Jon Lorsch: Ready? Are we live? Okay, Vernon. Vernon Anderson: Welcome
to this webinar this afternoon. We hope
to provide some answers to the questions
about the new MIRA funding opportunity
that is for established GM investigators.
We hope to take about half an hour to
run through the aspects of the program
and the application review and budget
issues and then we will open it up with
the chat function to answer questions
from those who are attending online and
so this afternoon we have Dr. Lorsch
the director, myself who is trying to answer
most of the policy questions that arise
from the application, Lisa Moeller from
grants management and Maqsood Wani from
the Center for Scientific Review and so
to introduce the MIRA program this is
Dr. Lorsch our institute director. Dr. Lorsch: Thank you Vernon.
Can I have the first slide Zack?
Alright we're just waiting... There we go.
so let me just briefly introduce the MIRA
program to you. Hopefully most of you are
familiar with the overall goals and idea
behind the program but I'll go over it again.
So, the idea behind MIRA, or
Maximizing Investigators' Research Award,
is to provide a single grant to provide
support for the research program of an
investigator. So we define the research
program as the collection of projects in
the lab that are relevant to the mission
of NIGMS and the single grant will
provide support for
that program of research. We hope to
achieve a number of improvements and
efficiencies in the system through this
grant mechanism which is now in a sort
of second phase of the pilot of the
program. The first efficiency and improvement
we hope to achieve is to increase the
stability of funding for investigators.
I think many people would agree that the
constant worry of losing your funding in
the next cycle or the next year really
creates conservatism in the system so
investigators become more conservative about
the way they approach their research and
study sections become more conservative in how they
score and review applications so we think that
if we can improve the stability of
funding we will increase investigators
willingness to take on more ambitious
projects and approach those projects
creatively and that will improve the outcomes
of the system. That's gonna happen in two
ways, one is that the grants are a year
longer than the average NIGMS R01s so
they're 5 years instead of 4, and the
other is that when it comes time for
renewal of these grants rather than have
the funding decisions be necessarily
binary, that is, you're either funded or you're not,
if an investigator gets a good score but
maybe not as good as the top of the pile
instead of just not being funded the way
you likely would be now we will have the
option to ramp the funding down to at least a steady state and
from there, you can downsize lab somewhat
but continue your research so that we think will be
a considerable improvement in the system.
By the same token, it is possible at
renewal to increase the funding level if
the research warrants it. The second
improvement we hope to see in the system is
to increase the flexibility for
investigators to follow new research
ideas and opportunities and observations
as they arise during the course of the
work. So instead of being locked into
specific aims that you predict in
advance of your research maybe 4
years in advance of actually doing the work
there won't be specific aims associated
with these grants and you
can move your research according to the
way science dictates depending on what
you see and what you do within the confines
of what's relevant to NIGMS' mission. We also
hope to improve the distribution of
funding among the many investigators that
NIGMS could and should support and we reason
that this will increase the overall
scientific productivity of the system
and therefore the chances that important
breakthroughs will occur. Right now, just to
give you a frame of reference, 5 percent of
NIGMS or NIH grantees have 25
percent of the NIH money, 10 percent have
over 40 percent and 20 percent
have 50 percent or more so that's a
very skewed distribution. We have a lot
of data to indicate that overall that
distribution is not optimal and that we
could actually get somewhat more
productivity out of the system with an
approved distribution. So one of the
goals of this program is to actually
increase the distribution of funding to
support more investigators or
investigators who have been supported at a low
level funding at a somewhat higher level of funding.
We also, through this program and because
it's a single grant to support
an investigator's research program, hope to
reduce the time that researchers will
spend having to write grant applications,
so if you can only get one grant once you have it
you don't have to write another one for
5 years and thereby allow those
investigators to spend more time
focusing on conducting their research
and mentoring their trainees and
postdoctoral fellows, etc. We think
that will also improve the productivity
and the efficiency of the system. And similarly,
because fewer applications will be
coming in to peer review, it should
reduce the time spent reviewing grant
applications, which we think will have
many benefits for the productivity of
the system and also our ability to
actually have the most efficient and
effective peer review process possible.
So Zack can I have the next slide please? Thank you.
So, we are now expanding this funding
mechanism to include more investigators than were
possible to include in the pilot phase. Vernon is
going to tell you about that in a second but
the way the review of these applications
and their construction goes is that the
application is focused on the investigator
and the overall program of research in
his or her lab. There aren't as many details at
all as they would be in an R01, instead
the reviewers are going to be looking at the
significance of your past and particularly
your recent contributions to science.
