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Introduction |
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PAR Number: PAR-03-070
Clarification Of Eligibility For: Par 03-070 - Individual Informatics Research
Fellowship (F37)
(NOT-LM-04-006)
National Library of Medicine
INDEX: LIBRARY MEDICINE http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-LM-04-006.html
Release Date: 02-12-03
Expiration Date: 03-01-06, unless reissued |
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Scope and Priorities |
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Purpose
Individual biomedical informatics fellowships provide support for the training of informatics scientists able to perform research into basic informatics problems or to application of informatics to any area of biomedicine, including clinical medicine, basic biomedical research, clinical and health services research, public health, professional education, and administration. Post-doctoral, pre-doctoral and, in certain specified fields, some post- baccalaureate candidates are eligible.
Training Objectives
Health informatics is concerned with the acquisition, representation, storage, retrieval, and utilization of information in a health-relevant domain. Fellowship training is intended to help meet the growing national need for research investigators and leaders trained in the myriad of specialized areas in biomedical computing and health informatics. Thus, this fellowship is suitable for training in informatics specializations ranging from clinical informatics to the informatics of molecular biology and other large research datasets. Applications that focus on building new skills or extending the applicant's existing expertise are particularly desirable.
Upon completion of training, fellows should be able to conduct basic or applied research at the intersection of biology and medicine with computer and cognitive sciences, and are expected to be familiar with the use and potential of modern information technology. Fellows in informatics will achieve this goal through an individually-tailored program of formal coursework and research experience, culminating in a project.
Although a canonical set of basic courses for informatics training has not yet evolved, there is general agreement that the field is interdisciplinary, and includes, among others, components of computer science, information science, cognitive science, and knowledge of one or more domains of biomedicine. The program of coursework should develop or augment the trainee's basic competency in each of these areas. This fellowship may lead to a degree, although it is not a requirement. Whether or not the training is to be used for credit or certification in an educational program is up to the applicant, the fellowship sponsor, and the organization involved. The curriculum for applied research training may be different from that needed for basic research training, but should provide sufficient theoretical foundation in the area of application.
The availability of opportunities to carry out supervised research and/or applications development in informatics is essential to achieve the primary objective of developing or extending knowledge and skills. The fellowship must provide hands-on experience obtained via a defined project related to one or more of the NLM program areas. Projects may be in basic informatics research areas or address an informatics application. An applied informatics project does not require the form or concepts of a research project, and need not be hypothesis-driven, but the proposal should provide sufficient detail to permit reviewers to judge importance of the problem, feasibility of the approach, and the post-training utility of the informatics techniques required. |
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Eligibility |
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Postdoctoral Trainees
By the date of appointment, postdoctoral trainees must have received a Ph.D., M.D. or comparable doctoral degree from an accredited domestic or foreign institution. Eligible doctoral degrees include, but are not limited to, the following: D.D.S., D.M.D., D.O., D.V.M., O.D., D.P.M., Sc.D., Eng.D., Dr. P.H., D.N.Sc., D. Pharm., D.S.W., and Psy.D. Documentation by an authorized official of the degree-granting institution certifying all degree requirements have been met prior to appointment is acceptable.
Professional degrees
The NLM recognizes that graduates of training programs in professions that do not customarily require a doctoral degree (e.g., library science and nursing) can make important contributions to Informatics. The NLM also encourages applications on behalf of individuals without doctoral degrees, but who have significant professional training and experience in closely related cognate fields. Nurses, health science librarians, researchers, educators, administrators, and other health professionals are eligible, as are computer scientists and engineers who wish to focus on the health domain. Successful applicants with no post-baccalaureate training typically have substantial professional experience in an area relevant to health or biomedical informatics.
Predoctoral Trainees
Predoctoral trainees must have received a baccalaureate degree by the beginning date of their appointment, and must be training at the post- baccalaureate level and enrolled in a program leading to a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences or in an equivalent research doctoral degree program. Predoctoral trainees with masters degrees are also eligible for this program so long as they are enrolled in a program leading to a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences or in an equivalent research doctoral degree program. Health-professional students who wish to interrupt their studies for a year or more to engage in full-time research training before completing their professional degrees are also eligible.
Clarification Of Eligibility For: Par 03-070 - Individual Informatics Research
Fellowship (F37)
(NOT-LM-04-006)
National Library of Medicine
INDEX: LIBRARY MEDICINE http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-LM-04-006.html
Applications on behalf of women and other groups underrepresented in biomedical informatics are strongly encouraged.
