situations.  Support from other
sources is permissible during the period of leave.  Such leave does
not reduce the total number of months of program support for which an
individual is eligible.  Parental leave will be granted consistent
with the policies of the NIH and the grantee institution.

I.  Termination or Change of Institution:  When a grantee institution
plans to terminate an award, the NIH funding component must be
notified in writing at the earliest possible time so that appropriate
instructions can be given for termination.  If the individual is
moving to another eligible institution, career award support may be
continued provided:

A new career award application is submitted by the new institution;

The period of support requested is no more than the time remaining
within the existing award period; and

The new application is submitted far enough in advance of the
requested effective date to allow the necessary time for review.

The funding component may require a review by an initial review group
and/or the appropriate National Advisory Council or Board.
Alternatively, review may be carried out by staff within the NIH
funding component, depending upon the circumstances.

The Director of the NIH may discontinue an award upon determination
that the purpose or terms of the award are not being fulfilled.  In
the event an award is terminated, the Director of the NIH shall
notify the grantee institution and career award recipient in writing
of this determination, the reasons therefor, the effective date, and
the right to appeal the decision.

A final progress report, invention statement, and Financial Status
Report are required upon either termination of an award or
relinquishment of an award in a change of institution situation.

INCLUSION OF WOMEN AND MINORITIES IN RESEARCH INVOLVING HUMAN
SUBJECTS

It is the policy of the NIH that women and members of minority groups
and their subpopulations must be included in all NIH supported
biomedical and behavioral research projects involving human subjects,
unless a clear and compelling rationale and justification is provided
that inclusion is inappropriate with respect to the health of the
subjects or the purpose of the research.  This new policy results
from the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 (Section 492B of Public Law
103-43) and supersedes and strengthens the previous policies
(Concerning the Inclusion of Women in Study Populations, and
Concerning the Inclusion of Minorities in Study Populations) which
have been in effect since 1990. The new policy contains some new
provisions that are substantially different from the 1990 policies.

All investigators proposing research involving human subjects should
read the "NIH Guidelines For Inclusion of Women and Minorities as
Subjects in Clinical Research," which have been published in the
Federal Register of March 28, 1994 (FR 59 14508-14513), and reprinted
in the NIH GUIDE FOR GRANTS AND CONTRACTS of March 18, 1994, Volume
23, Number 11.

Investigators may obtain copies from these sources or from the
program staff or contact person listed under INQUIRIES. Program staff
may also provide additional relevant information concerning the
policy.

APPLICATION PROCEDURES

Applications are to be submitted on form PHS 398 (rev. 9/91) and will
be accepted on the receipt dates indicated in the application kit
(February 1, June 1, and October 1).  Forms are available at most
institutional offices of sponsored research and from the Office of
Grants Information, Division of Research Grants, National Institutes
of Health, 6701 Rockledge Drive, Room 3032 MSC 7762, Bethesda, MD
20892-7762, telephone 301/710-0267.  The application must address the
following issues:

Candidate

o  Establish the candidate's commitment to a career in biomedical or
behavioral research.

o  Establish the candidate's potential to develop into a successful
independent investigator.

o  Summarize the candidate's immediate and long-term career
objectives, explaining how the award will contribute to their
attainment.

o  Letters of recommendation.  Three sealed letters of recommendation
addressing the candidate's potential for a research career must be
included as part of the application.

Career Development Plan

o  Describe the career development plan, incorporating consideration
of the candidate's goals and prior experience. It should describe a
systematic plan to obtain the necessary basic biomedical or
behavioral science background and research experience to launch or
reinitiate an independent research career.

o  The application must include a biographical sketch and information
on the mentor(s) including research qualifications and previous
experience as a research supervisor.  The application must also
include information that describes the nature and extent of
supervision that will occur during the proposed award period.  A
letter of support from the mentor (and co-mentor, if appropriate)
must be included in the applicaton delineating the match with the
applicant's research and development plan and willingness to provide
the necessary assistance.

o  Candidates must describe plans to receive instruction in the
responsible conduct of research.  These plans must detail the
proposed subject matter, format, frequency, and duration of
instruction as well as the amount and nature of faculty
participation.  No award will be made if an application lacks this
component.

Research Plan

o  Describe the research plan and the use of a basic or clinical
approach to a biomedical or behavioral problem.  The candidate must
describe the research plan as outlined in form PHS 398 including
sections on the  Specific Aims, Background and Significance, Progress
Report/Preliminary Studies, Research Design and Methods.

Environment and Institutional Commitment

o  The sponsoring institution must document a strong,
well-established research program related to the candidate's area of
interest including a high-quality research environment with staff
capable of productive collaboration with the candidate.  The
sponsoring institution also must provide a statement of commitment to
the candidate's development into a productive, independent
investigator.

Budget

o  Budget requests must be provided according to the instructions in
form PHS 398.  The request for tuition and fees, books, travel, etc.,
must be justified and specified by category.