What have you done lately? Why is it
important? And also what have you done
for the overall scientific community--your
service, your major contributions to the
workforce. You will, of course, talk about
your ideas for the future and the study
sections will look at the
possible impact and importance of the
overall directions of your work, without
the details of each individual experiment.
Why are these questions important? Why
will answering them push the field forward? And why are
you the right person to answer them?
That's really how I would put it. One
final thing is that the efficiency and
efficacy of the use of funding in the
investigator's laboratory is another
thing that will be evaluated so we're
hoping, again, to get the most out of the
taxpayer money that's invested and therefore
asking study sections to consider how
efficiently funds have been used and how
likely they are to be efficiently used
in the future. So with that, I'll turn
it over to you Vernon.
Vernon Anderson: On the next slide we will look at
some of the differences that have come
about between this funding opportunity
and the two previous years. The major one
is the increased eligibility. So in
the two prior years the eligibility was
listed to well-funded GM investigators
either having two grants or a very
significant $400,000 in
direct costs per year grant.
In the next three years, the eligibility
is being expanded to GM investigators
who have a single grant or more than one
grant where one of those grants is up
for renewal in the next year and the
definition of an R01 equivalent. While R01s
predominate our merit award
winners who are coming off their 10th
year of their R37 and the new
innovator or DP2 and SC1 awardees who
have significant GM research programs
are also eligible for this version of
the established PI MIRA because the
number of applicants is expected to be
significantly greater, as part of the
reason at least, the review has been
transferred to the Center of Scientific
Review and Dr. Wani will give a little
bit about CSR's role later on. Also, the
previous version had a single date of
eligibility or receipt date
for each of the implementations and for
this funding opportunity there are five.
There's one on May 17th of this
year and in 2018 and 2019 there are two
dates for the first two Council rounds so
those are January 17 and May 17. So on
the next slide we'll go over the
details of the eligibility and so again
it's those MIRA grant mechanisms. [Background noise] These
grants have to be awarded by a U.S. institution
and you have to have a funded grant
last year so you can find this in the NIH
RePORTER by looking at 2016 and
it has to be up for renewal, by that, we
define that is having a project end date
currently in either 2017--fiscal year
2017 or 2018. On the NIGMS MIRA webpage
you can find a handout that guides you
through using the NIH RePORTER to
validate this necessarily, but not quite
sufficient, eligibility criteria. We'll go
over two other aspects in the future slides.
Jon Lorsch: Next slide Zack. Vernon Anderson: Next slide. So in an
application for this MIRA, it differs
from the R01 significantly and we want
to at least introduce you to some of
those differences. The abstract should
in fact provide an overview of the
research area and problems and your
approaches to it. As there are no
specific aims it is this abstract that
is available and used by the Center of
Scientific Review to decide on the
distribution to the different review
panels and also provides the
introduction to the research strategy
that the reviewers will read. So it's
very important not to make this an
afterthought in your presentation. The
biosketch is five pages and provides you
the opportunity to respond to the
investigator review
criteria we... the MIRA program hope that
you focus on recent
contributions to scientific knowledge--
the past 5-6 years as a guideline
on that. Clearly, very important seminal
contributions before that can be included but
it does come down to what have you done
for me recently. This biosketch
is an important part of the MIRA application.
Unlike the R01s and almost every
other NIH research project grant, there
are no specific aims to the MIRA
proposal and consequently the abstract
is an important place to provide this
broad overview and introduction to the
research strategy. Again, as in any
research project grant, it's wise to
identify the rationale for the area,
what are the important research problems
in the area, how you plan to approach
them during the coming 5 years and
what your vision of the field would be
at the end of those 5 years. So, one
of the additional requirements of the
MIRA program and for eligibility is that
you be able to provide 51 percent--that
is just over half of your research
effort. This has caused some
consternation in defining it in the
investigator community and it's not
51 percent of all of your time, it is
very specifically of your research
effort and so for those who have 9
month academic appointments their
research effort may in fact be as little
as 3 months and so over 50
percent of that is 1.55 or 1.6 person/months
in NIH nomenclature. We will go
on to where you indicate that and the
support pages that are associated with
the biosketch in a minute. For clinicians,
that have clinical responsibilities
that too is subtracted from your overall
effort so that each individual's
research effort will in fact be variable and
has to be defined. So another aspect
of the research strategy section and in
designing what you are going to include,
is to recognize that this MIRA
grant will replace all of your current
GM research funding, so if you have
contributions to your research program
from being a collaborator on another GM
grant and receive a consortium
contract from that, if you are part of a
multi-PI grant or of a multi-project
program or P01, that all of this GM
relevant research support is going to be
subsumed under your MIRA grant and when
the budget is assessed we have to
evaluate exactly which parts of your
program you are anticipating continuing
and so this is an important thing to
discuss with your program director if
it's applicable. So on the next slide
we'll look at some of the details of the
application. So it does use the SF 424 and
the much loved PHS 398 form, I guess
it's currently Form D. One of the
differences, again from the standard
R01s application, is the current and
pending support. We have a template for
that on our MIRA webpage that is worth
looking at that gives the details that
we are looking for. It includes the
annual direct costs to support your
laboratory and the person months of
effort associated with all of your
different sources of support. We
request detailed budgets and
justifications. The human subjects and
vertebrate animals sections are
required if they are appropriate and
your research strategy suggests that
there will be vertebrate animals and
human subjects. Because of the
flexibility of the MIRA program we have
come across, more frequently, that there
are delayed onset aspects to this and if
that's the case you probably would, again,
be wise to contact your program director
about how to implement that in the application.
