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Sponsor:Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS); National
Institutes of
Health (NIH); National Eye Institute (NEI)
Deadline:2/01, 6/01, 10/01 annually
Eligibility:
Applications may be submitted by domestic and foreign, for-profit and nonprofit
organizations, public and private, such as universities, colleges, hospitals, laboratories,
units of state and local governments, and eligible agencies of the federal government. The
citizenship of the PI is unrestricted.
Objectives:
The purpose of the National Eye Institute (NEI) Small Research Grants for Data Analysis
(R03) program is to provide limited support for meritorious research projects that involve
secondary data analyses using existing database resources. The NEI supports an extensive
portfolio of clinical trials and large-scale epidemiologic research projects wherein
numerous data collection activities are required to meet each project's specific aims. The
resultant wealth of data generated by these studies often provides unique, cost-effective
opportunities to investigate additional research questions or develop new analytical
approaches secondary to a project's originally intended purpose. The Small Research Grants
for Data Analysis (R03) program is designed to provide investigators with the support
necessary to conduct such secondary data analyses utilizing existing database resources.
Applications may be related to, but must be distinct from, the specific aims of the original
data collection. This mechanism may be used to develop new statistical methodologies or to
test new hypotheses using existing data. Hypothesis-generating research will be considered
only if carefully described and justified. Secondary analyses of data derived from
NEI-supported studies are of highest programmatic interest, although the grants can be used
to support analyses of data derived from other sources.
Sponsor:Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS); National
Institutes of
Health (NIH); National Eye Institute (NEI)
Deadline:2/01, 6/01, 10/01 annually
Eligibility:
The NEI will consider applications submitted by U.S. institutions, including scientific or
professional societies, eligible to receive grants from Public Health Service agencies. In
the case of an international conference, the U.S. representative organization of an
established international scientific or professional society is the eligible applicant. The
NEI will not accept applications from foreign institutions.
Objectives:
The mission of the National Eye Institute (NEI) is to conduct and support research, research
training, health information dissemination, and other programs with respect to blinding eye
diseases, visual disorders, the mechanisms of visual function, the preservation of sight,
and the special health problems and needs of individuals who are partially-sighted or blind.
Specific areas of interest for NEI include retinal diseases; corneal diseases; lenses and
cataracts; glaucoma; strabismus; amblyopia; and visual processing; as well as low vision
and its rehabilitation. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recognizes the value of
supporting scientific meetings, conferences, and workshops that are relevant to its
scientific mission and to public health. Support of these meetings is contingent on the
interests and priorities of the individual institutes and centers (I/C) as well as the
investment that each I/C determines is appropriate. Each I/C has the flexibility to support
conferences according to its specific needs. The NEI supports investigator-initiated
scientific meetings using the conference cooperative agreement mechanism (U13), in most
instances, rather than the traditional conference grant mechanism.
Sponsor:Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS); National
Institutes of
Health (NIH); National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Deadline:2/01, 6/01, 10/01 annually
Eligibility:
Applications may be submitted by domestic and foreign, for-profit and nonprofit
organizations, public and private, such as universities, colleges, hospitals, laboratories,
units of state and local governments, and eligible agencies of the federal government. The
citizenship of the PI is unrestricted.
Objectives:
Nicotine is one of thousands of chemicals in tobacco products, but it is considered the
primary compound that affects brain function. Reports from the U.S. Surgeon General, the
American Psychiatric Association, and the World Health Organization, among others, have
supported four major conclusions:
1. Cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are addictive.
2. Half of the people who continue to use cigarettes will die from diseases related to
smoking.
3. Nicotine is the drug in tobacco that causes addiction.
4. Physiological and behavioral processes that determine tobacco addiction are similar
to those that determine addiction to heroin and cocaine.
A critical goal of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is to increase our knowledge of the behavioral and neural mechanisms involved in addictive processes. The purpose of this program announcement (PA) is to expand the basic science knowledge base on the neurobiological and behavioral effects of nicotine and associated tobacco chemicals, as part of continuing efforts to explain and prevent their use and to develop effective treatments for nicotine addiction. This PA encourages research on any aspect of the effects of nicotine and other tobacco components, using neurobiological, behavioral, or other methods in humans, animals, or in vitro systems, that seeks to explain nicotine use, addiction, or other effects in humans. This PA solicits research in two general categories: neurobiology, and behavioral sciences. Neurobiological, cognitive, behavioral, and social processes, methods, and models are all relevant to this announcement. For both neurobiological and behavioral studies, approaches are encouraged that consider differences in gender, race, ethnicity, and age or developmental stage.
Examples of neurobiological research related to tobacco use or nicotine dependence are
studies designed to:
- investigate the role of the cholinergic system in abstinence symptoms;
- determine if smoking or nicotine use is associated with or reduces the neurobiological
markers associated with stress;
- determine the neurobiological mechanism underlying nicotine's stimulant effects, or
investigate whether there is a relationship between the stimulant and putative
stress-reducing effects of nicotine;
- examine the relative roles of the autonomic nervous system versus the central nervous
system in tobacco dependence or in cigarette craving;
- determine whether the environmental cues that contribute to the desire for a cigarette
are mediated by the same central circuits that are activated by other drugs of abuse;
- investigate mechanisms, such as allelic differences in nicotine receptors or brain
metabolic enzymes, that could account for individual differences in vulnerability or
resistance to developing dependence to nicotine; and
- develop better ligands to monitor nicotine receptors in the central nervous system for
imaging studies in humans and animals.
Additional research topics on the cognitive and behavioral aspects of smoking and
nicotine dependence are studies that seek to:
- develop new animal models that correlate well with the human pattern of tobacco use,
and use such models to investigate the acquisition of nicotine self-administration, its
escalation, and relapse following abstinence;
- determine the role of stimuli paired with smoking (including sensory stimuli from the
act of smoking) in the rewarding effects of cigarettes, the control of smoking behavior, and
in the relapse to tobacco use;
- examine whether non-nicotine constituents in tobacco or tobacco smoke contribute to
addiction;
- develop and examine new pharmacotherapies or environmental manipulations that may
prove useful in reducing or preventing smoking behavior or other modes of nicotine
self-administration;
- determine the factors that produce vulnerability to initiate smoking and tobacco use
or to become addicted to nicotine, and also the factors that protect an individual against
tobacco use or addiction, particularly as a function of age or developmental stage;
- determine the role of exposure to other stimulants (e.g., methylphenidate, caffeine)
in the propensity to use nicotine;
- determine nicotine's effect on responses to other abused drugs, including the
propensity to self-administer;
- determine the role of mental or other neurological disorders, such as depression,
anxiety, schizophrenia, Parkinson's, or Alzheimer's disease, in the acquisition of nicotine
addiction, maintenance, withdrawal, and relapse to tobacco use;
- determine the effects of prenatal exposure to nicotine, alone and in combination with
other abused drugs; including, for example, assessment of later vulnerability to nicotine
and other drug abuse, stress, or psychiatric disorders;
- examine the effects of nicotine exposure in infancy or childhood through second-hand
smoke; and
- conduct basic sciences studies aimed at understanding why women exhibit poorer
responses to nicotine replacement therapies and have higher relapse rates than men.
Inquiries regarding programmatic issues on cognitive or behavioral studies should be
directed to Jaylan Turkkan, Ph.D., Division of Neuroscience and Behavioral Research.
Sponsor:Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS); National
Institutes of
Health (NIH); National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Deadline:2/01, 6/01, 10/01 annually
Eligibility:
Applications may be submitted by foreign and domestic, for-profit and nonprofit
organizations, public and private, such as universities, colleges, hospitals, laboratories,
units of state and local governments, and eligible agencies of the federal government. The
citizenship of the PI is unrestricted.
Abstract:
The research programs of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) are devoted to
increasing the understanding of the causes and consequences of drug abuse in order to reduce
or eliminate drug use, abuse, and sequelae. Research focuses on the fundamental biological
mechanisms of the actions of abused drugs; behavioral or pharmacological treatment and
health services delivery strategies; community-based epidemiologic studies; epidemiology and
prevention of HIV among drug abusers; and biochemical strategies for identifying successful
drug abuse treatment agents. Priority areas include the neuroscience and behavioral science
of addiction; medications development; behavioral and psychosocial treatment; HIV infection
and AIDS prevention; health services research; women, children, and drug abuse; and minority
populations.
The NIDA encourages investigator-initiated research project grant applications to study mechanisms underlying analgesic response and pain to advance the development of novel pain interventions, treatments, and management strategies. The purpose of this New Directions in Pain Research: I program announcement (PA) is to inform the scientific community of broad, shared interests in pain research encompassing the various components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and to stimulate and foster a wide range of basic, translational, and patient-oriented clinical studies on pain. Applications are particularly encouraged to study pain throughout the lifespan from the perspectives of molecular genetics, transcriptional controls, signal transduction, including cellular/molecular mechanisms, innovative imaging technologies, plasticity, and from hormonal or gender influences. The pain experience needs to be examined at all levels of analysis from the gene, molecule, cell, tissue, and organ, to the individual, family, and community, with the ultimate goal of developing new insights into pain intervention, treatment, and management.