Citizenship
By the time of award, individuals must be citizens or non-citizen nationals of the United States, or must have been lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence (i.e., possess a currently valid Alien Registration Receipt Card I-551, or other legal verification of such status). Non-citizen nationals are generally persons born in outlying possessions of the United States (e.g., American Samoa and Swains Island). Individuals on temporary or student visas are not eligible.
Eligible Sponsoring Institutions
Before submitting a fellowship application, the applicant must identify a sponsoring institution and an individual who will serve as a sponsor (also called mentor or supervisor) and will supervise the training and research experience.
To apply for support, an institution must submit an application on behalf of the individual seeking the fellowship. Applications on behalf of prospective fellows may be submitted by domestic non-profit organizations, public or private, such as universities, colleges, hospitals, laboratories, units of State or local government, and eligible agencies of the Federal government. Applicants proposing training at their doctorate institution or at the institution where they have been training for more than a year must document the opportunities for new training experiences designed to broaden their scientific background.
Each fellow must have a mentor who provides guidance and oversight for the training program. The mentor should be expert in an area of informatics or information science that is pertinent to the proposed program, and should be an active investigator in the area of the proposed research who will directly supervise the candidate's research. The sponsor must document the availability of staff, research support, and facilities for high-quality research training. The mentor may be at the applicant's home institution or at another institution. If the latter, the plan for supervision and interaction must be described.
The Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications (LHCNBC)
Co- Mentorship Program is available to NLM Individual Informatics Fellows with project interests that coincide with research and development ongoing at the NLM. In this program plan option, the Fellow spends the academic year at the home (sponsoring) institution, and the three summer months of each fellowship year on site at the LHNBC in Bethesda doing a relevant research project under the supervision of an NLM staff scientist. See http://lhncbc.nlm.nih.gov/mitp/training.html
Applications from underrepresented minorities (African Americans, Alaskan Native, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders) and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply as applicants and as mentors. |
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Mechanism of Support |
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This program announcement for Individual Biomedical Informatics Fellowships uses the F37 funding mechanism. For NLM, these awards are authorized by the Medical Library Assistance Act and are not a part of the National Research Service Awards Program (NRSA) of the Public Health Service. However, the policies and requirements of the NLM program are similar in most respects to NRSA awards. Applicants with 10 or more years of professional experience are encouraged to investigate their eligibility to apply for the Senior Informatics fellowship (F38). |
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Review Criteria |
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Candidate: An assessment of the candidate's previous academic and research performance and the potential to become an important contributor to biomedical, behavioral, or clinical science.
Sponsor and Training Environment: An assessment of the quality of the training environment and the qualifications of the sponsor as a mentor for the proposed research training experience.
Research Proposal: The merit of the scientific proposal and its relationship to the candidate's career plans.
Training Potential: An assessment of the value of the proposed fellowship experience as it relates to the candidate's needs in preparation for a career as an independent researcher.
Additional Review Criteria
In addition to the above criteria, your application will also be reviewed with respect to the following:
Protections. The adequacy of the proposed protection for humans, animals, or the environment, to the extent they may be adversely affected by the project proposed in the application.
Inclusion. The adequacy of plans to include subjects from both genders, all racial and ethnic groups (and subgroups), and children as appropriate for the scientific goals of the research. Plans for the recruitment and retention of subjects will also be evaluated. (See Inclusion Criteria included in the section on Federal Citations, below)
Budget. The reasonableness of the proposed budget and the requested period of support in relation to the proposed research.
Training In The Responsible Conduct Of Research. Applications must include a description of a program to provide instruction in scientific integrity and the responsible conduct of research. (See the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts, Volume 21, Number 43, November 27, 1992 and http://ori.dhhs.gov/html/programs/rcr_requirements.asp)
OTHER REVIEW CRITERIA
All applications must include in the proposed research plan an outline and description of the project including specific hypotheses, objectives, and milestones as appropriate.
Applied fellowship applications will be judged as such and not as research training applications. Applications with an applied rather than research focus must include a specific section labeled Milestones following the Research Plan. Milestones should be well described, quantifiable, and scientifically justified. A discussion of the milestones relative to the progress of the project, as well as the implications of successful completion of the milestones for further investigation or implementation, should be included. The milestone section should be indicated in the Table of Contents. The clarity and completeness of the application with regard to specific goals and feasibility of milestones is critical. The presentation of milestones that are not sufficiently scientifically rigorous to be valid for assessing progress will reflect upon the scientific judgment of the applicant in this application.
