NIH Extramural Center Programs Criteria for Initiation and Evaluation (2004) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
6 Closing Comments and Thoughts About the Future
6 Closing Comments and Thoughts About the Future
Pages 124-136
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From page 124... ...
and the relationship of this form of funding mechanism to other forms of funding for research grants, including investigator-initiated research, contracts, and other types of research support awards. Chapter 2 is primarily devoted to description and data on the current status of NIH center programs.
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From page 125... ...
· Research Resource Center awards, which fund centers to develop and provide research resources and tools to researchers across the country (examples include nonhuman primate centers, mutant mouse and other animal resource centers, islet cell resource centers, proteomics centers, and microbial genome sequencing centers)
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From page 126... ...
· By making expensive resources accessible, centers can enhance quality, facilitate productivity, and promote the cost-effectiveness of other externally supported investigator-initiated research projects. · Designation as an NIH-supported research center confers distinction on the area of research and thus helps attract additional competitive funding from private as well as public sources, facilitates fundraising, increases the interest and support of medical school leaders and colleagues, and supplies a valuable incentive in recruiting new faculty, staff, and trainees.
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From page 127... ...
The wide variety of centers is one barrier to sweeping generalizations, but in large measure the difficulty is a consequence of the fact noted above that centers typically draw funding from many sources and undertake many activities not specifically mandated by the NIH center award they hold. In the simplest case, centers supported by what NIH calls core grants use the funds to facilitate the work of independently funded scientists at their institution by providing space, shared services and equipment, and the like.
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From page 128... ...
This committee notes the recently expressed intent of NIH Director Elias Zerhouni to focus more attention on fostering multidisciplinary team approaches to increasingly complex research questions and on accelerating translation of basic science to clinical research and applications, both of them sets of activities in which centers are likely to be useful mechanisms. Ideally, this expanded use of centers would not come at the expense of investigator-initiated grants, which have stood the test of time as a mechanism for new and junior investigators with innovative ideas to reach professional maturity.
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From page 129... ...
research resource-related grants are used to encourage already-funded investigators to work together on a problem by providing resources not available where investigators are working separately. For clinical research, especially clinical trials, where direct interactions between basic researchers and clinical investigators for translational research purposes are not called for, but coordinated activities by multiple clinical centers are needed, NIH often uses cooperative agreements (e.g., U10, U01, and U19 awards)
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From page 130... ...
All institutes employ the center mechanism, typically after extensive consultative and review procedures, to promote research and activities that are not well-suited for support through the bellwether investigator-initiated awards that are the hallmark of publicly funded biomedical science in the United States. Some centers simply focus on making the work of independently funded investigators more efficient, but others, including the disease-oriented centers frequently suggested by Congress, also provide support for multidisciplinary research and other activities aimed at turning important scientific discoveries into clinically useful applications.
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From page 131... ...
, which concluded that center programs were the only NIH research mechanism predominantly dedicated to the full spectrum of clinical research. The panel's data are now more than six years old, but current NIH award data show that there has been a continuation of the same proportion of overall funding dedicated to clinical research.1 This present committee believes that centers continue to be leading performers of research that links basic science discoveries with applications in the clinical sciences.
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From page 132... ...
. The Association of American Medical Colleges, Association of American Universities, and National Association of State Universities and LandGrant Colleges, together representing the nation's medical schools, teaching hospitals, leading research universities, and public institutions of higher learning, recently offered answers to several questions posed by the NCRR that resonate with Lander's views (Cohen et al., 2003)
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From page 133... ...
This means supporting multidisciplinary clinical research training career paths, introducing innovations in trial design, stimulating translational research, building clinical resources like tissue banks, developing large clinical research networks, and reducing regulatory hurdles. It includes a standard clinical research informatics strategy that will permit the formation of nationwide communities of clinical researchers made up of academic researchers, qualified community physicians, and patient groups.
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From page 134... ...
· The importance of expanding the translational aspect of linking basic science funding with clinical research is one of the main justifications of the center mechanism, but it is not apparent that the critical mass of clinical investigators that will be needed to conduct the necessary research is available or now in training. Moreover, the current demands on clinical faculty for patient care and teaching and the academic requirements for promotion and tenure discourage young physician-investigators from entering a research track as a career.
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From page 135... ...
2003. "National Center for Research Resources 2004 Strategic Plan, 68 FR 4503-4." Letter from the presidents of the Association of Ameri can Medical Colleges, Association of American Universities, and National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges to the National Center for Research Re sources (NCRR)
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