The following examples are provided as topics falling within the scope of this PA. These
examples are presented illustratively, are not exclusive, and are not presented in any
particular priority order:
investigation of the genetic contribution of differences in pain response, perception, and
modulation, using tools such as quantitative trait locus analysis for identifying genes that
contribute to complex traits and diseases, such as pain; development of new model systems of
the molecular genetics of pain transmission, modulation, and perception, that would include
individual and multiple gene mapping, transgenic animal models, and studies of individual
and multiple gene expression; exploration of the neuromolecular basis of pain, by
investigating targets in signal transduction pathways, e.g., calcium, potassium, or sodium
ion channels, that may be the most effective points for drug development and intervention;
exploration of the role of second messenger systems, including G protein-coupled receptors
and protein kinases, in pain transmission and modulation; expansion of research on
neuroimaging of pain, including analytical techniques for the study of structural and
functional correlates of pain perception, particularly for diagnostic purposes; research on
neuroplastic processes as these relate to the development and persistence of chronic pain
conditions; and mechanisms underlying differences in pain and analgesic response due to
hormonal or gender-related factors.
Sponsor:Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation
(ABMRF)
Deadline:February 15, September 01 annually
Eligibility:
Eligible applicants are researchers at academic and scientific institutions in the United
States and Canada. The investigator should have completed formal training, and not yet have
achieved independent research status. Applications may be submitted by public or private
nonprofit organizations such as universities, colleges, hospitals, research institutes and
organizations, governmental research agencies, and laboratories. The proposed principal
investigator of the research project must be a faculty or staff member of the applicant
institution. This person must be qualified to direct the research and is responsible for its
conduct. Persons on training status, such as undergraduate, graduate and medical students,
postdoctoral fellows, interns, and residents, are not eligible to serve as principal
investigators, unless they will be in independent faculty positions, or the equivalent, at
the start of the grant period.
Objectives:
The Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation supports innovative research on the use,
and prevention of misuse, of alcoholic beverages. Funding is provided for interdisciplinary
research in the biological, medical, epidemiological, behavioral, and social sciences in
this field. The mission of the foundation is to support innovative research on the use of
alcohol by awarding grants to acquire new knowledge in order to prevent alcohol-related
problems for the benefit of society. New Scientist Awards provide support for the career
development of highly promising new scientists just entering the field of alcohol research.
Each grant provides funds to support an original research project conducted by the awardee
during the transition between completion of training and achievement of independent research
status.
Sponsor:National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Deadline(s):2/01, 6/01, 10/01 annually
Objectives:
The sponsor (NHLBI), in conjunction with the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
provides support for research on the cumulative and contemporaneous relationships between
socioeconomic status (SES) and physical and mental health and functioning over the life
course and across generations. Given that the relationships between SES and physical and
mental health, morbidity, disability, and mortality have been long and extensively
documented, additional studies aimed at merely describing or demonstrating these
relationships are outside the scope of this program announcement. Encouraged are studies
relating to appropriate conceptualization and measurement of SES over the life course,
across generations, and in various population groups; specification of the processes through
which SES influences cumulatively and contemporaneously physical and mental health,
disability, morbidity, and mortality outcomes over the life course, and how these outcomes,
in turn, impact on SES (attention should also be given to whether and how various indicators
of socioeconomic disparities may have differential impacts on health and functioning
outcomes at different ages and time periods (short-term vs. long-term)); and the
relationship between SES and physical and mental health, disability, morbidity, and
mortality over the life course in various population groups. The following areas illustrate
suitable topics for research. Throughout this program announcement, the terms "health" and
"functioning" encompass both physical and mental aspects of well-being and morbidity.
Applications need not be limited to these topics nor must they encompass all of these
issues.
CONCEPTUALIZING AND MEASURING SES--research is needed to develop and assess the construct and predictive validity of age-appropriate measures, especially for children, adolescents, and older people, in relevant population groups. Particular attention should be directed to the appropriateness of different measures by gender, race/ethnicity, nativity and immigrant status, household structure, relation to the labor force (e.g., in retirement), and rural-urban residence. In addition to measures based upon the characteristics of individuals or households, measures are needed of larger social structural units. Other research questions ask what the relevant aspects or components of education that should be measured beyond merely the number of years of schooling are; what the relevant dimensions of occupation as a component of socioeconomic position (e.g., supervisory position, type of industry, part vs. full-time employment) for health and mortality risk over the life course are; and the conceptualization and measurement of economic well-being over the life course.
SPECIFYING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SES AND PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH--consideration of various aspects and measurements of health such as all-cause mortality, cause-specific mortality and morbidity, perceived health status, life expectancy, active life expectancy, and functional/disability status. Research is needed to specify over the life course the nature, extent, and variability of such potential mediators as: life-styles (health-related behaviors and practices, including high-risk sexual behaviors); personality, self-concept, sense of control, social cognition, coping resources, cognitive abilities, problem-solving skills and styles; access to and use of health-care and social services, including such diverse factors as community characteristics and availability of health insurance; social networks and supports for receiving assistance or for managing health care needs, encouraging health promoting behaviors, and mobilizing needed resources (social networks include those created by marriage, other family ties, as well as nonfamilial relations); interactions with significant gatekeepers such as health-care providers and family members; exposure to psychosocial, physical, chemical, and other environmental stressors, taking into account their magnitude, duration, and periodicity.; the occurrence, timing and sequencing of life events or demographic processes such as childbearing, marriage, divorce, widowhood, education, geographical mobility, employment, and retirement; the nature of relationships between SES and disabilities associated with physical and/or mental conditions; intergenerational effects, beginning with pregnancy planning, the prenatal environment, parental investments in their own health and human capital as well as in those of their offspring, and including intergenerational transfers (e.g., inheritance); biological mediators; status in multiple stratification systems. In addition to specifying mediating variables and their relationships to each other and with SES and physical and mental health, consideration should be given to such additional issues as: whether the nature of processes linking SES and health vary over the life course; whether the various components operate through different mediating variables; how possible feedback between health and SES should be incorporated; and how changes in social policies, such as welfare reform, Medicare, and Social Security Insurance modify the relationships among SES, health, and mediating variables.
SES AND PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH IN DIFFERENT POPULATION GROUPS--research is needed to understand how the bi-directional relationship between SES and physical and mental health as well as the pathways and mediating variables may differ by race/ethnicity, gender, nativity, and rural urban residence. Of particular concern is the potential interaction between SES and race/ethnicity-based discrimination and prejudice as they are related to health and functioning.
METHODOLOGICAL AND DATA CONSIDERATIONS--longitudinal data are needed that include measures of both health and SES processes and outcomes. Such data sets, along with statistical techniques for creating synthetic cohorts, could be used to examine the critical chronological and developmental points in the life course when the relationship between SES and health might be particularly salient. A combination of data sets and/or the use of geocode data to address contextual or multilevel issues may be appropriate. Similarly, researchers may want to use survey data sets matched to death and/or birth records. Micro-level rather than aggregate analyses will be most appropriate for this initiative. To address some questions, new data collection may be required. Multidisciplinary work is especially encouraged. Advancing the understanding of these issues is most likely to come from collaborations among disciplines such as epidemiology, economics, demography, sociology, psychology, neuroimmunology, endocrinology, and anthropology. Biological approaches might enrich demographic and behavioral research in several ways. Potential benefits may follow from including genetic information for use in both behavior genetic and molecular models. Cross-national data or data from other countries are appropriate if there is demonstrated relevance to understanding of SES and health in U.S. populations.
Restrictions:
Eligible applicants are foreign and domestic for-profit and non-profit organizations, public
and private, such as universities, colleges, hospitals, laboratories, units of state and
local governments, and eligible agencies of the federal government. The mechanism of support
will be the individual research project grant. Applications are to be submitted on the grant
application form PHS 398 (rev. 4/98). Application kits are available at most institutional
offices of sponsored research and may be obtained from the Division of Extramural Outreach
and Information Resources, National Institutes of Health, 6701 Rockledge Drive, MSC 7910,
Bethesda, MD 20892-7910.
Sponsor:National Institute on Aging
Deadline(s):2/01, 6/01, 10/01 annually
Objectives:
The sponsor (NIA), with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the
National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development (NICHD), the National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR), the National
Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National
Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI),
the Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research (OBSSR), and the Office of Alternative
Medicine (OAM) invite qualified researchers to submit research grant applications on
methodology and measurement in the behavioral and social sciences. Methodology and
measurement issues in the behavioral and social sciences include the processes that underlie
self reports, research design, data collection techniques, measurement, data analysis
techniques, and ethical issues in the above topics. The goal of this program announcement
is to encourage research that will improve the quality and scientific power of data
collected in the behavioral and social sciences, relevant to the missions of the NIH
Institutes and Centers. Research that addresses methodology and measurement issues in
diverse populations, issues in studying sensitive behaviors, and issues in developing
multidisciplinary and multimethod approaches to behavioral and social science research is
particularly encouraged.