To identify the application as a response to this PA, check "YES" on
item 2a of page 1 of the application and enter "PAR-95-071, Mentored
Research Scientist Development Award-Nursing." Utilize the Research
Career Development Award (RCDA) Table of Contents, but relabel the
page, "Mentored Resarch Scientist Development Award."  This
substitute page is included in the Form 398 packet and will
facilitate organizing the research and career development components
of the application.

Submit a signed, typewritten original of the application with
Checklist, and five signed photocopies, in one package to:

DIVISION OF RESEARCH GRANTS
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
6701 ROCKLEDGE DRIVE, ROOM 1040  MSC 7710
BETHESDA, MD  20892-7710
BETHESDA, MD  20817 (for express/courier service)

REVIEW CONSIDERATIONS

Applications will be reviewed for completeness by the Division of
Research Grants and responsiveness to the PA by the appropriate
institute staff.  Applications that are complete and responsive to
the program announcement will be evaluated for scientific and
technical merit by an appropriate peer review group convened in
accordance with the standard NIH peer review procedures. As part of
the initial merit review, all applications will receive a written
critique and undergo a process in which only those applications
deemed to have the highest scientific merit, generally the top half
of applications under review, will be discussed, assigned a priority
score, and receive a second level review by the appropriate national
advisory council.

The following review criteria will be applied:

Candidate

o  Commitment to an independent research career;

o  Potential to develop (or evidence of the capacity to develop) as
an independent investigator;

o  Quality and breadth of prior scientific training and experience,
including, where appropriate, the record of previous research support
and publications.

Career Development Plan

o  Likelihood that the plan will contribute substantially to the
scientific development of the candidate and the achievement of
scientific independence;

o  Appropriateness of the research plan to the career goals of the
candidate;

o  Appropriateness of the plan to update conceptual and theoretical
knowledge;

o  Consistency of the career development plan with the candidate's
prior research and academic experience and the stated career goals;

o  Clarity of the goals and scope of the plan and the need for the
proposed research experience; and

o  Quality of the proposed training in the responsible conduct of
research.

Research Plan

All candidates for this award will have had previous research
experience and in some cases will have been Principal Investigators
in other scientific fields.  A sound research plan that is consistent
with the career development plan and the candidate's level of
research development must be provided.

o  Usefulness of the research plan as a vehicle for enhancing
existing research skills as described in the career development plan;

o  Scientific and technical merit of the research question, design
and methodology, judged in the context of the candidate's previous
training and experience;

o  Relevance of the proposed research to the candidate's career
objectives; and

o  Adequacy of plans to include both genders and minorities and their
subgroups as appropriate for the scientific goals of the research.
Plans for the recruitment and retention of subjects will also be
evaluated.

Mentor

o  Appropriateness of mentor's research qualifications in the area of
this application;

o  Quality and commitment of the mentor to supervising and guiding
the candidate throughout the award period;

o  Previous experience in fostering the development of researchers;
and

o  History of research productivity and support.

Institutional Environment and Commitment

o  Applicant institution's commitment to the scientific development
of the candidate and assurances that the institution intends the
candidate to be an integral part of its research program;

o  Adequacy of research facilities and training opportunities;

o  Quality of environment for scientific and professional
development; and

o  Applicant institution's willingness to develop an appropriate mix
of research, teaching and administrative responsibilities for the
candidate.

Budget

o  Justification of budget requests in relation to career development
goals and research aims and plans.

AWARD CRITERIA

Funding decisions will be made based on the recommendations of the
initial review group and advisory council, the need for research
personnel in specific program areas, and the availability of funds.

INQUIRIES

Written and telephone inquiries concerning this PA are encouraged,
especially during the planning phase of the application.

Direct inquiries regarding programmatic issues to one of the
following program staff:

Dr. Mary Lucas Leveck
National Institute of Nursing Research
Building 45, Room 3AN-12
Bethesda, MD  20892-6300
Telephone:  (301) 594-5963
Email:  mleveck@ep.ninr.nih.gov

Direct inquiries regarding fiscal matters to:

Sally A. Nichols
Grants Management Officer
National Institute of Nursing Research
Building 45, Room 3AN-32
Bethesda, MD 20892-6301
Telephone: (301) 594-6869
Email: SNichols@ep.ninr.nih.gov

AUTHORITY AND REGULATIONS

The Mentored Research Scientist Development Awards are made under the
authority of Title III, Section 301 of the Public Health Service
(PHS) Act as amended (Public Law 78-410, as amended, 42 USC 241). The
Code of Federal Regulations, Title 42 Part 52, and Title 45 part 74,
are applicable to this program.  This program is described in the
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance No. 93.361, Nursing Research.
This program is not subject to the intergovernmental review
requirements of Executive Order 12372 or Health Systems Agency
review.

The PHS strongly encourages all grant and contract recipients to
provide a smoke-free workplace and promote the non-use of all tobacco
products.  In addition, Public Law 103-227, the Pro-Children Act of
1994, prohibits smoking in certain facilities (or in some cases, any
portion of a facility) in which regular or routing education,
library, day care, health care or early childhood development
services are provided to children.  This is consistent with the PHS
mission to protect and advance the physical and mental health of the
American people.

.

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