How the Grant Process Works

The NHLBI occasionally solicits grant applications on specific subjects (for examples, see the Research Initiatives listed in the next article). However, the vast majority of grants awarded by the NHLBI support research projects in areas selected by members of the scientific community. For these research programs, the Institute does not dictate specific program areas, but instead relies on the wealth of creativity within the biomedical research community to generate novel ideas and develop new ways of attacking health problems.

The application for funding requires the investigator to provide detailed information including a summary of the proposed research, pertinent background information, methods that will be used to accomplish the research, and anticipated outcomes and benefits that will be derived. Applications are reviewed by a "jury" of peers - other scientists with expertise in the field of proposed research. The jury evaluates scientific merits, and applications deemed most promising receive funding.

Successful research relies heavily upon receiving high-quality applications from top-notch scientists. For more information on the grant application process, please visit http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/funding/policies/index.htm.

New NHLBI Research Initiatives

From time to time, the NHLBI invites investigators to submit grant applications or contract proposals for specific research programs. We are currently soliciting applications for the programs described below. For a full details of these and other research initiatives, visit http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/funding/inits/index.htm or the Web page that are linked each initiative number.

• Initiative Number: RFA-AI-00-011
• Applications Due: 6/27/00
• Objective: To support clinical research applications to test and improve pathogenesis or therapeutic concepts. The need for this solicitation is based upon the outcomes of a workshop on clinical issues unique to the HIV-infected hemophiliac population.

• Initiative Number: RFA-GM-00-003
• Applications Due: 8/9/00
• Objective: To expand the scope of the Pharmacogenetics Research Network by adding more groups interested in studying how genetic variation contributes to inter-individual differences in drug responses. This initiative will further the goal of the Pharmacogenetics Knowledge Base by facilitating the linkage of genes and their sequence variants to their encoded proteins, their functional changes, and consequent drug response phenotypes (and sometimes disease phenotypes).

• Initiative Number: PA-00-046
• Applications are accepted for February 1, June 1, and October 1 deadlines each year.
• Objective: To support applied research areas related to the sleep-related problems found in healthy and chronically ill individuals who have acute and chronic partial sleep deprivation.

• Initiative Number: PA-00-043
• Applications are accepted for February 1, June 1, and October 1 deadlines each year.
• Objective: To promote research in primary pulmonary hypertension with an emphasis on elucidating a mechanistic understanding of the disease.

• Initiative Number: RFA-HL-00-001
• Applications Due: 8/30/00
• Objective: To foster multidisciplinary basic and clinical research enabling basic science findings to be more rapidly applied to clinical problems. It is expected that results from these grants will have applications for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of fibrotic lung disease, pulmonary diseases in infants and children, and asthma.

The Search Tools You NEED to Find the Information You WANT

MEDLINE is a database containing millions of abstracts taken from articles published in prominent peer-reviewed biomedical journals. Because of this, information taken from MEDLINE can be considered as state-of-the-art in current scientific knowledge. Use the PubMed search tool to sift through MEDLINE and find information by entering key words related to your topic of interest, as well as other search parameters such as author's name, institution, journal title, etc. Help with PubMed can be found at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.

CRISP is a searchable database of federally funded biomedical research projects. CRISP displays abstracts submitted by investigators as part of their applications for research grant funding. Because this information is part of the research proposal, speculative hypotheses and data contained therein should be considered preliminary only. Like MEDLINE, CRISP may be searched by specific projects and/or investigators. Help with CRISP can be accessed via the "?" icon on the CRISP Web page.

The newly developed Clinical Trials Database is your pathway to information about clinical research studies. It includes noteworthy details about the clinical trials, such as the purpose of the studies, summaries of treatment protocols, patient eligibility requirements, and contact information. The "Users' Guide" contains a help file and is easily accessible through the Clinical Trials Database.