This program announcement invites research to improve the quality and scientific power of behavioral and social science data relevant to the missions of the sponsoring institutes. These missions encompass a broad range of scientific questions related to the health and well-being of the nation's people. The NIA supports behavioral and social research on the aging processes and on the diseases and other special problems and needs of older people. The NIAAA supports basic and applied research on the effects of alcohol on biobehavioral processes; research on the processes leading to pathological drinking; and research to develop improved diagnosis, prevention and treatment. The NCI supports social and behavioral research related to the distribution, etiology, natural history, and prevention of human cancer. The NICHD supports behavioral and social research related to reproduction and population change, perinatal and infant health, nutrition, child development and behavior, mental retardation and developmental disabilities, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), and medical rehabilitation. The NIDR supports behavioral and social research related to oral health promotion and the prevention, etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of oral diseases or systematic diseases influence by oral health. The NIDA supports research related to the epidemiology, etiology, assessment, treatment, and prevention of drug abuse, as well as the role of drug abuse in AIDS. The NIMH supports research on mental illness and mental health, including studies of the brain, behavior, and mental health services. The NINR supports clinical and basic research to establish a scientific basis for the care of individuals across the life span, from management of patients during illness and recovery to the reduction of risks for disease and disability and the promotion of healthy lifestyles. The NHLBI supports behavioral and social research relating to the causes, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of heart, blood vessel, lung, and blood diseases and blood resources. The OBSSR provides leadership and direction in increasing the scope and support of research on the role of human behavior and social processes in the promotion of health and prevention of disease. The OAM supports behavioral and social science research on topics (e.g., mind-body medicine) that fall outside of mainstream medicine. This program announcement encourages applications in six general areas of methodology and measurement research. These areas, discussed in detail below, include the processes that underlie self reports, research design, data collection techniques, measurement, data analysis techniques, and related ethical issues. Within the broad spectrum of research defined by these areas, applicants are particularly encouraged (but are not required) to consider studies that address one or more of the following key issues: methodology and measurement issues in research relating to diverse populations, for example, populations that are distinctive by virtue of age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, culture, literacy, or disability; issues in studying sensitive behaviors, such as drug use, sexual behavior, abortion, abuse and violence, and other covert or illegal behaviors; and development of multidisciplinary and multimethod approaches to behavioral and social science research. Even where explicitly multidisciplinary and multimethod approaches are not considered, potential applicants are encouraged to explore the ideas and methods developed in social science and behavioral fields other than their own. Consulting relevant literature and collaborating with colleagues from other disciplines may provide important opportunities for cross-fertilization in developing improved methodology and measurement. Areas of interest are:
PROCESSES UNDERLYING SELF-REPORTS--self-reports are a primary source of information in a wide range of clinical and research settings. Topics for new research on the processes underlying self reports include, but are not limited to: basic issues in cognition, including perception, attention, memory, reasoning, decision-making, and communication, with particular focus on those processes that contribute significantly to self-report behavior (e.g., temporal perception and memory; comprehension, and decision processes that underlie survey responses); basic issues in the sensory, motor, social, cultural, and other psychological processes that underlie self report; development of the processes that underlie self-reports across the lifespan; influences of arousal and affective states upon self-reports; gender- and culture-related differences upon self-reports; effects of physical and social context on self-report validity and reliability; effects of sensory, motor, cognitive, and psychiatric limitations or disorders upon the processes that underlie self-reports, including effects of alcohol and drugs; and construction of survey and interview instruments, including issues of format, medium, and wording of instructions and items.
RESEARCH DESIGN--examples of questions on research design are, but are not limited to the following: methodological research to improve the design of survey research; conceptual design issues in studying culture and self-identification of race-ethnicity; designs to improve causal inference from non-experimental research; research to improve the design of research studies, including multi-wave longitudinal designs; methods for improving the design of community-based intervention trials (e.g., health promotion/disease prevention programs); and conceptual and methodological issues in designing studies that use different sources of information; for example, studies comparing self and proxy reports (from surrogates, family or friends -- and professional providers of care), validation studies using biological markers and record sources, studies comparing report data with data obtained by observing behavior, for example, patient ratings of pain versus family ratings of patient pain; client report of symptoms versus findings from clinical examination.
MEASUREMENT ISSUES--developing and validating research instruments and questions are vitally important for collecting accurate information, and have an obvious impact on data validity and reliability. Continued improvement and innovation in validating data collection instruments is important for all types of research settings, ranging from the clinical interview to the observational study and the survey interview. Examples of measurement issues include, but are not limited to the following: development and refinement of measures used in behavioral and social science research (topics include, but are not limited to: preferences for outcomes (health states), outcomes worse than death, perceptions of risks and benefits of treatments, perceptions of risks of diseases, desired role in medical decision-making, impact of disease on families (caregiver burden) and on patients, self-efficacy/fatalism about health outcomes (self care and care-seeking behaviors are related to this belief structure, dental pain and anxiety about dental treatment), social support, socioeconomic status, and stress, and techniques for measuring social context or environment); research to develop self ratings of quality of life for clinical trials, to include the determination of the cognitive and other factors that underlie self reports of subjective well-being and quality of life; measurement issues in communication between health practitioners and patients/clients to include diagnostic interviews, to include the impact of time per patient on communicative strategies and effectiveness, and techniques that may improve the conduct of diagnostic interviews; age, gender, and cultural differences in instrument design, and instrument design issues in studying age, gender and culture, including methods of studying culture and self identification of race/ethnicity; calibration of instruments and methods with different population subgroups; psychometric studies of data collection instruments; assessment techniques of individuals and organizations, including methods such as q-sorts; measurement issues in collecting data on organizational processes; studies of what levels of precision are required in behavioral and social research; and measurement issues in using technology such as computer assisted data collection.
DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUES--continued improvement and innovation in data collection methodologies is important for all types of research settings, ranging from the clinical interview to the observational study and the survey interview. In addition, more research is needed to understand how methodologies work in diverse populations, and how they can be modified to address the specific needs of populations. Potential topics for research include, but are not limited to: methodologies to improve data collection in surveys, ethnographic and other qualitative studies, and multi-method studies (this may include new approaches to instrument design and manipulation of mode, length, setting, and interpersonal factors in data collection exchanges), new methodologies for qualitative research, and techniques that facilitate integration of qualitative and quantitative measurement; methodologies to reduce nonresponse bias in research studies, including techniques to improve the coverage of relevant populations in household surveys, to increase the voluntary participation of eligible subjects, and to reduce attrition in longitudinal studies and clinical trials; techniques for collecting contextual data (e.g,. neighborhood composition, peer group characteristics) and for operationalizing the boundaries of particular social contexts; innovative technologies for data collection and their impact on response quality in a variety of populations and substantive areas; and data collection techniques that address the needs of special populations (e.g., physically or mentally disabled, nonliterate populations, the homeless and incarcerated, children and the elderly) and that study the impact of methodologies on data quality and completeness across diverse populations.
ANALYTIC METHODS--the goal of new and improved analytic methods is to help make estimation, hypothesis testing, and causal modeling based on scientific data as sound as possible. Challenges include developing techniques that distinguish underlying regularities from the noise created by variability and imprecise measurement; developing causal inferences from observational data; improving both the internal validity and external validity (generalizability) of studies; and developing appropriate analytic techniques for use with new kinds of data and new approaches to behavioral and social science research. Examples of areas of interest include, but are not limited to: research to improve the analysis of longitudinal studies (in particular, the analysis of correlated data and modeling of different sources of error and of missing data); methods for improving the analysis of community-based intervention trials (e.g., health promotion/disease prevention programs); methodological research to improve the analysis of complex survey data, including the statistical modeling of nonresponse and other survey errors; analytic issues in and innovative techniques for improving causal inference from non-experimental research; multidimensional scaling approaches; analytic methods for integrating evidence from qualitative and quantitative research, including research to examine and account for the complex relationships among multiple sources of information on a single construct, such as self and proxy reports, clinical examinations and testing, laboratory tests, and other record sources, for example, patient ratings of pain versus family ratings of patient pain, and client report of symptoms versus findings from clinical examination; analytic methods that model social structures and social processes, such as social networks, social influence, diffusion, and contextual effects; methods to model and adjust for biases in choice-based samples (e.g., clinic patients, program participants) in drawing inferences about larger populations; and methods for handling missing data.
RESEARCH ETHICS IN METHODOLOGY AND MEASUREMENT--laboratory and community-based researchers face an array of ethical dilemmas when asking volunteers to report about their behavior or experiences, especially when the behaviors are illegal or stigmatized. Applications may explore the perspective not only of researchers, but also the perspective of research volunteers, survey respondents, and their families. Potential legal issues such as mandatory reporting to criminal justice authorities when behaviors such as child abuse are disclosed may also be a legitimate area of investigation. Examples of areas of interest include, but are not limited to: ethical issues in self report such as how to respond when suicidal ideation is or the respondent becomes upset during an interview; ethical issues in the use of record sources as data or data validation; methodological techniques for protecting confidentiality of data shared for secondary analysis; and issues concerning how to obtain and maintain genuinely informed consent from research participants throughout the course of a study.
Restrictions:
Eligible applicants are foreign and domestic for-profit and non-profit organizations, public
and private, such as universities, colleges, hospitals, laboratories, units of state and
local governments, and eligible agencies of the federal government. The mechanism of support
will be the investigator-initiated research project grant. Applications are to be submitted
on the grant application form PHS 398 (rev. 4/98). Application kits are available at most
institutional offices of sponsored research and from the Division of Extramural Outreach and
Information Resources, National Institutes of Health, 6701 Rockledge Drive, MSC 7910,
Bethesda, MD 20892-7910, telephone (301) 435-0714, Email: GrantsInfo@nih.gov. Applications
are also available on the World Wide Web at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms.htm. Direct
inquiries regarding programmatic issues to the above contact.
