NEI ARRA implementation

1. NEI ARRA implementation As of March 30, 2009

2. Administrative Supplements The NEI is participating in two programs offering administrative supplements to existing NEI grants. Principal investigators may apply to either but not both of these programs. NOT-EY-09-002 - Administrative supplements for infrastructure support Provides equipment, supplies, reagents or other infrastructure to support individual laboratories Short-term consultants or technical support to build or install new infrastructure Not intended for salary support for postdoctoral fellows or other research collaborators Parent grant must be R01 and have two years remaining at time of application Receipt deadline and earliest decision date is July 1, 2009 Budget limit of $500,000 in direct costs Supplement activities and expenditures to be included in regular progress report Requests for large equipment that would normally be shared among laboratories should be directed to NCRR  Not part of ARRA program

3. NOT-OD-09-056 - Administrative supplements for Recovery Act Equipment (limited to $100,000) and other research expenses Up to two-years salary support for research collaborators and technical personnel Additional personnel must be new hires in the spirit of Economic Stimulus Act A biosketch including employment history of new personnel must be provided at the time of application Parent grants must be active and includes those in a no-cost extension No deadline for submission Research must be completed and funds expended in the current competitive segment, which cannot be extended Cannot be used to extend grant or recover previous budget cuts No limit specified for total award; see announcement for guidelines Additional reporting requirements consistent with the Economic Stimulus Act

4. How to Apply for Administrative Supplements The NEI strongly prefers electronic over paper applications for administrative supplements. The information requested in the published notices should be provided as a single PDF attachment in an email sent to the contact listed below. Hard copies of the application are not necessary. Michael A. Steinmetz, PhDProgram DirectorDivision of Extramural ResearchNational Eye InstituteSuite 1300 / MSC 93005635 Fishers LaneBethesda, MD 20892-9300For FedEx use: Rockville, MD 20852Voice: 301-451-2020Fax: 301-402-0528Email: Michael.Steinmetz@nih.gov

5. NEI Challenge Grants For NEI, the Challenge Topics are: (01) Behavior, Behavioral Change, and PreventionFor this RFA, there is no NEI-specific Challenge Topic in this Challenge Area. (02) Bioethics02-OD(OSP)-104* Ethical Issues in the Translation of Genetic Knowledge to Clinical Practice. Genetics and genomics have great promise for the development of personalized medicine, yet the ethical, legal and social implications of both the research and application of genetic and genomic knowledge and technology are far reaching. Studies are needed to better understand the factors that influence the translation of genetic information to improved human health and the associated ethical issues. Examples of studies include those to address ethical issues related to broad sharing and use of new genetic information and technologies for research to improve human health, human subjects protection in genetic and genomic research, the identifiability of genetic/genomic information and how our understanding of identifiability is evolving, return of research results and incidental findings to subjects, alternative models of informed consent for broad data sharing for research, and the impact of intellectual property (IP) issues on development of new technologies. OD(OSP) Contact: Abigail Rives, 301-594-1976, rivesa@od.nih.gov; NEI Contact: Dr. Grace Shen, 301-451-2020, sheng@mail.nih.gov (03) Biomarker Discovery and Validation 03-EY-101* Role of immunity in identifying relevant markers in ocular diseases. Oxidative stress/injury and host immune response are postulated to be involved in many degenerative eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, uveitis, glaucoma, and keratoconus. Other disorders such as Sjogren's syndrome remain difficult to diagnose and treat. Characterizing the molecular events and the host immune response during disease progression, and the understanding of how genes and their products interplay between systemic inflammation, vascular disease and photoreceptor cell death will allow us to identify biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of these blinding diseases. Contact: Dr. Grace Shen, 301-451-2020, sheng@mail.nih.gov (04) Clinical Research For this RFA, there is no NEI-specific Challenge Topic in this Challenge Area. (05) Comparative Effectiveness Research 05-EY-101* Treatment of Age Related Macular Degeneration and Diabetic Eye Diseases and Disorders. Age Related Macular Degeneration and Diabetic Eye Disease are leading causes of blindness among American adults. Commonly used treatment strategies include various combinations of drug and/or laser treatments but it is not clear how these agents or their combinations compare with each other for preventing visual loss, improving quality of life, and reducing health care costs. Projects that answer this challenge include studies that will compare agents to prevent the development and progression of age related macular degeneration or diabetic eye diseases and conditions. Contact: Dr. Don Everett, 301-451-2020, deverett@nei.nih.gov

6. NEI Challenge Grants 05-EY-102* Treatment of Pediatric Eye Diseases and Disorders. There are a variety of eye diseases and disorders that lead to visual impairments and blindness among children. Eye Care Professionals can treat these disorders with certain medications, surgery, or optical instruments or devices. However, it is unclear how the strategies compare with each other for improving and maintaining vision, quality of life, and reducing health care costs. Projects that answer this challenge could include the planning and conducting of trials or analyses of existing data. Contact: Dr. Don Everett, 301-451-2020, deverett@nei.nih.gov 05-EY-103* Eye and Vision Systematic Reviews. There are a variety of eye diseases and disorders that lead to visual impairments and blindness. Eye Care Professionals are treating these disorders with certain medications, surgery, or optical instruments or devices. However, in many instances it is unclear how the strategies compare with each other for improving and maintaining vision, quality of life, and reducing health care costs. Projects that answer this challenge would help health care providers and patients make well-informed decisions about healthcare. Contact: Dr. Don Everett, 301-451-2020, deverett@nei.nih.gov (06) Enabling Technologies For this RFA, there is no NEI-specific Challenge Topic in this Challenge Area.