The resource and data sharing plans
are required of every one independent of
the requested budget and because the
MIRA grant requires institutions to
relinquish your current GM funding in
the implementation, and again Lisa
Moeller will provide some discussion of
that, but we require a letter of support
from an institutional official
acknowledging that possibility. So on the
next slide, I think we go to the review
and Dr. Wani if you're on. Maqsood Wani: Yes, I'm on.
Vernon Anderson: This one's yours.
Maqsood Wani: Okay, so like Dr. Anderson mentioned, the review of these
applications will be done at the Center
for Scientific Review which is the locus
of review for these MIRA grant
applications--now onwards. The
submission date in May the review panels will
be set up and review of the applications will
happen in October. The way we will do this
reviews is by, depending on the number of
applications we'll receive, we'll form
the panel accordingly and this panel
will be special emphasis panels and for which
the reviewers will be the recruited with the
scientific expertise that is befitting
the application that we receive. They will be
broad reviewers who will be able to
review program and establish a specific project.
As you know these MIRA applications are
about the program of an
investigator running the NIGMS
specific research programs. So the special
emphasis panel will be consisting of the special
experts, the reviewers and, like I said, the number of
panels will depend on the number of
the applications we receive and we'll set up
these panels and the reviewers will be doing
proper training and proper orientation
to specifically do these kind of
applications and [BACKGROUND NOISE]
[BACKGROUND NOISE]
[BACKGROUND NOISE]
[BACKGROUND NOISE]
for these applications is also put in the words of the FOA itself
and for this we'll have the same review criteria
as we generally have for research grant applications
which is the significance in investigator
approach, innovation and environment but
these will not be scorable criteria, they
will not be independently scored. The overall impact of
the program will be just basically score.
So, how we'll percentile these applications
applications or whether we'll percentile them in the end will depend and so
it is very nicely explained in the FOA and Dr. Anderson and Dr. Lorsch also explained what kind of application you
should write you interested in writing
in a MIRA application. So as for the review, this is
what will follow and if you have any
questions related to the review, I'll be happy here to answer them--any specific questions.
Vernon Anderson: Thank you Maqsood. The next slide
will go in and talk about another area
of prime interest and that's the budget.
The key point is that the MIRA
budgets have been commensurate with the
history of GM funding, that this is a
renewal and a continuation proposal. In
the past two cycles of the MIRA, which
were limited to well-funded labs, the
typical proposal saw a budget reduction
of roughly 12 percent in the annual
direct costs. This was made up for in
some aspects because of the 5 years
of funding and when we were merging
grants. There's some efficiency in
support for a lab and overlap that gets
accounted for in that reduction. In this
MIRA there will still be some of the
applicants who fall into that category.
There will be others and perhaps a
greater number that are at the more
modest end of GM support. We have a large
number of R01 recipients with budgets of
less than $250,000 in direct
costs and we do not expect to see as
great a reduction and, in fact, some of
these with well-justified increases
in productivity and activities can
propose to receive a modest
increase. Jon Lorsch: I would say just that if you have
one grant at a modular level, that's your
NIGMS support, you shouldn't, in general,
get a reduction and we would hope to, if
well justified, to give you somewhat of
an increase. That would be our goal.
Vernon Anderson: So, because this is a program that is
supporting a principal investigator's
research program, we do not anticipate a
large number of collaborative agreements
but if you do have a long time
collaborator who has provided an
absolutely essential contribution to
your research effort, they can be
accommodated within the MIRA program.