Sponsor:National Institute on Aging
Deadline(s):2/01, 6/01, 10/01 annually
Objectives:
The sponsor provides support for research and training grant applications on social
cognition and aging. The social cognitive paradigm concerns the ways in which mental
representations of social events, societal and cultural norms and personal characteristics
influence behavior, reasoning, emotion and motivation. Specifically, the approach addresses
attributions, self and social goals, mental representations of the self and others, and the
role of social facilitation in decision-making, memory and judgment. Research suggests that
complex cognitive functioning-involved in coping, everyday problem-solving and
decision-making in health and social domains-depends not only on basic cognitive mechanisms,
but also on socially-derived content and organization of existing knowledge structures as
well as on socially-derived emotional and motivational influences on performance. The
sponsor encourages the application of social cognitive approaches to research on middle-aged
and older people. The ultimate goal of such research is to improve health maintenance and
promotion, coping with age-related losses, social relationships, and adaptive functioning in
daily life as people age. This announcement is coordinated with the National Institute of
Mental Health (NIMH), which supports a range of topics in social cognition, and with the
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), which supports
applications about the normative cognitive, social, motivational and affective development
of children from infancy through adolescence. The sponsor seeks grant applications for the
study of social cognition and aging that address one or more of the following: age-related
changes in knowledge structures/schemas, self representation, and defense mechanisms; the
effects of context (e.g., cultural, cohort, social situational) on cognitive performance and
social reasoning as people age; the interaction among aging, social cognition, emotion, and
motivation; and the effect of age-related changes in basic cognitive skills on social
judgments. The following examples suggest areas that are appropriate for submissions. They
are intended to be illustrative rather than exhaustive.
AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURES OR SCHEMA--a substantial literature exists on mental representations about the self and others, social scripts, stereotypes, implicit theories and the role of beliefs in health and illness. These knowledge structures play an important role in the interpretation of events, organization of new information, goal setting and motivation to act in specific ways. To date, however, relatively little empirical evidence exists on possible age differences in the elaboration, consistency and consequences of knowledge structures, or on the ways in which these knowledge structures influence thought and action as people age. Examples of research questions are: how knowledge structures change as a function of development and changing environments in adulthood and aging; whether some types of social knowledge are more likely to change than others; and whether individuals' belief in a "just world" and needs for consistency change with aging. Also of interest are how individual differences in knowledge and beliefs facilitate adaptation in old age; how age-related differences influence the interpretation of events, the motivation to engage in cognitive performance or specific behaviors (e.g., health-medical decisions); how social cognitive processes and schemas affect older people's conceptions of specific diseases; how they affect health-related behaviors such as medication use; and what methods aid in the restructuring of beliefs to encourage adaptive health practices as people age. The sponsor is also interested in how older adults mentally represent social problems (e.g., in terms of causal attributions, problem interpretation and importance); and what effects such representations have on everyday problem solving. Also of interest is how stereotypic beliefs about aging and the elderly influence conceptions of self and others; and whether individuals' stereotypes change with their own aging and, if so, with what effects. Research is also sought on how social cognitive processes affect adaptation to cognitive and health-related changes with age without showing deteriorated performance in everyday functioning; and how older people maintain a sense of well-being when age is associated with numerous threats to the self. The sponsor is also interested in whether self-efficacy beliefs change with aging; age-related processes or conditions which promote stability or change; how self-efficacy beliefs are accessed and modified; and what the mechanisms are by which self-efficacy, once activated, influences behavior and whether these mechanisms change with aging.
CONTEXTUAL AND FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL COGNITION AND AGING--in order to understand the individual in context, both the properties of context and the nature of the individual's representations of those properties need to be considered, especially as they both may change with aging, for example, how age-related sociocultural and socio-contextual influences on self-representations and knowledge structures affect memory, decision-making, cognition, problem-solving and coping. Also of interest is how perceptions of problems, self-schemas, and defense mechanisms influence and are influenced by social interactions. Research is also sought on how the social environment influences cognitive processing in old age; how interactions with social partners enhance memory, e.g., collaborative memory; and how older individuals access and use information under particular kinds of situational/environmental demands. The sponsor is also interested in whether causal attributions of social interactions change with age; whether these attributions are predictive of changes in social behavior; and whether there are age differences in person perception. Also, given that cultural transmission of sociocultural information to younger adults has been espoused as a prototypic cognitive task for older adults, the sponsor is interested in how social cognitive processes operate in the context of group processes, dyadic interactions, etc.; and how mismatches in social knowledge affect communication among older adults and health professionals, caregivers, financial advisers, etc. Another area of interest is, as people grow older, how particular social roles and situations such as gender, birth cohort, culture, socio-economic status, ethnicity, etc. influence social knowledge.
AGING, SOCIAL COGNITION, EMOTION, AND MOTIVATION--on the one hand, various motivational factors may bias the (social) cognitive process, affecting its extent, depth and directionality. On the other hand, goals (fundamental motivational constructs) have important social cognitive components. They are formed, activated, and applied in the same way as are other cognitive structures. These issues could be relevant to aging. Although complex models illuminating these issues are emerging in the social and behavioral sciences, application to research of aging is infrequent. Examples of research questions are what societal beliefs about emotion influence emotional experience in old age; to what extent current cohorts of older adults anticipate negative experience in emotional arenas; and what the impact is of age-related beliefs about emotion on social attitudes and behaviors. also of interest is whether the relationship between mood and memory is altered with age; whether the relationship between arousal and performance varies across the adult life span; and what the role is of social cognitive processes in these relationships. Some evidence suggests that information processing becomes increasingly "emotional" with age. The sponsor is interested in how such changes improve or impede social reasoning about, for example, medical decision-making or advice giving, interpersonal relationships. Also of interest are what age-related qualitative and/or adaptive changes take place in emotional development and regulation; in contrast to the cognitive representation of emotions, what the phenomenological experience is of emotion (the current level of functioning of emotional experience) of the older adult; and how social cognitive processes affect this experience. Research is also sought on whether the lowering of energy resources presumably occurring during aging affects the individual's nondirectional cognitive motivations, for instance, whether aging is positively correlated with a rising need for cognitive closure, and if so, whether aging is characterized by stereotyping, insufficient adjustment of initial opinions in light of new information, a preference for similarly minded others, etc. The sponsor is also interested in whether aging affects the configuration of individual directional motivations (for instance, do achievement, or social dominance and power motivations decline, while affiliation motivation, and health concerns increase with aging); and what effects might these have on various information-processing biases, such as attribution of (positive or negative) achievement vs. health-related outcomes. Also of interest is how goals and goal setting processes differ, if at all, as people age; whether people's goals change qualitatively and/or quantitatively as they become older (e.g., more short term, more specific and concrete, less self-focused); and to what extent the characteristics of goals in old age are mediated by meta-cognitions about, e.g. the amount of time left for goal accomplishment. Another area of interest is how age-related changes in motivation are related to social preferences and social goals; what the role is of social motivation in social network composition; whether there are motivated changes in qualitative aspects of social relationships; and how age-related changes in motivation are related to qualitative differences in processing social information (e.g., interpretation of a problem situation).
NORMAL CHANGES IN BASIC COGNITIVE SKILLS AND SOCIAL COGNITION--since the nature of representations in memory has a major impact on the types of decisions and judgments people make in reference to specific others or social events, an important issue concerns the extent to which normal (nonpathological) aging-related changes in basic cognitive skills influence the representation of social information and its subsequent use. Research questions include how information about specific events is represented in memory as people age; and whether age-related changes in processing skills influence the type of information represented in memory and, subsequently, the types of decisions and judgments that are made about the event. Also of interest is whether there are age-related changes in the ability to access and/or use specific types of social information. The sponsor is also interested in whether age-related changes in memory skills have an impact on the ability to acquire new or alter existing social knowledge.
The NIMH supports research on a range of topics in social cognition (e.g., attitude accessibility, persuasion, stereotyping, self and social identity, stigma about mental disorders) across the life-span in normative, at-risk, and mentally ill populations. The NICHD is interested in the topics of this program announcement as they pertain to children's and adolescents' development. More specifically, NICHD is interested in supporting meritorious applications in the following areas: normative age-related changes in knowledge structure; contextual and functional perspectives on the normative development of social cognition; the interaction of social cognition, emotion and motivation during childhood and adolescence and developmental changes in cognitive skills and social cognition.
Restrictions:
Eligible applicants are foreign and domestic for-profit and non-profit organizations, public
and private, such as universities, colleges, hospitals, laboratories, units of state and
local governments, and eligible agencies of the federal government. The mechanism of support
will be the investigator-initiated research project grant. The research grant application
form PHS 398 (rev. 4/98) is to be used in applying for these grants. These forms are
available at most institutional offices of sponsored research and from the Division of
Extramural Outreach and Information Resources, National Institutes of Health, 6701 Rockledge
Drive, MSC 7910, Bethesda, MD 20892-7910, telephone 301/435-0714, email:
GrantsInfo@nih.gov. Direct inquiries regarding programmatic issues to the above contact.