7. NEI Challenge Grants (07) Enhancing Clinical Trials 07-EY-101* Cost Effectiveness/Quality of Life: Tools to assess the impact of interventions on quality-of-life and cost effectiveness of ophthalmic treatments. Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration with specialties such as health outcomes, economics, genetics, statistics, and clinical and bench science is needed to develop and improve instruments that measure the effect of ophthalmic treatments on the patient's quality-of-life and cost-effectiveness. Such teams could be used develop tools to evaluate and influence patient adherence with effective treatments in order to improve outcomes. Contact: Dr. Natalie Kurinij, 301-451-2020, (08) Genomics 08-EY-101* Genomics of complex eye diseases. Opportunities exist to make scientific inroads into complex, but common eye diseases such as cataract, diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration and primary open angle glaucoma. One approach would be to use comprehensive genomic profiling of ocular cell types in normal and disease states by using high throughput expression analysis methods (e.g., sequencing and exon arrays, methylation sequencing) Contact: Dr. Hemin Chin, 301-451-2020, chinh@mail.nih.gov (09) Health Disparities For this RFA, there is no NEI-specific Challenge Topic in this Challenge Area. (10) Information Technology for Processing Health Care Data for Research For this RFA, there is no NEI-specific Challenge Topic in this Challenge Area. (11) Regenerative Medicine For this RFA, there is no NEI-specific Challenge Topic in this Challenge Area.

8. NEI Challenge Grants (12) Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education For this RFA, there is no NEI-specific Challenge Topic in this Challenge Area. (13) Smart Biomaterials - Theranostics For this RFA, there is no NEI-specific Challenge Topic in this Challenge Area. (14) Stem Cells 14-EY-101* Development of stem cell treatment for degenerative diseases of the eye. The restorative properties of stem cells hold the promise in the treatment of degenerative eye diseases such as macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa and glaucoma, and diseases of the ocular surfaces. There is a need for the identification of biomarkers that can define stem cells and the end-stage cells, as well as reproducible protocols for the generation and purification of viable terminally differentiated cells. Contact: Dr. Grace Shen, 301-451-2020, sheng@mail.nih.gov (15) Translational Science 15-EY-101* Protein misfolding in degenerative diseases of the eye. A number of ocular genetic diseases occur due to misfolding/aggregation of proteins, for example the visual pigment protein, rhodopsin in retinitis pigmentosa, crystallins in age-related cataracts, and myocillin in glaucoma. Identifying therapeutic pharmacological agents/drugs, that prevent the misfolding/aggregation of proteins could provide new tools for treating these diseases. Contact: Dr. Neeraj Agarwal, 301-451-2020, agarwalnee@mail.nih.gov 15-EY-102 Determining the structure of membrane proteins involved in phototransduction and the visual cycle to develop therapeutic agents and to understand the mechanisms of action. The paucity of knowledge of the small conformation changes of proteins involved in phototransduction and retinoid cycle during their activation cycles and formation of transient complexes is a limiting factor in the development of new therapeutic agents. Pharmacologically, the most important membrane proteins are those involved in signal transduction including G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) of which rhodopsin is the prototypical type. As many as 40% of currently marketed drugs interact with GPCRs yet these target only about 50 GPCRs out of more than 800 encoded in the human genome and are not sufficiently selective for one particular receptor subtype resulting in possible adverse effects, drug interactions, and less than optimal dosing. Contact: Dr. Andrew Mariani, 301-451-2020, mariania@mail.nih.gov

9. Questions? For general information on NEI's implementation of NIH Challenge Grants, contact: Dr. Grace L. ShenGroup Leader, Corneal Diseases andOcular Immunology, Inflammation, & InfectionSuite 13005635 Fishers Lane, MSC 9300Bethesda, MD 20892-9300(Courier services use: Rockville, MD 20852)301-451-2020sheng@mail.nih.gov For Financial or Grants Management questions, contact:Mr. William W. DarbyChief, Grants Management BranchSuite 13005635 Fishers Lane, MSC 9300Bethesda, MD 20892-9300(Courier services use: Rockville, MD 20852)301-451-2020darbyw@mail.nih.gov

10. It’s all in flux… In addition to the Challenge Grants, the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) offers three programs to assist vision researchers in obtaining support for construction, renovation and repairs, and high-end instrumentation, http://grants.nih.gov/recovery/. Many details of the ARRA distribution continue to be unknown at this time, including the date at which funds will be made available to the individual NIH Institutes and Centers. NEI will receive $175 million to support vision research for FY2009 and FY2010. In addition to these NEI funds, the NIH will have other broad stimulus programs in addition to those described above. Vision researchers are encouraged to review all new possibilities as they are released. To assist our community in identifying appropriate funding opportunities, NEI staff has prepared an ARRA site that will be updated frequently. Staff will continue to use the ARVO alert system to highlight significant information.