They will need to be identified as key
personnel and included in the budget
explicitly and it is only these
collaborators who are going to receive
financial support from the MIRA funding
that should be requested with a letter
of collaboration and in that letter
of collaboration they should explain
both what expertise
they are contributing to the program
and an explanation that they can not
cover the research costs from their own
sources of support.
Female Voice: Can I ask a question on that? Vernon Anderson: To turn this over now to Lisa Moeller
from the grants administration
who has been involved in there
integrally in the implementation of the
previous two MIRA programs. Lisa Moeller: Thanks Vernon.
So as many of you know, NIH has not
provided inflationary increases in their
awards since 2012.
So, we don't expect you to include any
inflationary increases in the out years
of your MIRA budgets. So, an inflationary
increase includes anything like a cost
of living allowance or future
raises--anything that's going to
incrementally increase that out year request
even if, for instance, you provide a
3 percent escalation in salary but at
the same time you request a decrease in
another category like supplies so that
your total direct cost
are flatlined. In a situation like
that, we will still remove the escalation
from salary and because we can't give you
more than you request, we would have to
decrease the supplies. So you would end
up with an award for less than you
requested. So please remember in your
MIRA budgets, do not include any type
of inflationary increases and
that comes under all types of different
names like promotions or anything that
is going to increase in the out years.
Zack, can we go to the next slide? So now
I'd like to give you a brief overview
about what happens when you have ongoing
NIGMS grant support at the time that
your MIRA grant is awarded. We also
have specific situations that you can
look at posted to our FAQs on the
MIRA Internet website. So, if you are a PI
and you have a single PI, single project
grant like an R01, and it's coming to an
end within a year or less of the MIRA
start date, we are going to allow those
grants to continue through the end of
the current budget period. So the grants
management specialist will decrease the
initial period of the MIRA grant to
remove any budgetary overlap on the
project on a pro-rated basis
prior to awarding the MIRA. So, if your
MIRA start date is July 1 and the
current budget period for your R01
ends August 31, we'll calculate an
equivalent of 2 months funding of the
R01 and then reduce your MIRA by that
amount. That's because your R01 is
going to continue to be active and
you'll continue to expense against it
until it ends and the MIRAs reduced
because we have to take out that
budgetary overlap.
This allows for you also to invoke your
first no-cost extension as you would
normally on that R01 to extend it for up
to 12 months and that allows you to
utilize any unobligated balance.
That way we can have a smoother
transition to your MIRA grants and you
don't have to worry about accelerating
your expenses to use up an unobligated
balance before that R01 ends.
If your R01 has out years, we'll request
official relinquishing statements to
terminate your R01as early as the end
of the current budget period and then
we'll do what I just stated above. We'll
prorate what's left in the current
budget period of the R01 and then reduce
the MIRA by that amount because you'll
be still spending on your R01 until it
ends, and then once the second year of
the MIRA starts and there's no overlap
the funding level will not be reduced.
Now, if you have a NIGMS grants
that are multi-PI grants or a P01
or P50, where you are one of the PIs or
you are one of the project leaders on
a P01 or P50, we're going to let
those run until their project period
ends. So if the multi-PI grant or the P01
grant doesn't end until 3 years
after the MIRA start date, we will
allow you to continue spending on that
multi-PI grant or P01 grant and
then we will offset the MIRA by that
same amount, again, to remove the
budgetary overlap. That way, we aren't
having to tear apart these
relationships you have with other PI's
and disrupting these multi-PI grants and
program projects. Then once the multi-PI
grant or the P01 or P50 project
period ends, you'll just continue
collaborating on those projects if
they were expected to continue. But
you'll do it through your MIRA grant.
Then, the last scenario is if you
receive support on an NIGMS grant
under a different PI, it's a non-MIRA PI, as
a co-investigator or a paid collaborator,
we will build those funds into your
MIRA grant and you'll continue
collaborating with that PI but you'll
use the funds from your MIRA grant.
We will not revise the other grant to
reduce the amount that was available to
you on that grant, but that PI will
be informed that he can then re-budget
those funds to spend on other things
for the other specific aims on that
grant. This way you'll be provided with a
smoother transition to your MIRA grant.