Sponsor:National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Deadline(s):02/01, 06/01, 10/01 annually
Objectives:
The sponsor provides support for for Exploratory/Developmental Grants (R21) that fall within
its research interests. This includes basic and applied research on biochemical,
physiological, genetic, and behavioral mechanisms leading to pathological drinking behavior;
mechanisms of alcohol-induced organ damage, including fetal injury; and clinical,
behavioral, and epidemiological approaches to more effective diagnosis, prevention, and
treatment of alcoholism, alcohol abuse and alcohol-related problems. Examples of studies
suitable for the exploratory/developmental mechanism include, but are not limited to:
Sponsor:National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Deadline(s):02/01, 06/01, 10/01 annually
Objectives:
The sponsor provides support for applications relating to research on alcohol-related
problems. These awards are intended to provide support for pilot/feasibility projects,
testing of new techniques, secondary analysis of existing data, or development of innovative
or high-risk projects that could provide a basis for submission of a regular research
project grant application. An NIAAA Small Grant may also be used as a pilot or planning
grant for the design and coordination of full-scale clinical trials. The program is also
intended to stimulate and facilitate the entry of less experienced investigators and
established investigators in other fields into alcohol-related research and shorten the time
for the application award process. Examples of studies suitable for the small grant
mechanism include, but are not limited to:
Sponsor:National Institute on Drug Abuse
Deadline(s):02/01, 06/01, 10/01 annually
Objectives:
The sponsor provides support for research on behavioral and social adverse consequences of
drug use and/or abuse. This announcement encourages local, national, and international
research on community/contextual and individual level risk and protective factors and
processes that influence drug use and/or abuse and their consequences. The major goal is to
enhance the understanding of the relationships between drug use and/or abuse and their
associated adverse behavioral and social consequences. Behavioral consequences of interest
include, but are not limited to, educational and occupational problems (illiteracy, school
dropout, unemployment, job absenteeism and turnover), individual criminal activities
(violence, vandalism, homicides, sexual abuse, delinquency), and other comorbid conditions
(mental illness, injuries/accidents, overdoses). Social consequences of drug use include
poverty, dysfunctional neighborhoods, homelessness, gang activities, drug trafficking and
distribution systems, and family disruption and dislocation (family violence, divorce).
Because substance use and abuse among adolescents adversely affects the developmental course
of large numbers of society's youth, studies of adolescents are of special interest. The
Nation's ethnic and racial minority populations and out-of-treatment subgroups in both rural
and urban communities disproportionately suffer adverse consequences of drug use and abuse,
so this announcement encourages research focusing on these groups. In addition, inasmuch as
research is beginning to show that the social and behavioral consequences of drug abuse are
often different for males and females, investigators are urged to take a gender perspective
in their research design.
This program is intended to stimulate research from many diverse disciplines (including, but not limited to, epidemiology, prevention, anthropology, sociology, psychology, public health). Moreover, multi- disciplinary and interdisciplinary research approaches to advance the scientific knowledge base of drug use and abuse and its co-occurring behavioral and social consequences are encouraged. This research initiative also encourages exploring the role of individual level characteristics along with community factors (i.e., macro level) in predisposing or protecting individuals from adverse drug-related consequences. Social contexts of interest include family relationships, intimate partner and marital relationships, social networks, peers, schools, workplace settings, and other social institutions. Research is needed to link structural and environmental characteristics with individual level characteristics and specific behavioral outcomes to better understand both risk and resiliency.
Additionally, studies that strengthen the link between epidemiology and prevention of drug-related consequences are strongly encouraged. Researchers are thus invited to test new methods or new combinations of methods that address the need for a better understanding of the epidemiology of these problems and how epidemiology may guide prevention. Applications are encouraged that focus on improving means for efficient monitoring of the epidemiology of drug-related consequences and the formulation and evaluation of efficient prevention interventions. Epidemiologic studies of diverse populations are needed to determine the underlying factors and stability of the connections between drug use and drug abuse and their related behavioral and social consequences. For example, although various forms of epidemiologic research on consequences of drug use have been undertaken in the past, typical efforts rarely attempted to integrate quantitative and qualitative approaches to maximize both their unique contributions and their complementary/combined or synergistic potential. This program encourages collaborative efforts among these two different research orientations along with other research specialties to help guide a multidisciplinary approach to drug-related consequences prevention planning (i.e., development, implementation, and evaluation).
The sponsor will support the following kinds of studies: national, and local-level community epidemiology studies to document and monitor trends in the nature, extent, and patterns of co-occurring drug use and/or abuse (including polydrug use) and drug-related behavioral and social consequences in general and in special populations; studies of the common and unique risk/protective antecedents (at individual and contextual level) and correlates of co-occurring and sequential behavioral and social consequences; studies that attempt to specify and test causal pathways of drug use and/or abuse and drug-related consequences, as well as their temporal stability and generalizability across subpopulation groups and life stage (developmental stage/transitions); evaluation studies of theoretically-based prevention interventions to reduce/prevent adverse drug-related consequences; studies that perform secondary analysis of current data sets pertaining to drug use and/or abuse, crime, drug trafficking/distribution systems, and other drug related consequences (including cost-of-illness studies); methodological studies to improve the measurement, data collection, and analysis of drug use and drug abuse and their complex array of co- occurring behavioral and social consequences; and research on drug-related consequences among ethnic/racial minority groups and other underserved populations (underserved populations include, but are not limited to, school dropouts, gang members, children of drug users, the homeless, migrant groups, recent immigrant groups, the unemployed or working poor, the elderly, veterans, incarcerated adults and juveniles, the mentally ill, or other vulnerable groups).
Examples of research topics include: examining the strength and consistency of the relationships, the dynamic sequencing of life events, and the persistence of connections between drug use and/or abuse and dysfunctional behavior, e.g., deviance, (such efforts might explore whether certain phenomena have only episodic or transitory connections to drug use and/or abuse); exploring the connections among such factors as unemployment and poverty, and the development of drug abuse careers within families and communities; gang membership, juvenile drug use and abuse, and the escalation of juvenile criminal activities; effects of incarceration of large numbers of community members (for drug-related offenses) on the social structure of the community; interrelationship between drug use and/or abuse and deviant-prone lifestyle, particularly in adolescents and young adults; relationship between specific patterns of drug use and/or abuse and associated consequences; effects of changes in trafficking patterns and drug distribution networks on individual drug use and/or abuse within communities; adapt/integrate theoretically sound drug abuse prevention approaches with interventions directed at drug-related consequences (e.g., criminal activities, educational and occupational achievement); identification of situational/contextual factors that contribute to varying patterns of local drug use and/or abuse; identification of potential adverse behavioral consequences associated with abuse of prescription and over-the-counter medications and dietary supplements; role of drug use and/or abuse in aggressive and violent behavior including sexual assault, victimization, elder abuse, school and workplace violence; influence of laws and law enforcement and the criminal justice system on decision-making and behavior change; socioenvironmental influences that explore the complex inter-relationships among economic, cultural, social, and environmental influences on drug use and/or abuse and their consequences; and interventions that utilize community resources and organizations (e.g., workplace, churches, etc.). The sponsor is also interested in expanding its research portfolio on all aspects related to the use, abuse, short- and long-term effects of "club drugs." The term, "club drugs" refers to substances being used by young adults at all-night dance parties such as "raves" or "trances," at dance clubs and bars. Although not a participant in the program announcement, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is interested in research on risk for, and prevention of mental disorders co-morbid with other disorders, as well as research on the functional consequences of co-occurring disorders.
Restrictions:
Eligible applicants are domestic and/or foreign for-profit and nonprofit organizations,
public and private, such as universities, colleges, hospitals, and laboratories, units of
state and local governments, and eligible agencies of the federal government. The mechanisms
of support include: project grants, Small Grants, and Exploratory Grants. Because the
nature and scope of the research proposed may vary, it is anticipated that the size of an
award will vary also. Modular Grant applications will request direct costs in $25,000
modules, up to a total direct cost request of $250,000 per year. Applications are to be
submitted on the grant application form PHS 398 (revised 4/98). Application kits are
available at most institutional offices of sponsored research and may be obtained from the
Division of Extramural Outreach and Information Resources, National Institutes of Health,
6701 Rockledge Drive, MSC 7910, Bethesda MD 20892-7910, telephone: 301-435-0714, E-mail:
GrantsInfo@nih.gov; and from the program official. Specific application instructions have
been modified to reflect "MODULAR GRANT" and "JUST-IN-TIME" streamlining efforts being
examined by the NIH. Complete and detailed instructions and information on Modular Grant
applications can be found at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/modular/modular.htm.
(Applications that request more than $250,000 direct costs in any year must follow the
traditional PHS 398 application instructions). Direct inquires regarding programmatic
issues to the above contact.
Sponsor:Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS); National
Institutes of
Health (NIH); National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Deadline:January 11, 2003; July 11, 2003
Deadline note:Although a letter of intent is not required, is not
binding, and does
not enter into the review of subsequent applications, prospective applicants are asked to
submit a letter of intent by April 1 and October 1. The receipt date for
applications is January 11 and July 11.
Objectives:
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) supports
research training on the normal mechanisms as well as on the disorders of human
communication, including hearing, balance (vestibular system), smell, taste, chemical
senses, voice, speech, and language. The purpose of this program announcement (PA) is to
encourage and support the development of applications from U.S. educational institutions for
Institutional Mentored Research Scientist Development Awards (K12). These awards are
intended to foster the career development of individuals with interdisciplinary expertise
bridging the fields of neuroscience and behavioral science research with that in
informatics. This announcement seeks to further technological and methodological advancement
and the development of novel scientific strategies in neuroinformatics research critical
toward elucidating the major principles of basic and clinical neuroscience that underlie
normal health, development, and the etiopathophysiology of mental and neurological disease.
