Hopkins Should Submit More Pre-Applications for the NIH Director's Pioneer Awards Program

The NIH Director's Pioneer Awards support individual scientists of exceptional creativity, who propose highly innovative new research approaches that have the potential for producing an unusually high impact on broad, important problems in biomedical and behavioral research. To be considered pioneering, the proposed research must reflect ideas substantially different from those already being pursued in the investigator's laboratory or elsewhere. In the 5 years since the program has been introduced, no Hopkins applicants have been awarded this funding. We would like to see this trend change!

Successful applicants all have one thing in common-their proposals are unique and attention-grabbing. Some examples of recent winning proposals include:

• To develop active interfaces between nanoelectronic devices, cells, and tissue to create new tools for understanding the behavior of neural networks and the development of sophisticated, electrically based cell-tissue interfaces for prosthetics and other medical devices.
  
• To pursue a strategy for preventing malaria in humans by introducing genes that block transmission of the disease into populations of wild mosquitoes.
  
• To develop methods of using adult human stem cells to generate neurons from people with autism and to study the properties of those cells.
  

I am confident that we have many researchers here at Hopkins who are doing exciting and novel things. We need those researchers to apply for this award program.

Specifics
The award will provide up to $500,000 direct costs per year for five years. The only constraint on the research to be done with this award is that it must be relevant to the NIH mission. Awardees are expected to devote at least 51 percent of their research time/effort to activities supported by the Pioneer Award. Since the NIH Director's Pioneer Awards are expected to support distinctly new research, awards will not be made simply to enable investigators to expand research projects that are ongoing.

The deadline for pre-applications is December 17, 2008. Pre-applications must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov (http://www.grants.gov) using the SF424 Research and Related (R&R) forms and the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide. The pre-applications will be evaluated by a group of external reviewers. Those investigators whose projects are judged to be the most outstanding will be notified of the opportunity to submit full applications. For additional information, consult the FAQs at http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/pioneer/faq.aspx.

Chi V. Dang, MD, PhD
Vice Dean for Research

Hopkins Biomed Experts by Collexis

Dear Colleagues,

You can now find Hopkins experts and potential collaborators via Hopkins Biomed Experts by Collexis, which is accessible at the Welch Library Homepage: http://www.welch.jhu.edu/index.cfm or directly: http://www.welch.jhu.edu/
welch_tutorials/detail.cfm?second_id=65.

Advancing research is increasingly requiring rapid assembly of teams with similar or complementary skills. Johns Hopkins has a breadth of biomedical research that should be utilized to our advantage. The Johns Hopkins Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health have contracted with Collexis to create a database that allows users to identify faculty that have the expertise in the user's area of interest. Several sessions have been scheduled to introduce faculty to the multiple capabilities within Collexis.

We suggest that you go to the site soon for two reasons. First, check out your own profile and see if any publications have been incorrectly assigned to you or are missing. The database is updated on a quarterly basis, so very recent publications may not be included. If you see problems in your profile, go to the link "Help us make your profile perfect." Second, try some searches in areas you have some knowledge to see how Collexis performs. Feel free to give us feedback.

The application is free of charge to all faculty and will be based in the Welch Library under the leadership of Catherine Craven. We expect to add in additional faculty from other schools in the University and new capabilities to the database, so stay alert to updates.

Sincerely,

Janice E. Clements, PhD
Vice Dean for Faculty

Chi V. Dang, MD, PhD
Vice Dean for Research

Daniel E. Ford, MD
Vice Dean for Clinical Investigation

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