So depending on what kind of other
support you currently have, that
transition may be very clean, especially
if all of your NIGMS funds end before the
beginning of the MIRA grant. Then, for
some of you the transition will take a
year and then for others who may have
out years of a multi-PI grant or P01
or P50, the transition may take
2 or 3 years before you're fully
on the MIRA grant. Again, we have a lot
of different scenarios
that are on the FAQs so please feel free
to take a look at those and once the
paylist is issued for the MIRA grants
and you've been contacted by your
program officer that a MIRA grant will
be offered to you, then the
grants management specialist will follow
up with you and they'll discuss what the
transition will look like for your
situation and they'll talk to you about
what grants have to be relinquished, what
grants will continue and how the MIRA
will be offset. Vernon Anderson: Thank you Lisa.
So, on the last slide, we have a listing
of resources to answer questions that we
were not able to go over in this brief presentation.
The Guide is at the top. It's wise to
read the RFA and my years out there
as a personal investigator, I
would say I never read one completely
through but that was a big mistake.
There is, especially in this MIRA, it's very
important to get the nuances of what is
expected in the different parts of the
application, what to include and how to do it.
We have a MIRA webpage and on it there
is a link to the Guide, there are many
questions and answers to frequently
asked questions that Lisa was referring
to, there is a handout demonstration of
how to validate or verify your
eligibility, there is also the template or
an example of what is expected in
another support page. This webinar, too, we
will archive and post a link to on that
webpage and any further additions that
it becomes apparent information that
we need to provide
to the community. You can reach me by
the email at the bottom of this slide
and I have been trying to answer
everything within a business day or two
and will try and do that through May 17,
the receipt date for this
application. So, we will now take
questions. You can access the questions
by the chat option which I think is
probably at the bottom left of your
window. You click on that, you type in
a question and it will show up on our
screen and we will answer as many of
them as we can in the next 25 minutes.
We'll hope and see what comes.
Jon Lorsch: Anything we don't get too will look at and add to
the FAQs if it's not covered there.
Let's see. Vernon Anderson: So the first
question is on capital equipment. It
has not been common but if it is clear
that some instrumentation is essential
to the research project that is proposed
it can be included in a MIRA budget.
Thank you. Jon Lorsch: Any guess on how many MIRA
grants will be funded in the first round?
That depends on a number of factors.
Application pressure, we don't know how
many people will choose to follow this
path. We are freeing up some funds. The
more people at high levels of funding
apply so that actually can generate
additional grants in the future.
It also depends on the budget, the
institute is appropriated by Congress, so
those are unknowns. But, remember these
are replacing existing grants that had a
certain probability of being renewed
anyways and in our modeling that's what we
use to think about how many
we will fund in the future so it's
going to be similar
we hope, if not maybe slightly better, than
renewal of an R01. Vernon Anderson: There are numerous
individuals who have submitted a renewal
of the R01 equivalent that leads to
eligibility to this MIRA funding
opportunity and that's fine that they
were submitted, they are going to be
reviewed in the February-March timeframe
and should have a summary statement
before May 17 and consequently
no longer be pending review. So, at the
same time it is possible then to submit
a MIRA application for renewal
effectively of that grant as well.
Obviously, if the renewal was not
scored well, then this MIRA
becomes a viable alternative.
If it is scored well then we, of
course, never can be certain about things
and it becomes an option for you to
consider that you had best discuss
with the program director as to how to
proceed but it is a possibility. If
however, you are planning on submitting a
renewal for the March 5
deadline of an R01, you have to choose
between submitting that R01 renewal and
the MIRA on May 17 because they
would both be pending review at the same
time and consequently overlapping and
that is another one of the
eligibility criteria for this MIRA
program--that you not have a GM
research project pending review at the
same time as submission.
Jon Lorsch: What's the difference in paylines for an
R01 versus a MIRA? So, important to note, NIGMS doesn't
have a payline. We don't use a specific
percentile score as a cut-off for funding.
Instead we use a variety of ways of
looking at applications and making
funding decisions. Score is one of them.
The reviews and summary statement
certainly are one of them but other factors
play as well. That will be true in the
MIRAs just as it is in the R01s.
What might the success rate
difference, that is the number of funded
applications versus the number of
applications received, be for R01s versus
MIRAs? We would anticipate it would be
similar to the renewal rate of R01 but we
could make it slightly better than that
because of freed up funds. That would be
something that we would shoot for, but
again, there are a lot of unknowns there.
Vernon Anderson: So, I would like to speak to the question
about applications being turned back
or withdrawn administratively. I think
that's referring to the early stage
investigator MIRA program where the
applicants did not have a record of
being a research in the GM area. We
haven't had that significant an issue of
withdrawing proposals based on being
outside of GM's research area when they
have come from established PIs as is
the case in this funding opportunity.