Eligibility is limited to individuals with advanced degrees in either: informatics research
(including computer sciences, mathematics, physics, engineering, or closely related
sciences); or the various subdisciplines of basic or clinical neuroscience and behavioral
science research. Under this Institutional Mentored Research Scientist Development Award, up
to three scientists may be selected and appointed to this program by the grantee
institutions.
Applications for this award require a development plan that demonstrates both significant inherent research and technological promise in neuroscience, while concomitantly serving as a training vehicle for learning the requisite theoretical knowledge and technical skills in informatics. This training should allow an individual to develop into a well-trained, independent research investigator within the field of neuroinformatics. Appointees are expected to enter into a well-structured, phased developmental program that includes a designated period of didactic training, which is subsequently followed by a period of supervised research experience. It is expected that at the end of this career development period, individuals will successfully transition into positions as fully independent investigators.
The purpose of this Neuroinformatics Institutional Mentored Research Scientist Development Award is to provide eligible educational institutions the opportunity to develop and implement a program to recruit scientists interested in and capable of bridging interdisciplinary research in areas critical to the advancement of the research goals of the Human Brain Project. The K12 award offers opportunities for training either: in various disciplines of neuroscience research, for those individuals who currently already possess doctoral degrees in any of the nonbiological scientific disciplines related to the computer sciences, mathematics, physics, engineering, or any closely related sciences; or, conversely, in various disciplines of informatics research, for those individuals who currently possess a doctoral degree in any of the neuroscience related disciplines. The primary objective of the current announcement is to bridge interdisciplinary training across both of these major scientific investigative domains. Thus, this PA's goal is to help foster further technological and methodological development essential to the success of the Human Brain Project, thereby allowing these appointees to benefit by continuing to pursue a career in neuroinformatics research. Awards in response to this PA will use the Institutional Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K12) program mechanism.
Eligibility:
Applications will be accepted from domestic, nonfederal organizations of higher education
that have strong, well-established research and training programs in both areas of interest:
in the disciplines of neuroscience research; and in the disciplines of informatics research
(including computer sciences, mathematics, physics, engineering, or any closely related
sciences). The applicant institution must have adequate numbers of highly trained faculty in
scientific areas relevant to neuroinformatics and the capability to provide guidance to
individuals who wish to work at the interface of neuroscience, ongoing molecular biology or
genomics research with the informatics, computer, communications, or engineering sciences in
the development of research independence. The environment should be one that fosters
interactions between basic or clinical neuroscientists with informatics scientists.
Candidates appointed under this program award must be U.S. citizens or noncitizen nationals, or have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence and possess an Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-151or I-551) or some other verification of legal admission as a permanent resident. Noncitizen nationals, although not U.S. citizens, owe permanent allegiance to the United States. They are usually born in lands that are not states, but are under U.S. sovereignty, jurisdiction, or administration. Individuals on temporary or student visas are not eligible. Candidates who are or have been former principal investigators on NIH research projects (R01), FIRST Awards (R29), sub-projects of program project (P01) or center grants (P50), or the equivalent, are not eligible for appointment under this program.
Sponsors:Department of Health and Human Services
(DHHS); National Institutes of
Health (NIH); National Eye Institute (NEI)
Deadline:January 10, May 10, September 10 annually
Eligibility:
Only domestic, private or public, nonprofit institutions may apply for grants to support
research training programs. The applicant institution must have a strong research program in
the areas proposed for research training and must have the requisite staff and facilities to
carry out the proposed program. The research training program director at the institution
will be responsible for the selection and appointment of trainees to receive NRSA support
and for the overall direction of the program.
Positions on NRSA institutional grants may not be used for study leading to the M.D., D.D.S., or other clinical, health-professional degrees except when those studies are a part of a formal combined research degree program, such as the M.D./Ph.D. Similarly, trainees may not accept NRSA support for studies that are part of residency training leading to certification in a medical or dental specialty or subspecialty, except when the residency program credits a period of full-time, postdoctoral research training toward board certification and the trainee intends to pursue a research career. To be appointed to a training position supported by an NRSA research training grant, an individual must be a citizen or noncitizen national of the United States or must have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence (i.e., in possession of a currently valid Alien Registration Receipt Card I-551, or must be in possession of other legal verification of such status). Individuals on temporary or student visas are not eligible.
Predoctoral trainees must have received a baccalaureate degree by the beginning date of their NRSA appointment, and must be training at the postbaccalaureate level and enrolled in a program leading to a Ph.D. in science 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. Postdoctoral trainees must have received, as of the beginning date of the NRSA appointment, 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.
To be eligible for short-term predoctoral research training positions, health-professional students must have completed at least one quarter in a program leading to a clinical doctorate prior to participating in the program. Individuals matriculated in a formal research degree program, or those holding a research doctorate or masters degree or a combined health-professional/research doctorate are not eligible for short-term training positions. Within schools of pharmacy, only individuals who are candidates for the Pharm.D. degree are eligible for short-term positions.
Objectives:
The mission of the National Eye Institute (NEI) is to conduct and support research, research
training, health information dissemination, and other programs with respect to blinding eye
diseases, visual disorders, the mechanisms of visual function, the preservation of sight,
and the special health problems and needs of individuals who are partially-sighted or blind.
Specific areas of interest for NEI include retinal diseases, corneal diseases, lenses and
cataracts, glaucoma, strabismus, amblyopia, and visual processing, as well as low vision and
its rehabilitation. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will award National Research
Service Award (NRSA) Institutional Training Grants to eligible institutions to develop or
enhance research training opportunities for individuals, selected by the institution, who
are training for careers in specified areas of biomedical and behavioral research. The
purpose of the NRSA program is to help ensure that a diverse and highly trained workforce
is available to assume leadership roles related to the nation's biomedical and behavioral
research agenda. Accordingly, the NRSA program supports predoctoral, postdoctoral, and
short-term research training experiences. This opportunity utilizes the institutional
training grant (T32) mechanism of support.
Sponsor:Department of Health and Human Services
(DHHS); National Institutes
of Health (NIH); National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Deadline:February 01, June 01, October 01 annually
Objectives:
The general research areas of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) include
molecular and behavioral neuroscience; psychopharmacology; drug development;
cognitive, personality, emotional, and psychosocial processes; factors influencing
behavioral development and modification; biological, psychological, and psychosocial
aspects of stress and other psychological states; behavioral medicine;
psychoneuroimmunology; and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The NIMH
offices, divisions, and branches are the Office on AIDS; the Office of Rural Mental
Health Research; the Division of Neuroscience and Behavioral Science; the Behavioral,
Cognitive, and Social Sciences Research Branch; the Behavioral and Integrative
Neuroscience Research Branch; the Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience Research Branch;
the Scientific Technology and Resources Program; the Epidemiology and Services
Research; Violence and Traumatic Stress; the Division of Clinical and Treatment
Research; the Child and Adolescent Disorders Research Branch; Clinical Treatment
Research; Mental Disorders of the Aging; Mood, Anxiety, and Personality Disorders
Research; and Schizophrenia Research. The five sponsoring institutes invite
applications in response to this program announcement (PA) for the career development
for investigators who have made a commitment to focus their research endeavors on
child abuse and neglect through research career enhancement in order to conduct high
quality, multidisciplinary, clinically-relevant research on basic biological,
behavioral, and social aspects of child and adolescent abuse and neglect. While the
focus of the career development program is on child abuse and neglect in human
populations, the award may include complementary, appropriate laboratory and animal
research related to the child abuse and neglect research proposed in the
application.
This PA is designed to encourage qualified applicants who are beginning their research careers and who have an interest in child abuse and neglect research, or are already involved in research on child and adolescent abuse and neglect and who wish to increase the sophistication of their research through research career development, or conduct research in related disciplines, such as adult and child psychiatry, developmental neurology, neurobiology, developmental psychology, social work, and nursing, and who wish to broaden their foci in order to be able to conduct research on child abuse and neglect. The career development objectives of the Career Development Awards for Child Abuse and Neglect Research program are to encourage scientists to develop independent research skills and gain experience in advanced methods and experimental approaches that will allow them to conduct scientifically sophisticated child abuse and neglect-oriented research. All awards must include a substantial level of either mentoring or collaboration with experienced child abuse and neglect researchers. At the completion of the award, candidates should have both the knowledge and the skills necessary to compete for independent National Institutes of Health (NIH) research support for studies of child abuse and neglect through the regular research grant mechanism (R01).
Applications submitted in response to this PA must address research and research training on any of the different types of child abuse and neglect. Examples of research areas responsive to this announcement include, but are not limited to, the following: basic and applied research on the causes of, risk factors for, and mechanisms that account for child abuse and neglect; research on the neurobiology of abuse and neglect; developmental, physical, mental health, and substance abuse consequences and course of outcomes of child abuse and neglect; research on the relationships among substance abuse and child abuse and neglect; research on intervention models to prevent child maltreatment and treat the effects of child maltreatment; research on the effects of services administered to maltreated children and their families by service agencies; and assessment and research methodology applied to abused and neglected populations. This initiative will be supported through the following NIH career award mechanisms: K01, K02, K08, K23, and K24.