Applications for the LHNCBC co-mentorship program must clearly describe the plan for shared mentorship as well as supervision of the proposed project(s), and must include a letter of commitment from the proposed NLM mentor and the Director of the LHNCBC. |
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Award Criteria |
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Applications will compete for available funds with all other approved applications assigned to NLM. The following factors will be considered when making funding decisions:
1. Conformity to the features of this program announcement
2. Eligibility of the applicant
3. BLIRC recommendation of the overall merit of the application
4. Relevance of the application to the NLM program priorities and balance
5. Availability of funds |
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Trainee Terms of Apointment |
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Funded training periods may be for one to three years, and customarily require a full-time commitment. That is, trainees are required to pursue their research training on a full-time basis, devoting at least 40 hours per week to the program. Within the 40 hours per week training period, research trainees in clinical areas must devote their time to the proposed research training and must confine clinical duties to those that are an integral part of the research training experience.
No individual trainee may receive more than 4 years of aggregate NLM support at the predoctoral level or 3 years of support at the postdoctoral level, including any combination of support from institutional training grants and individual fellowship awards.
Any extension of the total duration of trainee support at either the predoctoral or postdoctoral level requires approval by NIH. Requests for extension must be made in writing by the trainee, endorsed by the sponsor and the appropriate institutional official, and addressed to the NLM Program Officer. The request must include a sound justification for an extension of the limits on the period of support.
General information about NIH support of fellowships, including those awarded by the NLM, can be found at http://grants.nih.gov/training/extramural.htm . Please note that the "Service Payback" provisions do not apply: NLM's Individual Informatics Fellowships require no payback. Information about current NIH stipend levels and other support may be found in NATIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE AWARD (NRSA) STIPEND INCREASE AND OTHER BUDGETARY CHANGES EFFECTIVE FOR FISCAL YEAR 2002 at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-02-028.html . |
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Part-Time Training |
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Fellows are expected to make a full-time commitment to their training program. However, under unusual and pressing personal circumstances, a fellow may submit a written request to the NLM to change to less than full-time training. Such requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis. They must be approved by the NLM in advance for each budget period. The nature of the circumstances requiring the part-time training might include medical conditions, disability, or pressing personal or family situations such as child or elder care. Permission for part-time training will not be approved to accommodate other sources of funding, job opportunities, clinical practice, clinical training, or for other responsibilities associated with the fellow's position at the institution. In each case, the fellow must submit a written request countersigned by the sponsor and an appropriate institutional business official that includes documentation supporting the need for part-time training. The written request also must include an estimate of the expected duration of the period of part-time training, an assurance that the fellow intends to return to full-time training when that becomes possible, and an assurance that the trainee intends to complete the proposed research training program. In no case will it be permissible for the fellow to be engaged in NLM-supported research training for less than 50 percent effort. Individuals who must reduce their commitment to less than 50 percent effort must take a leave-of-absence from NLM fellowship support. The fellowship notice of award will be reissued and the stipend will be pro-rated during the period of any approved part-time training. |
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Other Special Requirements |
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Certification and Reporting Procedures. No application will be accepted without the applicant signing the certification block on the face page of the application. Individuals admitted to the United States as Permanent Residents must submit notarized evidence of legal admission prior to the award. When support ends, the fellow must submit a Termination Notice (PHS 416-7) to the NIH. Forms may be found on the NIH Website at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms.htm .
Activation No funds may be disbursed until the fellow has started training under the award and an Activation Notice (PHS 416-5) has been submitted to the NIH. An awardee has up to 6 months from the issue date on the award notice to activate the award. Under unusual circumstances, an NIH institute may grant an extension of the activation period upon receipt of a specific request from the fellow.
Terms And Conditions Of Support Fellowships must be administered in accordance with the current NRSA Policy Guidelines for Individual Awards and Institutional Grants (see the NIH Website at http://grants.nih.gov/training/nrsa.htm), the current NIH Grants Policy Statement (see the NIH Website at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/policy.htm), and any terms and conditions specified on the award notice.
Inventions and Publications. Fellowships made primarily for educational purposes are exempted from the PHS invention requirements. F37 awards will not contain any provision giving PHS rights to inventions made by the awardee.
Data Sharing. It is the policy of the DHHS that the results and accomplishments of all funded activities should be made available to the public. This policy also applies to individuals supported by individual NRSA postdoctoral fellowships. The sponsoring institution should place no restrictions on the publication of results in a timely manner.