Jon Lorsch: Right. Remember you already have, if you
can apply for this, it means you already have
an NIGMS R01 equivalent and by
definition that should be in the mission
of the Institute. If your research is changing,
that's a place where you should
certainly talk to your program director
about whether or not that's still within
the mission of the Institute and as
Vernon said we really urge everybody
who's considering applying to talk to
your program director about what you're
planning to do in the proposal, etc.
We already talked about
equipment, capital equipment. I
think Lisa talk about subcontracts
before. In terms of collaborators what
about postdocs, techs and grad students?
Well, I mean they can be supported off
the grant just as they would be an R01.
Lisa, do you have any comments on that?
Lisa Moeller: No. Only in regards to when you're
talking about grad students. The idea
of escalation in the future years
applies to grad students as well.
Jon Lorsch: Don't escalate your costs that's the key.
Vernon Anderson: So the question about how does the
budget and role being assessed in
determining the scale of MIRA for a multi-PI
grant. This is one of the difficult
issues as to identifying within a multi-PI
grant what fraction of that has been
the MIRA applicants responsibility and
is largely in the hands of the program
director when evaluating the budget
request. I think within the budget justification
and within the other support page is
your opportunity to make the case as
to what your contribution to that multi-PI
or multi-project grant may have been.
Jon Lorsch: Will it be possible to get $600,000
direct costs? That depends on many things.
It's theoretically possible if you are
currently getting, you know, $200,000
you're not going to get
there except with some extraordinary
circumstances. If you currently get
$600,000 from GM in direct
costs--what you would expect if say you've
gotten that level for the last 5 years--what
you would expect is probably to get
12 percent less than that on average,
in an average case. Vernon Anderson: So, there's a question
about what happens if you have two
grants in significantly different areas
still both relevant to GM and the answer
to it is that it is possible. It makes
writing the proposal a bit more
challenging because to make the
intellectual connection between them
is sometimes not possible and you
have to treat them each separately but
that case is in fact acceptable to the MIRA
program and is supportable as allowing
an individual to continue both of the
areas. Jon Lorsch: I think Maqsood and his
colleagues at CSR will certainly talk to
the reviewers about this because it is
made clear that you may have two
different areas of research and that's
okay, but it is a little bit challenging
to make it coherent maybe in an application.
Maqsood did you have a comment on that?
Maqsood Wani: No. We do
train reviewers and orient them to the
scope of the program itself and we just
make it clear to them that they have to
just review the application within scope and it's
understandable somebody who having two
two distinct areas of science to bring them into a coherent program. I think we just instruct the reviewers accordingly [UNCLEAR] Jon Lorsch: Can I submit a grant
to another Institute if i get a
MIRA and the answer is yes but all of
our usual policies will apply in making
funding decisions for your MIRA grant
and setting your budget so we have the
$750,000 special Council
review. If you get over that amount of
money from all sources, Council has
to take a very close look at your
application before we can fund it.
We always look at your other support in
deciding the priority for the Institute of
funding your application and the level
of funding we think is reasonable to
give you, so yes, but it will potentially
affect funding decisions for us. Let's see.
I think we dealt with that already earning right Vernon, right?
Vernon Anderson: Which one? Jon Lorsch: The already have a
application pending. Vernon Anderson: Yes. Jon Lorsch: Any example of
successful research strategy sections?
Vernon Anderson: I think the best answer to that is to
search your colleagues--that we do
not and have not requested one from any
individual. They differ so based on
areas of research and methodologies
that it's difficult to come up with a
template to write the successful
research strategy. Jon Lorsch: So in addition to my
expiring R01 grant I'm the PI on another
R01 with a subcontract to a foreign
investigator and we've used this to hire a
postdoc. Can the subcontract continue?
Lisa, Vernon, technical question. Lisa Moeller: Well,
the subcontract to a foreign
investigator would have to be
reviewed by the NIGMS program
director and deemed as essential to the
MIRA research in order to continue.
Jon Lorsch: Under very special circumstances we
do allow that, I think, in the FOA but
it has to be essential.
So, for the May 17 deadline, when is
the soonest that I could know the score
of the chances of being funded and
receive funds? So Maqsood, when do you
think the scores will be available?
Maqsood Wani: The scores are released as per
our policy. Scores are
released within the 3 working days after the
review is done. Now, these applications are supposed to be reviewed in
the cycle of October-November round.
Meetings are going to be held somewhere
in month of October or November depending on the
panels and the recruitment of course
everything else. And after the meeting is
done within first 3 days--working days--after the
meeting is done scores are released and then
30 days after the meeting date, within
30 days the summary statements are released
based on the variety of scores, best to worst.