Eligibility:
Candidates must have a research or a health-professional doctorate or its equivalent,
and, for career awards that focus on clinical or patient-oriented research training, a
clinical doctoral degree. The candidate must have demonstrated the capacity or
potential for highly productive research in the period after the doctorate,
commensurate with the candidate's level of experience. Applications may be submitted,
on behalf of candidates, by domestic, non-federal organizations, public or private,
such as medical, dental, or nursing schools or other institutions of higher education.
At time of award, candidates must be citizens or noncitizen nationals of the United
States, or have been lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence
(i.e., in possession of a currently valid Alien Registration Receipt Card I-551, or
other legal verification of such status). Noncitizen nationals are generally persons
born in outlying possessions of the United States (i.e., American Samoa and Swains
Island). Individuals on temporary or student visas are not eligible.
Sponsor:National Institute of Mental Health
Deadline(s):02/01, 06/01, 10/01 annually
Objectives:
The sponsor provides support for research on early identification and treatment of mental
disorders in children and adolescents. In particular, this announcement intends to
encourage research on disorders such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar
disorder, major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anorexia nervosa, alone or
comorbid with other common mental or substance abuse disorders. These disorders are
considered to be in special need of investigation because of their chronicity, high
morbidity, and relative dearth of data in children and adolescents. This initiative calls
for more research on the validation of early diagnosis of mental disorders in youths, and
especially in young children; development of new interventions to treat mental disorders and
prevent the exacerbation of, and functional impairments associated with, these disorders;
testing of the efficacy and safety of treatments, both new and already in use among young
patients with mental illness; study of access or barriers to services and effectiveness of
services for these patients; testing of the long-term effectiveness and safety of treatment
interventions for young patients with chronic or recurrent disorders; assessment of the long
term impact of early intervention, especially on disease progression and prognosis;
identification of early signs of anorexia nervosa that could serve as targets for
interventions; and identification and evaluation of predictors of treatment response for new
and existing interventions for children and adolescents with mental illness. Intervention
strategies to be studied can include pharmacological, psychosocial, and rehabilitative
interventions, separately or in combination.
Some illustrative examples of research topics that may be addressed under this program announcement are: improving the validity of the diagnosis of mental disorders in children and adolescents; understanding the diagnostic predictive value of early manifestations of mood and behavioral dysfunction as presented by children and adolescents, and especially young children; improving the ability to differentiate among possible alternative diagnoses, especially for those clinical situations where alternative diagnoses can lead to substantially different treatment approaches (e.g., bipolar disorder vs. attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or conduct disorder); determining the potential impact of early treatment on the course of illness; testing the efficacy and safety of antipsychotic medications in youths with psychosis; testing the efficacy and safety of mood stabilizing medications in youths with bipolar disorder; testing the efficacy and safety of psychosocial treatment interventions for youths with disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, and anorexia nervosa; studying the long-term efficacy and safety of pharmacological and psychosocial treatments for youths with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and other mental disorders; studying the possible impact on child development of exposure to medications commonly used in the treatment of mental disorders, particularly when treatment is long term and starts in early childhood; testing the efficacy and safety of psychosocial and pharmacological interventions for youths with mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, and anorexia nervosa, when these disorders are comorbid with other common psychopathology, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and substance abuse; and examining access or barriers to services or models of service delivery that optimize treatment access, adherence, or satisfaction with services.
Other examples of topics are: investigating the impact of school, health services or models of coordination of delivery systems on outcomes for youth with chronic and impairing mental disorders; developing and testing treatment approaches for youths with chronic and impairing psychopathology that can be adequately described and quantified, even if it does not meet full diagnostic criteria for a "disorder" as defined in the current nosology; developing new treatment approaches for youths with severe forms of obsessive-compulsive disorder that have proven unresponsive to usual treatments; elucidating and addressing the ethical implications of early treatment vs. non-treatment in situations of diagnostic uncertainty; comparing the effects of alternative, promising treatment strategies; determining the risk/benefit ratio of treating children and adolescents with early manifestations of psychosis, bipolar disorder, and recurrent depression and other chronic and impairing mental disorders; identifying and characterizing individual, family, and/or cultural factors that facilitate or impede early identification, detection, and treatment of chronic and impairing mental illness in youth; and identifying and characterizing current practice patterns for youths with chronic and impairing mental illness, studying variables that affect quality of care, and developing and testing interventions designed to improve quality of care for youths with these psychiatric disorders.
Restrictions:
Eligible applicants are domestic and foreign, for-profit and non-profit organizations,
public and private, such as universities, colleges, hospitals, laboratories, units of state
and local governments, and eligible agencies of the federal government. This program will
use the National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01, collaborative R01, and R21 grant award
mechanisms. The total project period may not exceed five years (three years for the R21).
Modular Grant applications will request direct costs in $25,000 modules, up to a total
direct cost request of $250,000 per year ($125,000 for R21). Applicants planning to submit
an investigator-initiated new (type 1), competing continuation (type 2), competing
supplement, or any amended/revised version of the preceding grant application types
requesting $500,000 or more in direct costs must contact program staff.
Applications are to be submitted on the grant application form PHS 398 (rev. 4/98). Application kits are available at most institutional offices of sponsored research and from the Division of Extramural Outreach and Information Resources, National Institutes of Health, 6701 Rockledge Drive, MSC 7910, Bethesda, MD 20892-7910, telephone (301) 435-0714, Email: GrantsInfo@nih.gov. Applications are also available on the World Wide Web at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms.htm. For all competing R01 applications requesting up to $250,000 per year in direct costs and all R21 applications, specific applications instructions have been modified to reflect "MODULAR GRANT" and "JUST-IN-TIME" streamlining efforts being undertaken at NIH. More detailed information about modular grant applications, including a sample budget narrative justification pages and a sample biographical sketch, is available via the Internet at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/modular/modular.htm. Applications that request more than $250,000 in any year must use the standard PHS 398 (rev. 4/98) application instructions. Direct inquiries regarding programmatic issues about diagnosis and detection of mental disorders to the above contact. Direct inquiries regarding programmatic issues about testing effects of treatment interventions to: Benedetto Vitiello, M.D., Division of Services and Intervention Research, National Institute of Mental Health, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 7147, MSC 9633, Bethesda, MD 20892-9633, Telephone: (301) 443-4283, FAX: (301) 443-4045.
Sponsor:National Institute of Mental Health
Deadline(s):01/24/2003
Objectives:
The sponsor provides support for Interdisciplinary Behavioral Science Centers for Mental
Health (IBSC). The purpose of these Centers is to support collaborative, hypothesis-driven
basic research activities that will extend the most cutting-edge theories and approaches in
basic behavioral science to incorporate current approaches in neuroscience. Center
activities will be driven by a basic research question (or set of questions) that is framed
at the behavioral level (e.g., cognition, emotion, personality, social interaction) and that
is forging connection with neural-level processes. Ultimately, knowledge yielded by such
connections will increase the explanatory power of behavioral science, and will enrich
neuroscience by providing an ever-more-detailed understanding of behavioral and mental
processes. The integration of knowledge that results will be in the service of the fullest
understanding of the complex and reciprocal biobehavioral processes responsible for mental
health and mental illness. In addition to support for Full-scale Center activities, support
also will be available for Start-up Centers. The goal of Start-up Centers is to support a
preparatory period of multidisciplinary research prior to the launching of integrative
activities on a larger scale. Usually, this will be for those behavioral questions, topics,
or domains for which there currently are few known links to neural processes.
Core areas of basic behavioral science that are relevant to the IBSC Program include: cognition (e.g., learning, memory, attention, language, perception, decision-making); emotion (e.g., experiential, expressive and/or physiological aspects of emotional states, emotional traits, and mood); personality processes and individual differences; motivation; social cognition (e.g., information-processing, attributions, expectancies); social influences and processes; self-regulation; attitudes and persuasion; interpersonal interaction; and fundamental biobehavioral processes such as sleep, reproduction, and ingestion. The substantive relevance of the chosen topics to the understanding of mental health and mental illness must be documented and described in the application. In keeping with the integrative, multidisciplinary emphasis of the IBSC, it is encouraged that attention be given to connections across the above domains and processes, e.g. links between emotion and learning or memory, or between social experience and cognitive functioning. Developmental approaches to understanding these domains and processes also are a priority. In addition to human studies, animal models are appropriate. Also appropriate are mathematical/computational modeling approaches. In keeping with current National Institutes of Health (NIH) priorities related to Health Disparities, the broadest possible representation of subjects (e.g., in terms of ethnicity, sex, or age) is strongly encouraged. Where possible, power should be sufficient for testing differences within and among groups that are likely to yield information of ultimate public health importance. Neuroscience approaches relevant to the IBSC Program include examinations of neural systems, structures, circuits, or processes (e.g., development, plasticity) that are poised to inform central questions in behavioral science. Techniques may include neuroimaging (e.g., fMRI, PET, SPECT, noninvasive optical imaging), psychophysiological methods (e.g., EEG, MEG), neuroendocrine methods, and neurochemical or lesion techniques.
