NIH Extramural Center Programs Criteria for Initiation and Evaluation (2004) / Chapter Skim
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4 Criteria for Establishing Center Programs
4 Criteria for Establishing Center Programs
Pages 92-105
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From page 92... ...
Clearly there are criteria for adopting center programs -- new center programs are not established without considerable effort and on occasion they are revised and even terminated in response to changing circumstances -- but the decision criteria are implicit and somewhat variable from institute to institute. There are no official NIH-wide criteria for establishing center programs.
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From page 93... ...
IMPLIED CRITERIA FOR CENTER PROGRAM ESTABLISHMENT Review criteria for evaluating applications for center awards are published in the PAs and RFAs, but they address the specific purpose of each particular set of centers and, in any case, the criteria for selecting award winners are not the same as those for deciding whether the program of awards is appropriate in the first place. For example, a common criterion for establishing a center program at NIH has been the need for multidisciplinary research on a problem by scientists in different fields who 1See, for example, Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (P50)
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From page 94... ...
adopted the IMPAC definition for the P50 specialized center in the list of extramural mechanisms on its website, but in practice it uses the grant selectively to support centers focusing on translational research. NCI uses the P50 code for its Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE)
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From page 95... ...
RFAs and PAs for centers typically devote a paragraph or two to the importance of the research the center program is expected to facilitate, usually referring to a priority-setting exercise, such as a strategic plan, institute or NIH initiatives, or advisory group report on research priorities. A program of centers is often intended to be part of a set of activities that complement if not reinforce each other, including individual and program project grants, clinical trial networks, career development and training grants, and access to research resources supported by NIH.
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From page 96... ...
Some PAs and RFAs stated that centers would make faster progress in multidisciplinary research than individual investigators working separately would. The RFA for Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Centers, for example, states that "Muscular dystrophy research requires multidisciplinary approaches, based on expertise in muscle biology, genetics, imaging, muscle plasticity, exercise science and physical therapy, nutrition, molecular biology, neuroscience, rehabilitation medicine, epidemiology, clinical trials, bioengineering, electrophysiology, psychology, and behavioral sciences."6 Similar statements in other RFAs are quoted in Appendix E
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From page 97... ...
The close interaction between basic researchers and clinicians will accelerate the translation of basic advances to the clinic and the utilization of patient materials for basic research."8 · complementing existing and stimulating new investigator-initiated applications for research project grants Core grants, which fund research resources and services, called "cores," and center administration, but do not fund investigators or research projects, are meant to support researchers funded by other means. Even when the center grant funds research projects, such as a P50 award, the RFA often indicates that the centers are supposed to complement and interact with RPGs and other mechanisms of support.
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From page 98... ...
· training of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, physician-scientists, nurses, and other health professionals in cross-disciplinary or translational research In some cases, a center is expected to promote training in the area of research the center addresses, although few center awards fund training activities or support trainees. For example, Regional Centers of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research "must include a consistent and significant commitment to career development with the goal of increasing the availability of researchers for biodefense.
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From page 99... ...
It also reflects the establishment of center programs addressing relatively rare diseases, where multiple sites are needed to recruit enough patients for translational and clinical research. In the case of Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Centers, for example, "All study sites will use similar methods to collect data on markers of physiologic changes during the pubertal process, and assessment of environmental stressors of importance to future breast cancer risk, including lifestyle behaviors, nutrition and anthropometric markers, and chemical, physical, and social exposures at home and school.
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From page 100... ...
Sometimes, a center program is a deliberate strategy to build up a field or area of research. The National Institute of Nursing Research, for example, "has historically supported the development of research infrastructure in schools of nursing by funding Centers," according to its RFA for nursing research developmental center grants.14 NICHD started the population research centers program 30 years ago to support researchers when population research was a developing field.
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From page 101... ...
These include encouraging interdisciplinary research and research training, fostering translational research, providing research resources cost-effectively to individual investigators, developing research infrastructure in fields or institutions that have not been research intensive, providing a regional resource for health care providers or first responders, and supporting a network of centers able to recruit adequate numbers of patients for clinical trials or other research protocols. Finding.
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From page 102... ...
area? Research Center Programs Should Meet the Following Additional Criteria.
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From page 103... ...
larger-scale, more critical methods and coordinated research problems. program to make or accelerate progress.
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From page 104... ...
If the open process and appropriate criteria have been followed, that is, if all arguments for establishing centers have been heard and the criteria for centers have been applied as part of the NIH program planning and budgeting process, but the responsible officials at NIH -- ultimately the NIH and institute director or directors -- decide that a center initiative is not an appropriate response to the biomedical problem in question, Congress may be assured that a decision that new centers are not needed is well justified.
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From page 105... ...
2001. Guidelines for Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs)
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