So, some of them can get some sense of funding
within first 4 days of the meeting. For the
scores, you will know as soon as
possible--sometimes within a day but sometimes
within 3 days--maximum 3 working days after
the meeting is done you will know the
scores. But about the funding I would not know until Dr. Lorsch shows us. Jon Lorsch: That goes then
to our Council in October Vernon Anderson: And January
Jon Lorsch: Or January Council, right, and funding
decisions will be made within a few
months of that. It always depends on budgets
and things of that nature. Vernon Anderson: I think
the FOA says April 1, 2018, is the
earliest start date to request. Jon Lorsch: Let's see.
We answered the one about if you have another
grant from another institute. If MIRA is not
scored well or not funded can I reapply and when?
that's a good question. Vernon Anderson: So, this has a it
depends answer to it. For some
individuals this year, this is the only
eligible year. So if your project end
date is in 2017 then May 17 of
this year is the only eligible time and
so if it did not score well, the next alternative
would be to submit a renewal for the
R01 and the most probable earliest date
for that would be, again, the February-
March submission deadlines in 2018. Jon Lorsch: Let's see.
Comment on the renewal of MIRA.
These are renewable grants. That's
certainly our intention. As I said, one
key feature that we're building into the
system is that at renewal, we hope to be
able to make more, what you might call, analog
funding decisions instead of just binary
ones. So, if your application does well but
maybe not quite the top of the pile,
rather than just cutting your grant off
we will have the option of just ramping
you down to a somewhat decreased level
and funding you at that level for the
ensuing 5 years. Other than that, we
anticipate these being fully renewable
grants just like an R01. Vernon Anderson: You want to comment
on bridge funding? Jon Lorsch: Bridge funding. So, we do have the
option to provide bridge funding just as
we can for R01s it depends on many
factors. For instance, how well your
application scored. So, you know if it was
very poorly received you're less likely
receive bridge funding than if it was
moderately or somewhat
well received. We will have that option.
It certainly is not guaranteed, however.
Then, there's a question about dates.
Vernon Anderson: So, actually the MIRAs submitted in May are
going to be reviewed at the same time as
R01s that would be submitted in the
June-July timeframe. That is the second
Council round because of the
overlapping concern that you would not
be able to submit an R01 GM proposal
in the June-July timeframe.
Jon Lorsch: Let's see. Compared to R01 renewal
does previous productivity count more
than the new research proposal?
Yes, certainly at a detail level, yes.
I think there's more emphasis on what
you've done, as Vernon said, lately in terms of
your science. That's a key of the review
process of the application. Although
there is still an aspect of what you're
planning to do in the future and that's
also reviewed. It's just not at the same
level of detail as an R01. It's more big
picture than a R01. So, I just said the lower
scores might not lead to outright rejection,
but could be funded at a lower level.
Is there a lower bound that we can say? Well we
really can't say exactly where that
might happen. It will be on a
case-by-case basis with a number of factors
into consideration. I do want to emphasize that
these would of course be grants that were
deemed meritorious by the study section.
Still, just, you know, you all know in the
current system of an R01 you could get
quite a good score. The study section could
have liked your application but because of
the way budgets work out and the chips fall
you just don't get funded. Here, what we
like to expand is our ability to take an
application like that, which is
meritorious and promising and you know,
we might not be able to fund it at the
full amount but give it a more moderate
level of funding to continue the work,
which we think will add stability to the system.
Vernon Anderson: So, that is for renewals and that is not
a part of this application. The
details of the renewals will come out in
the funding opportunity in a couple of
years so those details are still under
discussion. Jon Lorsch: Correct. Will the MIRA set review
panel be reviewing only MIRAs? How
specific or not will the scientific focus of
the given panel be? That's for Maqsood. Can you
answer that Maqsood? Maqsood Wani: Yes, and the current plan
is that the special emphasis panels for these
applications, you'll have only the MIRA
applications R35 only
investigators and there will not be
any other mechanisms. In the same meetings there will be only
R35s and the reviewers will be specifically trained and oriented
for the scope of this effort so that when they review those
applications they keep the scope of the
program in mind. So, they will be reviewed differently
then the R01 applications are because of the nature of applications and the
scope of the program, and the scope of the FOA. Jon Lorsch: Would it be correct to say...
Maqsood Wani: Pardon. Jon Lorsch: Maqsood, will be correct
to say that there will certainly be
scientific expertise relevant to the
investigators work but it may not be in
the same quantity and level of detail as
an R01 panel--a little bit maybe higher
level? Maqsood Wani: Absolutely.
