Stimulus Package Includes Opportunities for
Psychological Research, Education, Services and Training
President Obama's $787.2 billion economic stimulus package includes substantial investments in psychology-related programs. Thanks to the outreach of the American Psychological Association, the APA Practice Organization and, most important, our members, psychology has gained tremendous opportunities to show how our work can fuel the economy and improve the nation's health and well-being.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – the stimulus package signed Feb. 17, 2009 -- contains $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness research – a critically important tool for advancing an evidence-based approach to health care decision-making.
National Institute of Health Challenge Grants
Of the $10.4 billion in stimulus funds allocated to NIH, at least $200 million has been designated for the new NIH Challenge Grants in Health and Science Research that will support research on areas that address specific scientific and health research challenges in biomedical and behavioral research that would benefit from significant two-year jump-start funds. The research in these challenge areas should have a high impact in biomedical or behavioral science and/or public health.
NIH has identified 15 Challenge Areas, including behavior, behavioral change and prevention; bioethics; clinical research; comparative effectiveness research; enabling technologies; genomics; health disparities; science, technology, engineering and mathematics education (STEM); and translational science. Each NIH institute or center has selected specific topics within these areas for which it will consider challenge grant applications.
Most of the NIH Institutes have selected specific topics of research they would like to support through the NIH Challenge Grants. The following links will take you to the individual institute challenge grant topics:
NIH Challenge Grants
Individual Institute Challenge Topics
National Institute on Drug Abuse
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
National Cancer Institute
Students and Science Educators to Get Boost from NIH Stimulus Initiative
NIH announced that $21 million of the stimulus funding for administrative supplements to existing NIH grants over two years has been allocated for educational opportunities in NIH-funded laboratories for students and science educators. Investigators and institutions that already have research grants funded by NIH will be able to apply for administrative supplements from stimulus funds to support summer students and science educators. NIH will extend funding to those projects best able to provide meaningful research experiences for students and educators. For more information about applying, see http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-09-060.html.
NIH Will Use $60 Million in Recovery Act Funds to Support Strategic Autism Research
NIH will commit roughly $60 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support autism research and meet objectives set forth earlier this year by a federal advisory committee. The request for applications is the largest funding opportunity for research on autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to date and, combined with other stimulus initiatives, represents a surge in NIH’s commitment to finding the causes and treatments for autism. Four grant announcements, sharing a single title, “Research to Address the Heterogeneity in Autism Spectrum Disorders,” will use different funding mechanisms to support a range of research topics over the next two years. Examples of research topics include developing and testing diagnostic screening tools for different populations; assessing risk from prenatal or early life exposures; initiating clinical trials to test early interventions; or adapting existing, effective pediatric treatments for older children, teens, and adults with ASD. For a full listing of possible study topics, see the grant announcement listing in the NIH Guide: http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/index.html.
Answers to Questions About Challenge Grants
Are you thinking of applying for one of the two-year NIH challenge grants? APA scientists have raised many questions about what costs and benefits there may be to winning support for two years as opposed to the usual four years with a Research Project Grant (R01). Challenge grant applications are due April 27, 2009, so decisions must be made quickly.
We asked two harried but helpful NIH research managers—Richard Suzman, PhD, associate director of the National Institute on Aging for Behavioral and Social Research, and Jovier Evans, PhD, who heads the National Institute on Mental Health’s Geriatric Translational Neuroscience Research and Pharmacologic Intervention Program—to address a few frequently asked questions about the NIH challenge grants and supplements funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus legislation).
Read their answers here.
In addition to the new Challenge grants, NIH will allocate an additional $7.4 billion across the individual institutes and centers to support additional research topics. The institutes and centers will support many types of funding, but in general, they will focus scientific activities on:
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Recently peer-reviewed and new, highly meritorious R01 and similar mechanisms capable of making significant advances with a two-year grant;
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Projects that accelerate the tempo of ongoing science through targeted supplements to current grants; and
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New types of activities that fit into the structure of the Recovery Act, including a reasonable number of awards to jump-start the new NIH Challenge Grant program, designed to focus on health and science problems where progress can be expected in two years.
NIH has created its own recovery Web page with more information on how it will spend stimulus funds. The site is updated with regular announcements. Individual IC’s also have their own Institute Specific Recovery Plans.
OTHER USEFUL LINKS
http://nhsc.bhpr.hrsa.gov/applications/lrp/
APA will keep you apprised of the short-term funding opportunities that become available over the next 18 months to support psychological services, research and training. Visit this page periodically for updates.
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