Copyrights. Except as otherwise provided in the terms and conditions of the award, the recipient is free to arrange for copyright without approval when publications, data, or other copyrightable works are developed in the course of work under a PHS grant-supported project or activity. Any such copyrighted or copyrightable works shall be subject to a royalty-free, nonexclusive, and irrevocable license to the Government to reproduce, publish, or otherwise use them, and to authorize others to do so for Federal Government purposes. |
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Application Receipt Dates |
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The receipt dates and the three annual review cycles are as follows:
| Application Receipt Dates: |
Apr 5 |
Aug 5 |
Dec 5 |
| Initial Review Dates: |
Jun/Jul |
Oct/Nov |
Feb/Mar |
| Secondary Review Dates: |
Aug/Sep |
Dec/Jan |
Apr/May |
| Range of Likely Start Dates: |
Sep 1 - Dec 1 |
Jan 1 - Mar 1 |
May 1 - Jul 1 |
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Application & Process |
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Individuals must submit the application form PHS Individual National Research Service Award (PHS 416-1). APPLICATIONS MUST INCLUDE AT LEAST THREE SEALED LETTERS OF REFERENCE. APPLICATIONS WITHOUT AT LEAST THREE LETTERS OF REFERENCE MAY BE RETURNED OR DELAYED IN REVIEW. Application kits are available at most institutional offices of sponsored research offices, online at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/416/phs416.htm , and may be obtained from:
Extramural Outreach/Information Resources
National Institutes of Health
6701 Rockledge Drive, MSC 7910
Bethesda, MD 20892-7910
telephone 301/435-0714
FAX 301/480-0525
email: grantsinfo@nih.gov
Complete Item 3 on the face page of the application indicating that the application is in response to this announcement and print F37 NLM INDIVIDUAL INFORMATICS FELLOWSHIP.
If the applicant has been lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence, the appropriate item should be checked on the Face Page of the application. Applicants who have applied for and have not yet been granted admission as a permanent resident should check the Permanent Resident block on the Face Page of the PHS 416-1 application, and also write in the word "pending." A notarized statement documenting legal admission for permanent residence must be submitted prior to the issuance of an award.
Submit a signed, typewritten original of the application (including the Checklist, Personal Data form, AT LEAST THREE SEALED REFERENCE LETTERS, and all other required materials) and two (2) exact, clear, single-sided photocopies of the signed application, in one package to:
Center for Scientific Review
National Institutes of Health
6701 Rockledge Drive, Room 1040, MSC 7710
Bethesda, MD 20892-7710
Bethesda, MD 20817 (for express/courier service)
Incomplete Applications Will Not Be Reviewed.
Concurrent Applications
An individual may not have more than one individual NRSA fellowship or comparable application pending review or award at the NIH or other DHHS agencies at the same time. The CSR will not accept any application in response to this PA that is essentially the same as one currently pending initial review unless the applicant withdraws the pending application. The CSR will not accept any application that is essentially the same as one already reviewed. This does not preclude the submission of a substantial revision of an application already reviewed, but such application must include an Introduction addressing the previous critique. |
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Peer Review Process |
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Fellowship applications undergo a review process that takes between 5 and 8 months. Applications will be reviewed for scientific and technical merit by the NLM Biomedical Library and Informatics Review Committee (BLIRC) in accordance with standard NIH peer review procedures. In general, the merit review criteria customarily employed by the NIH for fellowship applications will be followed. Additional information may be found at http://grants.nih.gov/training/nrsa.htm . After the initial merit review, the NLM program official will forward to each applicant a written critique and summary of the review of the application prepared by the Scientific Review Administrator.
After scientific-technical review, staff within the NLM will provide a second-level review to evaluate relevance to the mission and scope of NLM. Following the second-level review, the NLM program official will notify each applicant of the final disposition of the application. Any questions on BLIRC recommendations and funding possibilities should be directed to the NLM program official, not the Scientific Review Administrator. |
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Contact Information |
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Inquiries from potential applicants concerning this PA are encouraged. Direct your questions about scientific/research issues to:
Dr. Charles P. Friedman
Extramural Programs
National Library of Medicine
Rockledge 1, Suite 301
6705 Rockledge Drive MSC 7968
Bethesda, MD 20892
Telephone: (301) 594-4882
FAX: (301) 402-2952
Email: friedmc1@mail.nih.gov |
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