The reviewers participation... the recruitment of reviewers
is going to be very... the type of reviewers
is going to be those who are very broad
and can evaluate the program in the scope
of the FOA project with defined specific
aims because the scope of the FOAs
is that type of program that has a long,
sustained impact in the field and will contribute
for a longer time as a research
program instead of the special project with defined aims.
So, these reviewers will be picked who
can just basically have the ability to
identify those kind of programs in a pile of applications
and they'll specifically oriented and trained for those kind of reasons. Jon Lorsch: Thank you.
So, my current MIRA eligible R01 grant
had its original budget cut by a large
fraction, about a third, from non-modular/
modular in the out years. Can this
original budget and its justification be
of any utility in a MIRA application?
I think we will really be looking at
your current and recent funding levels and what
productivity you've had with those.
That's really our frame of reference in
approaching the budgets, and again, when
you put your budget together as I think
Vernon said, you should use
that as a guide, too, unless there are some
really very strongly compelling
circumstances that would lead you to ask
for an increase, especially when you're
at the sort of higher levels of funding
already. Annual increases in a direct
cost category are not allowed.
What if my salary budget can support
55 percent of my research effort in the 4th year
but only 45 percent of research
effort in the 5th year. Lisa. Lisa Moeller: Well, I
imagine your question is regarding the
buying power by the time you get to your
5th year because we are escalating.
Providing escalation you can only now
cover 45 percent of your
research effort from your grant. There
are several options. Of course, one is
always to--that would be part of an
institutional commitment--to cover a
portion of your salary that you can't
provide on the grant or you can
rebudget grant funds. But, we have to
remember that the purpose of the grant
isn't to cover all of your costs
100 percent. It's always been part of the
expectation that a grant would only cover part of your costs.
Jon Lorsch: Can you submit a MIRA application and
then an R01 in the next review cycle (i.e., before
funding decision has been made on the
MIRA)? Vernon Anderson: So, as exactly worded the answer is no
but you can submit the R01 in the
February-March aspect and that may
still be before the funding decision
has been made. The technical aspect of
this is that the two grants
cannot be pending review at the same
time. A grant is pending review from
the time that it's submitted to the
Center for Scientific Review until the time you receive the summary statement. Jon Lorsch: I guess the same person may be
rephrasing. Can you put a MIRA for May
in an R01 for October-November? No. The answer no.
Okay, we're almost out of time here. Is there
anything else at the end? We have a current
MIRA application that's not been funded
yet. Should we reapply in May? Vernon Anderson: Ask your
program director. Jon Lorsch: Definitely. That's one for your
program director. There's a question
about how you interpret the scores.
For the moment, we won't be percentiling.
It's possible in the future that once
there is a significant body of review
history that that might happen but for
the moment, you know, you look at the
score there is a guide that CSR has
about what the scores are supposed to mean
and then you certainly want to talk to
your program director about, you know, the
general feeling based on the review and
the score. Last minute ones Vernon.
Vernon Anderson: So you say does it matter
if your productivity is not funded by
your R01? Unlike R01 reviews, the MIRA
review does not get a copy of the
previous summary statement and so
exactly what aspect or what research
specific aims you had in that R01 are
not pertinent to the MIRA review. So, as
long as that contribution
and productivity is and it's in the GM
area of relevance of research and it
seems to serve as the background and not
preliminary data but at least the
foundation of the proposal in the MIRA, I
think it would work out reasonably well.
Jon Lorsch: I think maybe I'm reading it slightly
differently. So, maybe the person's R01,
they didn't accomplish much and that's
what they're trying to convert to a
MIRA but they had a NIAID grant where
they accomplished a lot.
Certainly we're looking at your GM work.
We look at your other grants and how
much total funding you have relative to
your productivity so I'm not sure it's
going to do you a lot of good if you did a
great job on a grant for another
institute but not such a great job on
your R01 but I guess context matters
to some extent. But again, we and the
reviewers will have detailed information
about your other support and so they and
we will know exactly what other grants
you had and how much funding and what it was for.
So, I think maybe with that we're going to
wind down. Vernon Anderson: We hope this has been a
useful hour. We will go through the other
questions that we didn't get to and if
it seems that there are those that are
important to include in the FAQs, we
will add them to that. You can also send
individualized questions to me or to your
program director. Jon Lorsch: Again, please read the
FOA, read the FAQs and talk to your program director.
Those are all critically important.
Thank you very much everybody.
We look forward to seeing your applications.
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