The IBSC Program's focus on basic behavioral science is intended to foster the specificity and depth of knowledge about fundamental psychological and neural processes likely to be involved in mental health and mental illness. In contrast, research that is primarily focused on clinical or applied issues (e.g., etiology, risk or protective factors, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, service delivery) is not appropriate for the IBSC Program. Basic neuroscience research that does not have an overriding emphasis on behavioral processes and research questions also is not appropriate for an IBSC. Genetics research that incorporates behavioral measures in order to reveal the action of specific genes (e.g., random mutagenesis, QTL analysis, linkage studies for psychopathology) is not appropriate for an IBSC. However, applications with behavioral genetic components (e.g., twin or adoption designs) may be considered if the primary goal is the understanding of experiential as well as heritable contributions to behavioral or mental function.
Restrictions:
This program announcement expires three years from the release date (August 21, 2000).
Although not required, and not binding, prospective applicants are asked to submit a letter
of intent by November 27. Applications must be received by January 24. Eligible applicants
are domestic, for-profit and non-profit organizations, public and private, such as
universities, colleges, hospitals, laboratories, units of state and local governments, and
eligible agencies of the federal government. Foreign institutions are not eligible for
Center Grants (P50). Since IBSCs are defined by their multidisciplinary, integrative,
nature and not by departmental or geographic boundaries, projects constituting a given
Center may be based at a variety of institutions.
The mechanism of support will be the Center Grant mechanism (P50), which provides funding for multidisciplinary and multi-investigator approaches to the investigation of specific and complex research problems requiring the application of diverse expertise and methodologies. There are two levels of Center support. Full-scale Centers are limited to $1.5 million direct costs in any one year. This limit applies to new grants, non-competing continuations, and any subsequent competing continuations. Support is provided for five or more individual research projects as well as for core support. Support may be requested for a project period of up to five years. Each Full-Scale Center will be limited to a maximum of ten years of support in total. Start-up Centers are limited to $600,000 direct costs in any one year, including non-competing continuation years. Support is provided for three or more individual research projects as well as for core support. Support may be requested for a project period of up to five years. Start-up Centers may be renewed only as Full-scale Centers, which then would be permitted a maximum of ten years of support in total. Competitive supplements will not be considered for these Center For multi institutional arrangements, Facility and administrative costs will not be counted against the direct costs limits noted above. IBSCs may request funds for the following: individual research projects; core support, which may involve salaries, research resources to be shared across projects, equipment needed to conduct the research, and incidental alteration and renovation of facilities consistent with Public Health Service policy; research apprenticeships, to support the supervised cross-disciplinary research activities of junior faculty, postdoctoral staff, and/or advanced graduate students (salary support, tuition, travel and research support may be provided); essential scientific expertise funds to support scientists to augment or strengthen the skills, expertise, and capabilities of existing Center staff; and advisory board funds. Applications are to be submitted on the grant application form PHS 398. Application kits are available at most institutional offices of sponsored research and from the Division of Extramural Outreach and Information Resources, National Institutes of Health, 6701 Rockledge Drive, MSC 7910, Bethesda, MD 20892-7910, telephone (301) 435-0714, Email: GrantsInfo@nih.gov. Applications are also available on the World Wide Web at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms.htm. Direct inquiries regarding programmatic issues to the above contact.
Sponsor:National Institute of Mental Health
Deadline(s):Open
Objectives:
Rapid Assessment Post-Impact of Disaster (RAPID) grants provide a mechanism to support
research requiring rapid funding to permit access to a disaster area in the immediate
aftermath of an event. Many kinds of mental health disaster studies may require prompt
assessment, including those which focus on service seeking, on efficacy of outreach or
prevention efforts, and on identifying high-risk victims on the basis of early response.
These awards are designed to provide a limited sum of money for early assessment and will be
primarily reserved for investigators who intend to follow up with a full research
application, using the preliminary data from this initial effort as a basis for their larger
application.
The sponsor is concerned with studies with a substantive emphasis in any one of the following areas: the mental and physical health impact of traumatic stress on victims, families, relief workers, and community members; the mental health consequences of the subjective appraisal of traumatic events, including such aspects as extreme fear, perceived responsibility, perception of lasting consequences, and expectation of the reoccurrence of such an event; the mental health consequences of treatment of victims by non-mental health community and Federal agencies; crisis intervention, mental health treatment, and service delivery for victims of all ages and/or their significant others; social support systems and coping mechanisms as mediators of psychological response to emergency events; differential risk of negative effects among different population subgroups; and families as interactive systems in their response to emergency situations.
Restrictions:
Applications should be submitted within approximately six weeks of the identified disaster
event. Eligible applicants are foreign and domestic, for-profit and nonprofit organizations,
public and private, such as universities, colleges, hospitals, laboratories, units of state
and local governments, and agencies of the Federal government. More than one investigator
may be supported on one grant award. Awards will use the small grant mechanism (R03).
Awards may not exceed $50,000 in direct costs and are up to two years in duration, although
one year is appropriate in most cases. Awards are nonrenewable. Continued support may be
requested only through submission of a complete regular research application. Indirect
costs of the institution are also allowed. Applications are to be submitted on the grant
application form PHS 398 (rev. 5/95). Application forms and guidelines are available from
the Division of Extramural Outreach and Information Resources, National Institutes of
Health, 6701 Rockledge Drive, MSC 7910, Bethesda, MD 20892-7910, Telephone: 301-435-0714,
Email: grantsinfo@nih.gov. Potential applicants are encouraged to contact the Program
Officer listed above.
Sponsor:National Institute of Mental Health
Deadline(s):10/22/2003
Objectives:
The sponsor provides support for Translational Research Centers in Behavioral Science
(TRCBS). The purpose of these centers is to support the translation of work from basic
behavioral science research, and relevant integrative neuroscience research, to pressing
issues regarding all aspects of mental disorders. Such clinical issues include an
understanding of the etiology and assessment of disorders, the assessment of functioning,
development of innovative and culturally appropriate preventive, treatment and
rehabilitation interventions, and improvement of methods for the effective delivery of
mental health services. The centers are also intended to encourage basic behavioral
scientists to seek a further understanding of behavioral processes through an exploration of
how those processes are altered by mental and behavioral disorders. These Centers are
intended to support integrated research teams drawn from the fields of basic behavioral and
social sciences, neuroscience, epidemiology, prevention, academic mental health, and mental
health services delivery. Centers are to develop hypothesis-driven approaches to an
important research question, or a focused set of research questions, using innovative
designs and cutting-edge approaches to methodological and statistical issues. An important
goal of the centers is to transcend the barriers of disciplines, research settings, and
institutions in order to harness the full range of modern behavioral science to the service
of the nation's critical mental health needs. The following list provides some examples of
broad research areas that could fit in the Centers program. This list is not meant to be
comprehensive, nor are the examples meant to be exclusive of other topics:
--Studies of temperament, mood, emotion (including emotion dysregulation), and
cognition, as they are mutually involved in the etiology and course of mood and anxiety
disorders
--Research pertaining to factors that support the behavior of patients with serious
mental illness in their daily functioning and therapeutic regimens (e.g., mechanisms of
learning and memory in patients with serious mental illnesses; mechanisms of emotional
response and emotional control in these patient groups; optimal characteristics of service
providers; and the organization of mental health services in these populations)
--Studies of processes that affect the risk, course, severity, prevention, and
treatments for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (e.g., models of normal
temperament development; relation between temperament and cognitive development;
age-appropriate models of ADHD; advances in appropriate measurement and diagnosis;
measurement of cognitive and emotional processes in ADHD; and the relationship of central
nervous system activity to behavioral measures across developmental age)
--Research using concept and methods of basic behavioral science to identify specific
functional deficits in mental disorders; development of targeted interventions for
rehabilitation; and ways to organize the delivery of mental health services in the current
health care context to provide optimal rehabilitation services
--Research on new methods of conceptualizing and classifying mental disorders, as
considered from multi-disciplinary perspectives (e.g., utility of dimensional approaches to
such areas of psychopathology as mood disorders)
--Research on the prevention of mental disorders, integrating basic research on
biological, psychological, and social risk and protective processes in order to develop new
models of preventive interventions (prevention may include interventions to reduce the risk
of onset, or delay onset, of mental disorders and behavioral dysfunction; reduce the
severity and course of disorder; prevent comorbid conditions; and prevent relapse, excess
disability, and inappropriate service use
--Research regarding the interaction of behavioral and neurophysiological processes in
schizophrenia such as studies of the interaction of cognitive and emotional processes (as
measured behaviorally and neurophysiologically) involved with functional deficits in
psychotic disorders; combined behavioral and CNS measures to develop an enhanced
understanding of the various symptom patterns and their interrelationships (e.g., positive
and negative symptoms, cognitive disorganization) in psychotic disorders; and development of
behavioral techniques that may act through brain plasticity to ameliorate functional
deficits in patients with schizophrenia)
--Research programs to study the factors involved in improving mental health services
in primary care settings (e.g., factors influencing the decision to seek treatment; methods
of improving provider behavior to recognize, diagnose, and treat mental disorders;
development of valid and reliable screening and other assessment techniques for use in
primary care settings; studies of alternative providers, procedures, and technologies to
facilitate mental health services in primary care settings)
--Research to develop an understanding of the behavioral and neurobiological deficits
in autism (e.g., aspects of social and cognitive behavior as related to activity in specific
brain regions, and development of behavioral and pharmacologic interventions for improvement
of autistic symptoms)
Eligibility:
Projects constituting a given Center may be based at a variety of institutions, representing
both basic and clinical or services research.
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