NIH Announces Updated Criteria for Evaluating Research Grant Applications

October 12, 2004
On October 12, the NIH announced updated review criteria for evaluating NIH research grant applications. The criteria established in 1997 have been updated to better accommodate clinical, translational, and interdisciplinary studies. The updated criteria will be effective for all investigator initiated research grant applications submitted for receipt dates on or after January 10, 2005 [including those responding to a Program Announcement (PA)]. Those applications will be reviewed starting in the summer of 2005. Applications responding to a Request for Applications (RFA) will continue to follow the criteria published in the specific RFA. Beginning with the publication of this notice, all future PAs will incorporate the updated criteria and RFAs will consider the updated criteria as a framework for criteria tailored to the specific program. The NIH Review criteria can be accessed in the NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-05-002.

Compliance With the NIH Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules

September 14, 2004
In the September 14, 2004 NIH Guide notice NOT-OD-04-067, the NIH reminds the research community of the need to comply with the NIH Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant DNA Molecules (NIH Guidelines), which stipulate biosafety and containment measures for research involving recombinant DNA, as well as special requirements for human gene transfer studies. The NIH Guidelines can be accessed at: http://www4.od.nih.gov/oba/rac/guidelines/guidelines.html.

The Notice also highlights the important roles and responsibilities of the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) in the local review of recombinant DNA research. The provisions outlining IBC roles and responsibilities, including requirements to register with and provide annual reports to the NIH Office of Biotechnology Activities (OBA), can be found at: http://www4.od.nih.gov/oba/IBC/IBCindexpg.htm.

NIH Announces New Report of Icelandic Research Resources

August 6, 2004
The National Institutes of Health, a component of the Department of Health and Human Services, has released a report describing several unique scientific research resources from Iceland. The opportunities these resources present include international availability of Iceland’s population-based data and tissue resources. These resources are currently used to advance many areas of biomedical research, including epidemiology and the discovery of genes that contribute to disease. Access to these resources, however, must comply with the Icelandic laws and regulations discussed in the report, and any applicable U.S. laws and regulations for research. The report also provides an update on the implementation of the Icelandic Health Sector Database (a tool for biomedical research), which is an effort to centralize and computerize medical information on nearly 300,000 Icelanders whose identities will be triple-coded to protect privacy.

The report was developed with the Icelandic Ministry of Health and Social Security to help researchers to understand the kinds of research resources available through collaboration with Icelandic scientists and the applicability of U.S. and Icelandic laws to protect research volunteers. The report can be found at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/icelandic_research.pdf.

For information about OER projects and progress, please visit The OER Connection

Note: If you need help accessing any files above that are labeled as PDF, RTF, MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint or RealPlayer, see Instructions For Downloading Documents and Electronic Forms.