NIH Extramural Center Programs: Criteria for Initiation and Evaluation (2004)

Extramural research activities are divided into three main mechanisms: grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements. A mechanism is the type of funding application or transaction used at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In general, with grants, investigators are responsible for developing the concepts, methods, and approach for a research project. With contracts, the awarding unit of the Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for establishing the detailed requirements. With cooperative agreements, both the awarding unit and the recipient have substantial responsibility. Programs are areas within the funding mechanisms, for example, research, training, fellowships, and cooperative agreements. And activity codes identify categories applied to various funding mechanisms.

The codebook for Information for Management, Planning, Analysis, and Coordination, NIH’s information system for its extramural programs, provides short definitions of each activity code that constitute NIH-wide definitions.¹ The definitions for the activity codes for center awards and several other common award types are provided below, with the number of awards funded in fiscal year 2002 in brackets.

To support shared resources and facilities for categorical research by a number of investigators from different disciplines who provide a multidisciplinary approach to a joint research effort or from the same discipline who focus on a common research problem. The core grant is integrated with the center’s component projects or program projects, though funded independently from them. This support, by providing more accessible resources, is expected to assure a greater productivity than from the separate projects and program projects.

To support any part of the full range of research and development (R&D) from very basic to clinical; may involve ancillary supportive activities such as protracted patient care necessary to the primary research or R&D effort. The spectrum of activities comprises a multidisciplinary attack on a specific disease entity or biomedical problem area. These grants differ from program project grants in that they are usually developed in response to an announcement of the programmatic needs of an Institute or Division and subsequently receive continuous attention from its staff. Centers may also serve as regional or national resources for special research purposes.

To support a multipurpose unit designed to bring into a common focus divergent but related facilities within a given community. It may be based in a university or may involve other locally available resources such as hospitals, computer facilities, regional centers, and primate colonies. It may include specialized centers, program projects, and projects as integral components. Regardless of the facilities available to a program, it usually includes the following objectives: to foster biomedical R&D at both the fundamental and clinical levels; to initiate and expand community education, screening, and counseling programs; and to educate medical and allied health professionals concerning the problems of diagnosis and treatment of a specific disease.

[The definition is the same as for the P50 specialized center except the following clause is added to the last sentence: “…with funding component staff helping to identify appropriate priority needs.”]

To support planning for new programs, expansion or modification of existing resources, and feasibility studies to explore various approaches to the development of interdisciplinary programs that offer potential solutions to problems of special significance to the mission of the NIH. These exploratory studies may lead to specialized or comprehensive centers.

An award made to an institution solely for the support of a General Clinical Research Center where scientists conduct studies on a wide range of human diseases using the full spectrum of the biomedical sciences. Costs underwritten by these grant include those for renovation, for operational expenses such as staff salaries, equipment, and supplies, and for hospitalization. A General Clinical Research Center is a discrete unit of research beds separated from the general care wards.

To develop and support animal (mammalian and nonmammalian) models, or animal or biological materials resources available to all qualified investigators without regard to the scientific disciplines or disease orientations of their research activities or specifically directed to a categorical program. Nonmammalian resources include nonmammalian vertebrates, invertebrates, cell systems, and nonbiological systems.

To support biotechnology resources available to all qualified investigators without regard to the scientific disciplines or disease orientations of their research activities or specifically directed to a categorical program area.

To support centers which include a multidisciplinary and multicategorical core research program using primate animals and to maintain a large and varied primate colony which is available to affiliated, collaborative, and visiting investigators for basic and applied biomedical research and training.

To assist predominantly minority institutions that offer the doctorate in the health professions and/or health-related sciences in strengthening and augmenting their human and physical resources for the conduct of biomedical research.

To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his specific interest and competencies.

For the support of a broadly based, multidisciplinary, often long-term research program which has a specific major objective or a basic theme. A program project generally involves the organized efforts of relatively large groups, members of which are conducting research projects designed to elucidate the various aspects or components of this objective. Each research project is usually under the leadership of an established investigator. The grant can provide support for certain basic resources used by these groups in the program, including clinical components, the sharing of which facilitates the total research effort. A program project is directed toward a range of problems having a central research focus, in contrast to the usually narrower thrust of the traditional research project. Each project supported through this mechanism should contribute or be directly related to the common theme of the total research effort. These scientifically meritorious projects should demonstrate an essential element of unity and interdependence, i.e., a system of research activities and projects directed toward a well-defined research program goal.

To support research projects that will enhance the capability of resources to serve biomedical research.